The Fibre of Man

"Why are our politicians so corrupt?"

"Man, I hate my government. The people running it are inept and I can't get anything done without paying a bribe."

"Our laws are so archaic. We should change them! But our politicians, my god, they are so corrupt. Lets march instead of exercising our power to vote and influence government!"

(Sadly, people who say the last one aren't usually being sarcastic)

I don't really think we are sharing ideas/thoughts/feelings about our politicians that are founded in rationality anymore. Corruption is horrible, I agree. But really, if you think about it, corruption in a democracy is really a function of a bunch of apathetic, ignorant voters making suboptimal choices in choosing who amongst them gets the selfless, prestigious role of governing them. (Or, it is a result of man being fundamentally evil and the potency of power to reveal this - however, as cynical as I tend to be, this is a conclusion I cannot bring myself to believe).

I'm not a fan of bolding/italicising things, so when I do both, I'm clearly being desperate in making a point. The discussion revolves around us, the people, and the obvious realisation that politicians aren't extra terrestrial beings sent to rule over us. They are, in fact, us. These are people that we went to school with (possibly), lived in the same city with and possibly share lots of things in common with. They are us. They too enjoy biryani and hot tea on cold days. Actually, we should be electing people that are most like us and whose views mimic ours and hence, we can be best represented (lol,jk?). And we, Indians, as a people are inherently selfish. We have to be - it's a dominant trait in a severely resource constrained world. It isn't something we can wish away.

However, we believe that once we elect our government officials that they are to rise above their own selfish interests and instead, selflessly serve us while we ourselves go about living out our days in a our own hedonistic, selfish pursuits. This belief isn't rational. It's silly.

Instead, we need to make it the selfish interest of the people who go on to be in power to selflessly serve us. I believe we do that by not being apathetic and ignorant.

We make informed choices and thus, elect those into power who genuinely want to serve the people and are best suited for the job. We keep a close eye on them and constantly stay up to date on whether or not they are following through on their promises. And we care enough to weed out the bad information and focus on the issues that count; have the discussions that matter. And when someone messes up, even a little bit, we throw them out and start over. This might sound utopian, but it isn't - it's just how a democracy is supposed to function!

Corruption is horrible, bad and is presently crippling our standard of living. But it is merely a symptom and not the illness. I hate to say it but the illness is us.

The rape wasn't the first and sadly, it won't be the last. It's horrible because for those gruesome moments, we realised that we watched and did nothing. We could have changed the laws years ago to make strong disincentives for crimes against the brutality towards women. We could have made law enforcement better to ensure we live in a safer country. We could have helped her when she was most vulnerable and not just gawked. But we didn't, we gawked and we realised how pathetic our apathy had left us.

Man isn't inherently evil, though. India will shock itself away from apathy and through education, will liberate itself from itself.

A Tale of Two Teams

So, the other day, Rohan and I were feeling particularly buoyant and decided to play a game - we each pick the best 18 man football squad in the world without allowing the duplication of players. We played  RPS to decide who picks first and then we went sequentially.

I'm writing this blog post because the idiot that is Rohan believes that his team is better than mine. He's clearly delusional and usually, I'd let him revel in his delusions. However, I like to pick my battles - I'll let him believe that the world loves him, he's appealing to women and that he's remotely smart. But I will not let him believe his team is better. Either comment, or drop me a message if you think my team is better. If you think Rohan's team is better, reassess your life.

We each picked 2 goalkeepers, 6 defenders, 6 midfielders and 4 forwards. After we picked our squads, we played a game on Fifa :). It was legendary.


Nikhil's Team:

Goalkeepers: M. Neuer, P. Cech 

Defenders: T. Silva, D. Alves, Abidal, Lucio, Maicon, S. Ramos

Midfielders: Xavi, Fabregas, Schweinsteiger, Ribery, Robben, Cambiasso

Forwards: L. Messi, S. Aguero, D. Drogba, Robin Van Persie

Formation: 4 - 3 - 3 with a false 9. 


Rohan's Team:

Goalkeepers: I. Casillas, J. Hart

Defenders: A. Cole, Pepe, Evra, Lahm, Vidic, Pique

Midfielders: Iniesta, Bale, Xabi Alonso, Gerrard, D. Silva, R. Van der Vaart

Forwards: C. Ronaldo, C. Tevez, E. Hazard, Neeeymaaaaaaaaar

Formation: 4 - 3 - 1 -2

Ideally, I'd defend my team. But it seems unfair unless Rohan can defend his too, so I won't.

But I can tell you the result of the first game - we were high on adrenalin and I was too busy attacking to defend. Rohan took a 2 - 0 lead in the first half, Tevez scoring two counter attacking goals.

At the 60th minute, it was 2 - 2. Tevez went on to score 4 more goals - a double hatrick. Rohan still lost :)

Conversations with Ani

You said the youtube comments were procrastination. We generally associate activities that aren't conventionally productive to the self or society as ones that are pointless - thus indulging in them is procrastination.

But that requires us to set about understanding why productivity is important. It's important, I suppose, because we are genetically built to propagate and ensure the continuation of our genetic coding. When we're productive, we make our species more resilient. But what of it? So we live longer as a species? Towards what end?

We will one day die. We know this in our lifetime. So we keep ourselves busy till we die, and when we do, we smile thinking of how much more resilient we made our species.

We live in a world of probabilities and I can safely assume that the probability of the extinction of our species (and life on earth) is non zero. Perhaps infinitesimally small, but non zero. Given we're this resilient, I can again safely assume that we're going to persevere until we can't. In theory, life will exist for an infinitely long time. In this infinitely long time span, the probability of an event with an infinitesimally small chance of occurring is a certainty. Eventually, it stops. It could be the sun burning out, a meteor or just stupidity. It doesn't matter.

So given that there is this end (for us and our species), what is it that we do but procrastinate?

It sounds morose. I don't mean it to. It's only morose if you think of death morosely. I don't. It's inevitable. It's like a roller coaster ride that ends. Just because it ends, doesn't mean the ride isn't epic

MindSpeak

Thirsty.

Decent movie. Slow so far. Different telling of Batman. No. Definitely more about Bruce Wayne. Hm, it's not Batman's story, it's the story of a man. Anybody can be Batman.

Thirsty.

Guess I'll get up. Ugh.

Inox isn't shabby. Could be worse. Could be PVR.

Hm. Diet Coke or Thums Up?

Diet Coke is guilt free. But aspartame. Donald Rumsfeld lead the legislation of aspartame. History of not making the best moral choices. Higher blood sugar levels? Guilt Free.

Poda. Thums Up.

Sucha long line. Two tills. But only one open. Ugh. Inefficiency. I can do this better. Shouldn't I be? Invisibile Hand? Run them out of business?

Oo. My turn. Thums Up.

Pretty girl. What's she ordering? Pulpy Orange. Damn it, should have got that.

Why can't girls be witty and wry? Especially the pretty ones? Look at this one. Pulpy Orange. Who orders that? Ugh. I'm sure she doesn't even know the rules of poker.

Haha, he spilt his coke. Poor sap. Extra Large. Two. Haha. Don't laugh. Empathy. Buys his girlfriend Extra Large Coke. Spills it. Haha. Girls would never see the irony. They'd cry. And be sad. Gentle souls. Boring. This pretty one. No spice, I'm sure.

...

Oh my. That's quite a nice smile. Bittersweet. Pretty. Her eyes see the irony. What do I know? Maybe they aren't all vacant.

Pulpy Orange. Damn it, should have got that.

Why.

1. In our exams in school, why do we reward only answers and never questions?

2. When our parents say, 'We want to have a talk,' why do we always assume we are going to get told off for something? Why are we never wrong?

3. When did it become classy and acceptable for restaurants in India to say they don't offer carry bags for excess food on the table? Why do we allow it in a country where over 20,00,00,000 people will sleep hungry tonight?

4. Why do we ban the advertising of cigarettes and alcohol? Why do we then allow these companies to advertise music cds, parties and other promos in the name of the alcohol they sell? Why is surrogate advertising acceptable?

5. Why do we ban the commercial sale of hookah, but not cigarettes?

6. Why do traffic cops let drunk drivers back into their cars if they can pay the bribe?

7. Why do we start most conversations with people we've just met (or met after a long time) with, 'So, what are you doing with your life now?' (Or, 'Where did you study?') Is that really the question that will shed the most light on someone?

8. Why are we so quick to impose our own value judgements on everyone/anyone? Why can we not accept that different people are different and therefore will live their lives differently? (Live and let live?)

9. Why do we assume someone who plays Poker is a degenerate gambler while someone who plays Chess is a genius?

10. Why are the choices available to us in elections always a decision of voting in the lesser evil? Why do none of us in India grow up wanting to be a politician? Why isn't something being done to change it? (My Grandmother to me, 'Whatever you do with your life, don't join politics.')

11. Why can't moccasins be worn with socks? Why can't Devashish bluff more when we play Poker?



I'll probably write more about some of these questions/thoughts in time. For now, needed to get that off my chest.

How Eminem works at Burger King to pay his bills

Does the Entertainment industry still exist? Are Hollywood movies still being made? Are Bollywood? Are artists still recording their albums? And are merchandise still being sold? Do movie theatres still exist? And does HMV/Music World still record profits?

The answer to all these questions happens to be 'yes.'

Online piracy is bad if it leads to a reduction in the production of art: If artists feel they can no longer profit from their work, and hence lack the incentive required to actually produce it. However, I don't think this is the case.

If online piracy hurt these people financially as much as they claim (or so badly that we need to invoke the wrath of SOPA), then their industries would be dying. There should be less films made and less songs recorded. Instead, we have some dunderhead allowing Rebecca Black to make songs. There's still money to make, lots of it.

Last time I checked, Eminem wasn't working in a Burger King to pay his bills.

I don't really have the time/patience to look at figures, but I'm certain people in the Entertainment Industry are well to do. There's still money out there. In fact, I think there might be ever more money out there than they think.. But I'll get to that later. Before that, I must admit, the work of an artist is his intellectual property and he should be able to do with it as he pleases. I won't deny this. But just like how  boats changed the economy of natural resources, and the internet changed the landscape for outsourcing, the landscape for art has changed.

Artists still own their IP (Or if they sell it to large companies, whatever). But there are no personal canvases anymore. Imagine Da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa on a public wall on the streets of Rome. It is still his work, but for all the world to see. He can't profit from it the same way as otherwise (by selling it), but he could still theoretically profit from it. When art is created today, it instantly becomes a stream of 0s and 1s. It moves at breathtaking speeds and jumps through all kinds of hoops. That is simply the landscape of the world today.

But there's still profit to be made, as long as the industry changes.

Remember that kid? That kid that would cry, grab the bat and storm off because he couldn't bat first? Entertainment Industry.. Don't be /that/ kid.

In poker, you are either constantly adjusting, or you're losing money. Every hand is different from the last and the games are constantly morphing. It might have been profitable to be a Loose, Aggressive, Fold Equity Loving, Bluffing Machine half an hour ago; but it may be that it is better to play Tight right now. If you don't understand that, and don't see it, your stack will be a lot like the wind (Gone). (Okay, I apologise. That was absolutely horrendous.)

Merchandise sales. Youtube channels with advertising. Exclusive/Additional content for die hard fans (who would pay). Allow the online community to take your work and make it viral (Remixes, and what not can sometimes be much bigger than the original. But will generate interest for the original).

I'm certain if I think about this longer, I could think of more ways to make money off products without actually /selling/ the product. (Ask RayWilliamJohnson, xkcd, southpark!)

I'm not really too worried either way. Even if SOPA is implemented, I'm confident the online community is up to the challenge. Adapt or die, something Darwin might have been proud to say. If they don't, I'm certain we will.