On Ableism

 An equal outcome solution for social justice, ignores a vital inequality that pervades humanity; that of ableism. They rightfully take up the right of exploited and oppressed communities and genders. But an community that is equally deserving of sympathy lurks in the background. I am talking about the pervasive evil of being less able, less capable, less attractive etc..how dare they worship Nivin Pauly. Just because he is handsome and talented, he deserves all the adulation, power and money. What justice is that. I too can enjoy adulation and money. Just because you are more intelligent and educated that me, you are free to look down on me. I will not have that.

The soft power of persuasion may be forte, but we are more numerous in number, and we bide our time to take revenge. 

In support of Nehru

They say that hind sight is 20/20. So if we were to look back to the late 70s and the political decisions made during those times, maybe we can see and analyze them more clearly. It may even offer a chance to express moral indignation at the blunders of our leaders. 

The late 70s were a pivitol time for 3 Asian countries; namely South Korea, China and India. Each of these countries were facing political and economic uncertainty. In China Mao had just passed away and memories of the cultural revolution and great leap were fresh in their minds. In India, the people were disillusioned for the first time about Independence and the Congress party. For the first time since independence there was call for Sampoorna Kranthi. In South Korea there was widespread unrest against the president Park, who had ruled Korea since the 50s. He was ultimately assassinated in 1979.

In China, a mere 2 years after Maos death, his successors, started the policy of liberalisation, dubbed "Socialism with Chinese characteristics". It moved away from centralized planning to a market economy; creating oligarchs in the process; who could leverage the workforce to create incredible wealth. In Korea too massive conglomerates like Samsung flourished  with State patronage; effectively becoming an Oligarchy. 

It is an Irony of history that the Chinese Comrades did a 360 turn from the ideologies of Dear Leader in such a short time. There is also an Irony in the case of India. The Indian government in the 70s in response to political and economic turmoil did the opposite of what the Chinese did. They nationalized Banks and drove out foreign investment. In hind sight we can see that this was not the best decision Considering China made massive economic strides during the time. Eventually India did open up its economy. But we are left wondering what would have happened if India had gone the other way.

Even without hindsight one person had it right though. That was Nehru. What China and South Korea ended up being are mixed economies. It's central planning with market economy that brought them economic success. 

The alt right and meritocracy

One problem with standing up straight with your shoulders back is that it creates too much conflict. There is a hidden moralistic value in the statement which is that all humans should strive to be at the top of the hierarchy. Whether it is the best thing for them. What will happen with such an indoctrination is that when most of  the people who have been indoctrinated to expect to be at the top invariably come up short, it creates in them a sense of resentment and dissatisfaction. To claim that western civilization is purely build upon the pillars of classical liberalism and meritocracy and that it reflects the biological structure the best is incomplete. This is the same mistake that Marx makes. He distilled the nature of Man to a struggle between classes of people. Here Man is distilled as a struggle of individuals to realize his merits. Humanity consists of multiple structures (of power and otherwise) that overlap, interact, cooperate and fight with each other. The meritocratic power and class struggle are a part of the whole.
Other structures that cannot be excluded in the discussion is religion and spirituality.

The grihalakshmi issue.

It is a shame that the whole Grihalakshmi breastfeeding scandal went by and there was no reference to the Chennar Revolt.

What is ironic is that in the 19th century--at least in the hindu communities--it was perfectly normal for a woman to bear her breast in public even when not breastfeeding. It was the influx of Victorian prudishness--a western ideal-- that changed the status quo that had presumably been in place for many millenia. The historical narrative that currently prevails sees the whole upper cloth revolt as a case of an oppressive upper caste establishment using their power  to objectives women for sexual gratification. The males of the upper castes wanted the lower castes to be unclothed so that they could be ogled at freely. The women through the Revolt gained the right not to be objectified. This narrative is supported by both the Marxist and the Christian missionaries for obvious reasons. But the narrative is flawed. Upper clothing was optional for women of the upper caste as well. Although they enjoyed the prevail privilege of covering their breast, they didn't necessarily choose to do so. They had to freedom to go bare. And they frequently choose to do just that. You can Google for evidence.

The upper caste men had no dearth of bare breast to ogle at that they needed to forcefully uncloth lower caste women for that pleasure. In fact, as it is traditional for men to take off their shirts in temple nowadays, in the past women (even of the upper caste) were required to take off any upper cloths.

Going by the prevailing views of male sexuality, One has to imagine the mentality of men of the Era with regards to nudity. Today we have talks of how leggings and watermelons are enticing men to turn predators. One would think that all the breast free to view would have made them all voracious perverts. Was great grandpa a pervert. Or maybe he was so chaste that he didn't look strange women in the breast. We will never know.

In 1850 did the malayalee gain a right or tacitly loose one.

Truth value

On an objective sense, the truth value of the ideals of a 5 year old is not so different from that of a 30 year old or a 50 year old. A 50 year old might think of his ideals as the truth that was reveled to him by the process of falsification of the ideals that he had held previously, for example at ages 5 or 30. But truth is subjective. An older man should be able to see that the ideas held by the younger are true inasmuch as his age allows him. The young man is not obliged to see the truth of the old man as he has no prior experience in the subjectivity of truth.

Guilt

The concept of Catholic guilt has received some interest from psychologists and the layman over the last few decades. But aother community that has been suffering from a similar affliction over the same period has been largely ignored by them. That is the middle class Malayalee. The Middle Class Malayalee too occasionally suffers from a paralyzing guilt that is usually unleashed in him when he perceives himself as going against the middle class ethos. He feels that twang of guilt when he has to defend his choice of not trying for a Government Job to his relatives. He feels it when he has to defend his interests in a corporate environment. He feels it when he has defend his way of dressing, his choice of life partners or even his financial matters. He forever tries to fight this invisible enemy. He sees the enemy in the face of a few archetypal characters--the boisterous relative or the nosy neighbor for example. But the real enemy is always within. Largely elusive.

New slave morality

An education system that emphasizes meekness and obeisance to authority and a historically engrained sense of caste roles in society is currently proving detrimental to the interest of the modern malayali; be it in his work environment or home environment. At his corporate job his ingrained sense of reverence to authority serves to put him in a position of never ending moral perturbation. His psyche fails to comprehend his role in the new establishment as a commodity. The larger historicity of his link to the old establishment affirms in him his role as that of a slave or a person of lower caste; morally obligated to please his masters. 

The malayali must realize that the old establishment is paving the way to a new establishment.  This establishment takes root from the self esteem movement of America and as such favors people who have been educated in an environment that gives prominence to the growth of self esteem. As a consequence to this emphasis, self esteem grows in them as a moral feeling (this is in contrast to the casteist moral feeling prevailing in Middle class India). This self esteem lends itself to Americans excelling at the new establishment. He an impartially negotiate the position of the commodity that he is without casteist moral hesitancy. 

The middle class malayalee inevitably will have to change his way of thinking to align himself with this new reality. He must own up to the inevitability and accept the the consequences (including the most evil one of individualism) and accept death of the old slave establishment and the growth of the new slave  establishments.