Book Review - Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

I highly recommend everyone to read this book. It basically is a criticism of all the philosophies that have focused entirely on man and have created this myth that somehow humans are above other animals. Gray, successfully shows how we are equal to animals, consciousness is scientifically proven to be a mere delusion and liberation and salvation will only come once we stop looking for it. He states that there are no fundamental truths in this world, and like animals we should not believe in such myths. We should instead live naturally like animals and think of this world as a series of incomprehensible images which do not possess any meaning beyond what is apparent.
 
 Here's a rip off of one review for this book:

It is over a hundred years since Darwin revealed to us our animal lineage, and yet the human primate is still having difficulty coming to terms with its animal origins. All bar creationists may indeed now accept that we are descended from apes, but most of us still cling to the belief that we have somehow become different to the rest of the animal kingdom. Our ability to use language and reason, to see ourselves as selves, selves that move forward in time and, with other selves, progress by building a culture based on moral rules and a technology that seems to give us ever increasing control over our environment. Surely this is enough to set us apart from the rest of nature? No. Thankfully, a British philosopher who lives and breathes today but who speaks with the depth and clarity of a modern day Schopenhauer is here to rid you of this delusion.

Human beings are still animals claims Gray, but the more profound insight that he delivers, and that his critics seem unable to grasp or admit, is that humans, and even whatever intelligence that might emerge in a 'posthuman' future, will always be inescapably rooted in the natural world as much as the lowliest of slime molds.

We believe that language and reason are what differentiates us, forgetting that we acquired these abilities through the blind mechanisms of evolution. This means that they are, as Hume, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche declared long before Darwin, mere tools in the brutish struggle for survival. These same tools enabled the human animal to create the illusions of free will, self and morality and the delusion to think that with these, man has the ability to stand apart from the animal world and choose his own fate. But the fundamental import of Darwinism is that it tells us that 'we' were 'made' for the world. The world was not made for us, nor can we ever make it, nor indeed any world, to be for us.

Some rather simple-minded criticisms of Gray's outlook are floating around the Internet, including on this page, so lest they deter you from reading this book, here are a few brief rejoinders that can be made to them.

1/ 'Gray teaches us nothing new. Postmodernism has been around for 40 years now.' Gray clearly isn't giving just another rehash of postmodernist thought. In fact his book is a savage attack on some of the postmodernist thought that has now been neatly incorporated into liberal thinking. The belief that the world is entirely a social construction, that this construction is determined by power relationships and that therefore by changing those power relationships society can mould the world into whatever form it chooses. The way that humans see the world may indeed be due to power relationships within society, but these arise because of the fact that humans are biological animals in an inherently competitive natural world. Postmodernism is, as Gray says, 'just the latest fad in anthropocentrism'.

2/ 'Gray criticises science as a faith but seems to hold Darwinism as a faith.' Gray is primarily attacking the faith that scientific progress leads to moral and social progress. If anything is right in science it is the broad theory of Darwinism. Yet people believe that science can enable man to take control of his destiny, when one of the most fundamental tenets of modern science teaches us that science and its consequences (as with any other sphere of human activity) is ultimately determined by the same laws that govern other animals' behaviour.

3/ 'No-one seriously believes in progress anymore'. Well the western world is without doubt led by two men who wholeheartedly believe in the vision of moral progress, as we are seeing with disastrous consequences in Iraq. As both have been re-elected as their heads of government, presumably a lot of the people who voted for them share that vision. The idea that western society is not still dominated by the belief in moral progress is absurd. A generation ago homosexuality was illegal and homosexuals were routinely sent to prison. Today, someone can be sent to prison for simply arguing that homosexuality is wrong. For this to be the case, society clearly has a conviction that the moral attitudes of today are without question a progression on the attitudes of yesterday. To give a different example, on the 10th of September 2001 not one person in a hundred could have believed that America would soon be holding a serious debate on whether or not to legalise torture.

It goes without saying that I found Straw Dogs to be an utterly rewarding intellectual experience. Read it and it may change the whole way you look at the world...though probably together with a feeling that, like all great writers, Gray has articulated for you something profound that you always suspected about the world.

"Tahafut Al Falasifa" by Al-Ghazzali

You can get the english translation of the famous work by Al-Ghazzali.
http://www.ghazali.org/works/taf-eng.pdf

Subliminal Pre-Concious Decision Making

Before I delve into the topic of subliminal advertising, you must watch this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyQjr1YL0zg

Descartes "cognito ergo sum" is famous in philosophy. The premise is that since humans "think" therefore they exist and are different from others. Human thought therefore is treated as the absolute truth and human consciousness resides at the center of this experience.

If anyone saw that video, then my take is that humans are not conscious or that human consciousness is a mere illusion that gives us an outside experience of actions that we do. Subliminal advertisements are banned in 40 countries. As the famous Benjamin Libet's work proves, that signals for actions are actually initiated before the conscious decision making process. His revolutionary work annihilates any conception that consciousness has any use. Humans could perfectly live and survive even if the "thinking" part goes to sleep. John N. Gray argues in his book, "Straw Dogs", that man is no different than other animals and the whole struggle for idealism is flawed. Human experience is no different than an animals experience.

Conscious decision making is not really conscious at all. We react to our environment, just as animals react to earthquakes. We are natural beings who are not in control of ourselves. The chemical reactions in our body that control every single aspect of our life are not in our control.

Lord Jim's (Conrad's famous work) decision to jump the ship was not conscious at all. He had to live with the guilt of abandoning ship for the rest of his life. It became a desperate saga which ultimately ended his life for the sake of justifying his actions. Had he known that his actions were not voluntary but may have been subliminally advertised to him unconsciously, then he would probably have had a better subjective experience.

The crux of the whole discussion is that we shouldn't take our decisions seriously. We are natural beings and if we try and make an effort to control who we are then we simply end up destroying the subjective conscious experience that really has nothing to do with reality. I do not seek to live a life of hedonism but the negative expects of consciousness must be shunned. They should be handed over to a higher being. Even the term "Genius" was derived from spirit and any extraordinary work was often credited to this other being than the person who had done the work. The work was a manifestation of that other spirit. Taking credit for either the highs and lows destroys the conscious experience which should be preserved. The noble savage knew this naturally. Bad decision making was maktub and great achievements were the work of genius. No credit was ever given to the person himself.


Here's a link on a talk related to this other "GENIUS" given by Elizabeth Gilbert.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

Succer vs Non Sucker....Socrates vs Fat Toni

These are two chapters from Nassim Taleb's new book.
http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/FatTony1.pdf
http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/FatTony2.pdf

Taleb criticizes Socrate's debate with Euthyphro on piety and replaces Euthyphro with "Fat Toni" which is Taleb's rendition of an alpha male who is averse to reading books and is more worldly and street smart than most thinkers. He is abusive, gets angry, laughs, drinks and leads a life not based on theories but on instincts.

Socrates starts to question and eventually obfuscate Euthyphro on ethics. Euthyphro was on his way to execute his father over a crime but Socrates starts asking Euthyphro to define peity and justice and ethics in general. Whenever Euthyphro tries to define, there would be some contradiction and error which Socrates would use to render his actions unjustifiable. Euthyphro finally states that he knows what he's doing but he cannot define or put his thought into words. What Euthyphro really meant was that he was following his instincts but socrates insisted that actions and ideas should be defined and justified. When debating with Fat Toni, Socrates is left speechless because Fat Toni argues that Socrates is merely confusing people about things which they know is right instinctively. The whole argument is about the value of knowledge and how seriously theories should be followed. Whether technology came first or the theories supporting the technologies came first. The whole question being debated is that humans are not naturally inclined towards knowledge and theories which in retrospect are mostly useless. On the other hand knowledge and theories have actually been derived post-hoc. Modern knowledge is about lecturing birds about flying. Birds know how to fly instinctively and mostly learn by tinkering, on the other hand ornithologist make theories on how birds learn to fly.

The two chapter are a must read, mostly for amusement and that personal pleasure over knowing that all those nerds out there are idiots.

The Islamist Demons

The terrible spectre of extremist violence and the so-called ‘Talibanisation’ we are facing today has to do with psychology as much as it has with economics and politics. It is as if the figurative demons of hate and fascistic whiplash repressed deep within our unconsciousness have suddenly leaped out and become a horrifying reality. Laying latent in us have been awkward fantasies about gallant military take-overs and bloody revolutions based on rotating myths of bravado and a worldview that has no room for any grey areas and is simplistically divided between black and white; good and evil, right and wrong.

Such a state of mind has given birth to a cringing strain of neurosis in the society in which a hollow and delusional sense of religious chauvinism, patriotism and ideological self-indulgence comes attached with a persecution complex and an obsessive-compulsive need to deny ones failures. Though most of us are only willing to exhibit our quivering religious/sectarian and ‘patriotic’ biases in the shape of the usual knee-jerk rhetoric on the internet, TV and in newspaper articles, it won’t be all that wrong to suggest that most of what is harmlessly spilled out as patriotic rants in cyber space or the media, has now found its physical expression.
These are the physical personifications of the demons of hate most of us have been nurturing in our minds and souls; demons fed by decades of ‘education,’ propaganda or mythical tall tales of bluster and glory that have actually attempted to isolate the Pakistani nation from reality.

We have been carved out and crafted (by the state, the clergy, the media and the class room) as a people who are on a divine mission to safeguard Islam from its many ‘enemies.’ We think of ourselves as being the chosen people and (thus) are quick to deny and hide most of our moral failings by claiming that these failures do not stem from our bloated perceptions of ourselves, or our myopic understanding of faith, or our blatant hypocrisies.

Instead, to most of us these failings are due to any number of diabolic forces found named and numbered in the usual defensive cliches that are spontaneously spouted by the great number of preachers, politicians and patriots out there: Lingering vistas of colonialism, malicious Indian (nay, Hindu) designs, American tinkering and intervention, democracy, liberalism, secularism …

The truth is, on most occasions than not, it has very much been us and us alone who have brought this country to its knees.

____________________

The easiest thing to do is to blame the politicians for their incompetence and corruption. The politicians are but only a reflection of the people at large. Put a middle-class whiner out there and he would behave in no different a manner.  Former Pakistan cricket captain, Salman Butt, who prays five times a day and keeps his wife behind a veil is an excellent example.

Educated, pious, middle-class and detached from the dirt and filth that elects ‘corrupt’ politicians to the assemblies, Butt sahib is alleged to have willingly fumbled when given the chance to make a moral call in matters of making some extra, illegal money.

Nobody remembers God and country in such cases. These two only appear as buzzwords when we have to loudly proclaim our patriotism and faith in front of the public and the self-appointed moral police now found not only within the state apparatus, but across mosques, drawing rooms, TV studios and the internet.
It is as if we have made up our minds that breaking and dodging the laws and morals of the material realm is OKAY as long as we stick to a strict ritual regime of our faith, or proclaim our love of God and country loud enough.

Is this the thinking then? That God will not forgive us if we miss a prayer or a fast; but he will forgive if we break a red signal, or bribe a cop; or pray for the death of a politician whom we consider corrupt (forgetting that politician too, can have a family); or stab someone in the back so we can climb the social and professional ladder faster than our contemporaries; or publicly humiliate or murder women because we believe their ‘independence’ amounts to loose behaviour; or mercilessly beat people to death because we thought they were criminals; or falsely accuse a non-Muslim of being blasphemous so we can profit from his misfortune; or blow up places of worship of those we consider to be heretics, kafirs or bad Muslims?
One can go on and on. The more we deny our own moral and ideological failings, the more aggressive and prominent the physical expressions of our inner most religious and ideological prejudices and hypocrisies become.

These are demons in the flesh that the deniers either ignore as being bad dreams, or see as part of some diabolic (if not ethereal) conspiracy to destroy Pakistan (and thus Islam).

The truth, I am afraid, is far worse: The misdeeds of these monsters and, especially, the reasons and rationales these violent transgressions are based on, are mostly made up of the same dark matter that lies within each one of us.

Educated or otherwise, we (as in Pakistani Muslims of the majority sect), all grew up on fantastical stories of the unchallengeable supremacy of our beliefs; about our ‘destiny’ to sparkle as the most macho Muslim nation with its loud public displays of ‘piety’, and a gung-ho nuclear-powered, AK-47 brandishing masculinity.
We grew up hearing yarns about the subhuman ways and beliefs of other sects and religions; and what dangers that they pose to the Islamic Republic; and how awful and wrong they are by not believing in God the way we do, because our way is the right way, and we will lie, cheat and kill to prove this.

____________________

The kind of vicious, rabid propaganda countries like the United States, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia indulged in to prepare almost zombie-like ‘God’s soldiers’ to bury the Soviet state once and for all in the 1980s, flung open a dangerous Pandora’s Box.

The inflexible, intolerant and gun-totting strain of faith that was glorified in this propaganda gradually began making a number of Muslims believe that what they had (peacefully) been practicing as their religion before this, was perhaps wrong.

They began to doubt their faith the way it was. They thought maybe they were not following the ‘true dictates of Islam,’ or that maybe they are not passionate and clear enough to be true believers.
The results of such an existentialist crises are now apparent. The crises turned itself into a daunting dilemma of identity. Subtlety in matters of faith went out the window. The new Muslim society started to judge this subtlety as a sign of weak faith. Consequently everything according to the Muslim individual and his faith became loud and pertaining to exhibitionism.

The preachers and evangelists became more in number and louder in tone. Everyday language started being punctuated with a number of scriptural expressions (mostly Arab). Beards, hijabs and burqas descended upon the populace and had to be worn now to make an instant identity statement to the West and fellow Muslims (and not exactly to God). Mosques began being packed with worshippers.

In Pakistan’s context, has all this turned society better than what it was some 30 years ago? It quite obviously hasn’t. In fact the society as a whole has gone from being bad to worse. We have continued to ignore the warnings from history, i.e., when a religion descends it emerges as a form of guidance from God. It is for individuals to take heed from this guidance. But when this guidance is taken and turned into a series of decrees and tools for kings to rule and the clergy to plough, it becomes a socio-political monolith.
Its spiritual dimensions are clipped away and it is made to freeze and lose its evolutionary and progressive spirit. It then becomes just another political and social ideology. A lumbering dogma.

Such a dogma means nothing spiritually to an individual. It thus leaves him being just a bundle of exhibitionist rituals, ‘correct dressing’ and a speaker of a particular dialect punctuated with numerous holy sounding words. This believer is totally detached from the progressive and evolutionary character and body of a religion. Add politics to this mixture and you have a disaster in the making.

The results of such a scenario in Pakistan are not only about extremist and sectarian monsters creating hell on earth so they can enjoy a heavenly existence in the afterlife.

These results are also about a majority of Pakistanis allowing themselves to be caught in a sluggish and entrapping state of mind and quagmire in which they actually try to fuse and justify pious dogma and bring it in line with their ever present need for modern material artifacts and status.

Not only does politics gets ‘Islamised’ in Pakistan, so does almost everything else, from language, to mobile phone connections; and from everyday dressing to cooking shows – as if becoming a ‘good Muslim’ too had a convenient recipe, like that of nargasi koftay or anda gotala.
Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com.

Taleb's take on "Happiness" and why Less is Sometimes More

Iatrogenics of wealth: (LINK)

As a child I was certain that poor people were happier because they had less complicated but more social lives, huddled together in small quarters, and having no soccer mom (or the then-equivalent), they could just play in the streets etc. In addition, rich people use harmful technologies, go to the gym instead of playing in the streets, meet economists and other frauds, etc... So there were things money could not buy, in effect, money caused you to lose... Later on when I got a windfall check, in my twenties (before it became more common for people in finance to get big bucks), I discovered another harmful side of wealth: unless one hid the cash, it was hard to know who one's friends were...

But for some people, money can be beneficial –some. I am not convinced of the utility theory approach & results showing the absence of effect of higher income (in excess of lower-middle class wages) on happiness (the noise I see in the research papers is MONSTROUS, even if the "average" seems to accord with the findings). Also, I am not quite certain that "happiness" is refined enough an expression. People don't quite understand what being human means. There is the unhappiness that's natural to mankind, sadness from heartbreak or the loss of a family member (Why do so many people read sad love stories?) and the unhappiness of working in an office building, commuting, sitting in a structured classroom, captive in a technological nightmare... more later.

Life Deficit Disorder and the Deferred Life Plan

An excellent article describing the work driven modern life style. Multitasking and the modern workaholic self help mythology is destroying our ability to live happy and fulfilling lives. Successful people are now worker drones whose soul aim in life is to get the next adrenaline rush from completing projects or by getting promotions. Cal Newport's deferred life plan also highlights why its important to live a balanced life and stay in the present than to defer all the pleasures into the distant future. As Warren Buffet once said that having sex in your old age is pointless.

The article was originally posted at (link)

The symptoms are under the radar, but you'll probably recognize them. A friend says, "How are you?" and you tick off a litany of projects you're working on. A rare free moment touches off the alarm to get busy. Someone asks you what you do for fun, and you can't think of anything.

These are all telltale signs of a growing affliction in 24/7 times -- life deficit disorder. You've lost that livin' feeling. More and more of us are too busy to live, or so we think, and when we do get some living in, we're too guilty or out of practice at it to enjoy it. The culprit is a mammoth identity theft that has taken over our brains -- the performance identity. It has convinced many of us that we have to be in task formation every minute of the day, or we're terminal slackers. This interloper is dedicated to keeping you as consumed as possible with output, every shred of which, it would have you believe, is of life-or-death importance. In comparison, your life off-the-clock appears to be a sideshow, an interruption in productivity.

The performance ID makes you think you are what you do and forces you to go through gyrations to justify getting some life in. It dictates that all value comes from output. Step back from nonstop performance, and you are valueless. You feel twitchy, fidgety, in other words, guilty as charged for violating the rules of the competition to have less of a life than the next person.

Production is a good thing -- we all need to feel competent, accomplish things, provide valuable services -- but not to the exclusion of the whole point of the production, the experience of life actually lived. It's very difficult to get life in your life when the performance ID is in control. The compulsion is to keep filling time, instead of finding ways to make it fulfilling, which is what our brains want.

Depend solely on performance for validation, and you can't really live, because the imposter ID is programmed only for output. The work mind can't play, since enjoyment is a realm of input -- about experiencing, not outcome. Using the work mind to produce fun is like having somebody keep minutes at your picnic. I know a woman in Arizona who spreadsheets her vacations down to the last hour. Whoopee. Surveys tell us many people will be returning from Labor Day vacations disappointed that they didn't get everything "done" or seen on their trips, as if they were expecting some kind of holiday performance review. We wind up doing life as if it was work.

The performance ID has no idea how to generate fun and aliveness. It knows only how to keep you running from the productivity police. You want fun? How about a little inventory metadata? Don't you need to check email you just checked five minutes ago? You can never let up, because there's always something next on the list.

Life deficit disorder is aided and abetted by the reflexive work style that prevails today, in which the premium is on acting before thinking, amped by the false emergency of time urgency and the ADD circus of tech tools run amok. It's all counterproductive to the work as well as your life. Multitasking actually slows you down, numerous studies show. You're not doing several high-thought tasks simultaneously. You're switching back and forth between them. That slows you down. Time urgency fuels rushing and rushing fuels mistakes and stress, not to mention heart attacks.

Performance-based worth is also a loser. It creates only the need to validate through more performance. The reality is that the job is only a small part of who you are. It's what psychologists call a persona, a mask that describes your social role, but it's not the whole you. When you think it is, you lose track of the authentic person behind the mask and that character's needs, interests, values and even the abilities necessary to live your life.

Stanford's Mark Cullen told me about research he did while at Yale's School of Medicine with some of the most successful executives in the country. They had achieved considerable wealth and status, but a couple days after walking out the door into retirement, these no-longer-execs felt worthless. They weren't producing anymore. That's how fragile the performance ID is. The men in Cullen's study had no leisure skills and didn't know what to do with themselves. So after working their whole lives to be able to have the freedom to live, they didn't know how!

Contrary to every message we get, living a rich and fulfilling life takes skills, which I detail in Don't Miss Your Life. As long as the performance ID is running the show, we can't develop those skills, because everything must be done for some "instrumental purpose," as the University of Rochester's Edward Deci terms it, a demonstrable external payoff. We blow off avocations and diversions, because what would we really get out of them? Where would they get us? These are the kind of cockamamie questions that lead to life deficit disorder.

The evidence shows that the production ID is a flop when it comes to creating real value, which comes from a broad, self-determined view that you are competent and worthy to enjoy life, and from the actual experience of same. The thrill of a job promotion is gone in two weeks. Then you have to find a new notch to pump yourself up with. Performance is an external gauge, so it wears off quickly and doesn't move your internal meter.

Define yourself by how busy you are, and you will never have time for life. What's going to matter in the end is not how booked-up you were, or the tally of tasks handled, but the experiences that let you know that the living you made yourself was actually indulged in. As psychologist Erik Erikson put it, when you look back you'll want to know, "Did I get what I came for? Was it a good time? Did I do what I wanted?" Reclaim your real ID from the performance con and the answer can be a resounding Yes.

Joe Robinson is an author and work-life balance trainer and speaker whose new book, Don't Miss Your Life, is a samba-dancing, dragon-boat paddling, rock-climbing ride through the science, skills, and spirit of full-tilt living. The book comes out Oct. 25. For more info, visit twitter.com/worklifeskills, dontmissyourlife.net (Sept. 14), and worktolive.info

Traditional Values vs Modern Nation States

This was written in reply to an article written by Danielle Ali Shah who is an Aussie expat living in Pakistan. She is a convert to Islam and writes frequently about the way of life in Pakistan. To read the article (link).


Interesting article. I am glad that you found the logic behind what makes pakistan so interesting, especially for pakistani’s living abroad.

I have been interested in comparatively studying religious\cultural mythology and modern systems and i have come to a borrowed conclusion which is similar to the article mentioned above. But i was looking into finance rather than the average day to day lives of people living in different countries.

 Financial systems in the west are overly regulated and centralized. And they are built on the concept of debt. Its all top-down thinking, a Harvard economist decides what policies suit the average person in a developed country. Top down thinking is notoriously risky although most ivy league economists would say that they are risk averse. They encourage people and businesses to take risks backed by debt. This is unraveling right now and long term viability of debt ridden western countries is risky, Greece and Dubai are a case in point.

The traditional system, which you defined as the “every man for himself” system is a lot more defensive and is
built on a bottom up thinking. The millions of small economic units (working men/women) decide what the shape of the whole economic system would be like. Traditionally all religions have endorsed that debt is bad or evil.

I think that religion or general traditional and cultural beliefs are stress tested by time. They are redundant and have evolved over thousands of years and are generally defensive in nature e.g modesty for men and women, debt, zakat etc. They are defensive against the worst case scenarios.

Modern systems on the other hand are pulled by prosperity and generally aren’t insured against worst case scenarios. The are optimized to get the best possible outcome. They also haven’t been stress tested by time and most of modern thinking has barely existed for a few hundred year. Even in these few years negative results are showing up e.g unstable demographics, climate change, unstable boom and bust economies etc.

What happened in Katrina in USA could be compared with the Kashmir earthquake of 2005 as evidence of this defensiveness against worst case scenarios. One country had an excellent system in place but failed. Another country did not have a system in place but had cultural values that were specifically tailored for such a situation. The reaction in Pakistan to the earthquake was breath taking when almost every single person in Pakistan contributed to an effort to save the survivors and the fact was not a single person was running or in charge of the rescue effort. It felt like the whole of Pakistan was traveling to Kashmir on bus, on car or on foot, traveling to save earth quake survivors all on their own.

Whats wrong with Pakistan is that it is a hybrid of both systems. The cultural day to day living is still traditional, whereas the economic system is modern (scientific) or overly regulated. The over regulation and taxation must end and government role must be reduced. We should definitely have a republican party here in Pakistan.

The Age of Outliers

I have just had a eureka moment as I was reading an article about a Quran burning ceremony taking place somewhere in a remote location in America. The author wanted to kidnap the pastor for such an outrageous event which he rightly points out would anger Muslims across the world and may lead to more revenge attacks against Americans. In response to the article, someone stated that it was a complete non-event as no one probably was going to attend the ceremony in that remote corner. His advice was that main stream media should stop giving coverage to such people as they represent no one. The same argument could be made when the cartoon controversy emerged. An unknown newspaper published a few cartoons and that triggered a chain reaction which was felt across continents. The same was the case with the "Draw Muhammad" day. Nine eleven could be thought of as a super set of such outliers where 19 unknown youngsters hijacked planes and rammed those planes into buildings.

My hypothesis is that as the world is shrinking and becoming a global village, then these outliers and their intensity is increasing. The world has gone through major upheavals instantly because of the wired nature and connectivity of this global village. A few decades ago the world was not connected hence every incident was localized. No one in Pakistan would hear about Quran burning ceremonies in some remote American town or vice versa, no one in some remote American town even knew what the Quran was. The internet/media/etc were meant to educate people but have actually spread rumors and misinformed opinions like wild fire.

Previously, people in the west were educated by Muslims about Islam. With the human element missing, Islam looks and feels a lot worse. In addition gross uninformed articles and rubbish is spewed out on the internet to defile and defame others, both collectively and individually. The same goes against the west as well, as many Islamic extremists are able to spread their distorted messages with ease and are able to target a much wider audience. 0.0001% of the people of this planet are now capable of influencing and changing the coarse of history. 

These upheavals in world history will be more frequent with the current connectivity and we must welcome ourselves into this New Age of Outliers.

Autopilot Work Schedule

I have recently got stressed over my work since a deadline has just gone whooshing past me (again). As I look back over the past month then i have achieved and produced much more than I would have if I had been working daily for 16 hours. I enjoyed my time as well, because in reality i was working around 1 hour daily. I read a novel as I went along and it has been one awesome month of producing more and enjoying more.

1. Completed my coding and to an extent my experimentation work.
2. Did a complete literature review.
3. Almost wrote a whole paper
4. Read a novel.
5. Enjoyed a few sports matches
6. Went on guiltless outings
7. Wrote around two dozen posts on my blog and read lots of stuff online

 To sum it up, its been a good month. The problem now is finishing it off nicely. I have failed to write and I am having trouble writing and completing my paper. What I have realized is that I work best early in the morning when I have nothing scheduled and no distractions. I have failed to develop an autopilot schedule. Most of the times I waste my mornings away online and I should therefore strictly focus on being offline in the mornings and I should only go online once I have exhausted my potential for focusing on the relevant tasks. 3 hour stretches are easily possible in the morning but the focus dwindles in the evening with the realization that there is a looming deadline to go home which in itself is very distracting.

Easing yourself into a task is also very effective. The technique is to remove distractions and start working. Work for only a few min initially and then take a short break but do not indulge in any distractions during that short break. After a few starts and a few breaks your mind will become saturated by your work and you would easily lapse into a state of flow. Once that is achieved then you can easily hack the task away.

 Another problem bothering me is the choice of my major. This problem has bothered me off and on from day one but I have come to the realization that you shouldn't pursue risky opportunities and it is better to deal with them as side projects. I have been lacking a meaningful side project. Although I do indulge in blog writing and philosophy/literature but this project is not really meaningful. I have heard of a really good program on environmental engineering which is paying very well as well. I have been thinking of applying there but that would mean that I would lose out on the graduate work that I have accomplished here. This opportunity like any other has a big downside. I can either complete my course work and with the free time at my hands do some meaningful work related to environmental degradation and once I have achieved my graduation then I can build on top of that experience and do more meaningful work in that field. Their is no point in completely starting from scratch. I need to be exceptionally good at what I do and then do some extra curricular work to pursue some far off opportunity. This is the better strategy.

In Defense of Feudals

I wrote this in agreement to an article written by Ayesha Siddiqa (link) in defense of feudalism. I need to expand this further by highlighting bourgeois class revolutions and their effects on agriculture and poverty.

I would actually go a step further in out rightly supporting feudalism. Traditional systems are robust and natural. Any tinkering with feudalism has only left people with more misery, Mao’s China or Stalin’s Russia are an example of how the agricultural base of the country was ruined and millions had to die of starvation.

India after Independence, eradicated feudalism to quite an extent. The result was that the feudal landowners were replaced with corrupt civilian bureaucrats which were much worse than their feudal counter parts. These educated civilian bureaucrats have no knowledge of agriculture which is why indian agriculture is a complete mess. Farmers are committing suicide by the hundreds daily where as the indian agricultural growth has only dwindled around 0 and 2%. Millions of rural poor have been pushed into urban cities in India which is why Indian cities are now known as slum capitals of the world. Poverty in India is 43% (UNDP 2009) even when its economy is growing by 10% thanks mainly to the few educated IT elites which has led to gross income inequalities in the country meanwhile the rest of the country is stuck in rural poverty.

Compared with India, Pakistan has fared better with only 17% poverty (UNDP 2008) and lesser income distribution and higher growth in the Agricultural sector (around 3-4%). The feudal base provides the traditional support system which props up and fights for the rural population. Any replacement of this system would only serve to prop up the urbanized elites and tilt the power balance away from the rural population.
There are cases of harsh landowners, but most landowners are far more benevolent and the share of the tenants is much more than what is generally highlighted in the press. Its about time that the urbanized elites who probably have never experienced a feudal system should start learning something from this system. Most feudals do not only lease their lands but also take responsibility for their people. They have to take care of people if anyone goes hungry on their lands. Bad press has made feudals synonymous with tyrants which definitely isn’t the case.

"Origin of Inequality among Men" by Rousseau

Rousseau is considered as one of the leading thinkers of the age of sensibility and has influenced modern revolutions such as the French and American revolutions. His ideas related to sociological, political and educational thought are the basis of the modern age of enlightenment.

I plan to read the "Origins of Inequality" which would help me understand the "noble savage" which is being repeatedly mentioned and discussed by many philosophers. The idea of the "noble savage" has made a come back, and modern philosophers like John N. Gray have written and expanded the original idea.

To read Originals of Inequality : LINK

A summary of his work would be added later to this section.

India: Miracle or no Miracle

Let's face it, Pakistanis are to an extent obsessed with India, but what is more surprising is that Indians give a whole new meaning to the word "obsessed" when it comes to our very own pyara watan. To give you an idea, just start reading Times of India for a week and soon you would realize that every second news headline is about Pakistan, and surprisingly most of the "Indian" news is missing. Times of India is probably Times of Pakistan in disguise for me which i read off and on to get news on Pakistan.

I have perused many Indian newspaper only to find that there is a dearth of real news coming through. I have always wondered what my friends across the border actually read to get information. Pakistan is a small country but its newspapers are capable of generating noise over the slightest incident. That vibrancy is completely missing in Indian newspapers.

I recently went through a few blogs:

1. http://realindianews.wordpress.com/
2. http://escapefromindia.wordpress.com/

The surprising element in both blogs has been the comment section, where Indians openly criticize India and its myth. Their were very harsh comments made by people but they do provide some perspective.

This is another nice link where a woman economist explains the India rising fallacy and goes on to explain why India and China are two completely different entities.

India reminds me more of Pakistan, because of its incorrect priorities for development. Both countries must focus on growth in the rural areas, which in Pakistan's case has been severely effected by the recent floods. Their is a huge question mark about the future of South Asia itself. The number of ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic divisions are growing where as the economic misery of its people knows no bound.

Singapore Model of Religious Pluralism

This article fits well with the current prevailing situation in Pakistan. Singapore has a multi-ethnic society which is probably the most diverse society anywhere in the world. If Pakistan builds on such models then religious and ethnic harmony could be achieved down the line but it requires strict and honest leadership which has vested interest in propagating ethnic and religious harmony.


On the whole, Singapore’s approach to prevent radicalisation of society is to actively engage with the religious communities, maintain close link with their organisations and allow unrestricted religious freedom to them, yet put limits to such freedom when national interest is adversely affected

In this essay I would like to share with the readers the very positive views on the Singapore model of religious pluralism that I formed during my recently completed 3-year stay in that country. The religious composition of the 4.8 million-strong Singapore population is currently as follows: 42.5 percent Buddhist, 14.9 percent Muslim, 14.6 percent Christian, 8.5 percent Taoist and 4 percent Hindu. There are more than a million foreigners who also work in Singapore. Singapore bases it policy of religion on the assumption that most of its population is deeply religious. Such a disposition must be respected, but on a non-discriminatory basis. Therefore, constitutional measures as well as public policy must ensure that the multi-religious and multi-ethnic character of society is expressed fairly and peacefully. In symbolic terms it has meant that religious festivals of all the major communities are public holidays.

The state does not interfere with the beliefs of its citizens and each individual is free to practise his/her faith. What the state has done, instead, is to ensure that no religious community is involved in politics. Politicisation of religion is considered the major threat to the Singapore model of religious pluralism. The state monitors and regulates religious freedom on the realistic assumption that religious harmony cannot be taken for granted. It has to be maintained through a diverse range of government inputs including pre-emptive measures to see to it that social cohesion and harmony are not jeopardised.

More crucially, while the constitution provides for absolute religious freedom, including the right to convert to another religion, the government maintains an important distinction between belief and action. The position taken is that whereas beliefs pertaining to spiritual values and principles are to be enjoyed by all without interference by the state, the citizens and foreigners are to be held accountable for actions they may claim were inspired by their beliefs. Any action, including verbal action that sows discord among the citizens, can be legitimately prohibited. Therefore, the government curtails and constrains religion-inspired actions that adversely affect the integrity and security of the state and subvert peace and harmony among the various religious communities.

Thus several measures have been undertaken to ensure that religious freedom is not abused to preach hatred or incite violence against other religious and ethnic groups. Under the Sedition Act, it is clearly laid down that it is an offence “to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between races or classes of the population of Singapore”. In 2005, three bloggers were convicted under the Sedition Act for posting anti-Muslim comments.

The principle is that communal harmony and peace are paramount and enjoyment of human rights can be qualified and restricted with a view to maintaining communal amity Thus, The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie was banned because the book was considered scurrilous to Islam. The government also banned Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ because Christian sentiments were hurt by it. Such proactive monitoring of freedom of religion and expression has earned Singapore the reputation of an authoritarian regime, but the government defends its policies by arguing that the overall advantages from such regulation of freedoms has been greater than the disadvantages of selectively restricting some freedoms.

Although secular laws regulate public life in Singapore, religious law applies to the personal affairs of members of the various communities. With regard to Muslims, marriage, divorce and inheritance are regulated by shariah injunctions. However, neither polygamy nor child marriage is permitted. In adopting such policy, the government takes the position that that religious law should not adversely affect the status and rights of any section of a religious community.

On the whole, Singapore’s approach to prevent radicalisation of society is to actively engage with the religious communities, maintain close link with their organisations and allow unrestricted religious freedom to them, yet put limits to such freedom when national interest is adversely affected. In this connection, the government overruled the wearing of headscarves by minor Muslim girls in government schools, asserting that all children must wear the same uniform and learn to mix with each other. However, at university level, Muslim girls are free to wear the headscarf. The assumption is that as grownups they have consciously chosen to wear the headgear and, therefore, it is an expression of free choice by a person who has already been groomed to appreciate and internalise the Singaporean approach to multiculturalism.

The question now is: how is such a model relevant for a 96 percent Muslim-majority state such as Pakistan? First of all, the 4 percent minorities out of 170 million, means nearly seven million non-Muslims. Moreover, the 96 percent Muslim population comprises different sects and sub-sects. Therefore, it is equally relevant that the state should adopt such constitutional provisions and public policy that ensure that all religious and sectarian groups enjoy full religious freedom, but none is privileged to impose its dogma or beliefs on others. This is only possible if Pakistan becomes a secular state. I do not understand why its Muslim identity would be compromised if the state becomes a neutral protector of all communities. Given the religiously motivated terrorism that is now endemic in Pakistan, it is imperative that the state remains neutral on the matter of belief of its citizens.

As a concrete measure, I would propose that all places of worship in Pakistan — Muslim and non-Muslim — should be brought under direct state control. The priests who work in them should become state employees drawing a government salary. Their function should be strictly to lead prayers and nothing more. There should be a complete prohibition on fatwas by the clerics. Instead an official fatwa or among non-Muslims, if there is any such practice, a corresponding ethical edict should be presented to the worshippers. In these official statements derived from religious sources, emphasis should be on promoting communal harmony and voluntary work to serve people in need. I am sure the Quran, Bible, Gita and other holy books have enough material to support peace and harmony, and social service to humanity.

State control of religion may sound authoritarian, but Singapore is a brilliant example of freedom of religion being sharply distinguished from abuse of religion for preaching hatred of others and thus undermining national solidarity and unity.

The writer is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University. He is also Honorary Senior Fellow of the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. He can be reached at billumian@gmail.com

Life's Barbell: Fasting for Health

Human's have lived natural lives for millions of years. That lifestyle consisted of hunting and gathering food, being hunted for food by other animals, surviving through lack of water and drought etc. We were used to a way of life which was completely random with many highly stressful events. Imagine yourself surviving on little food when faced with a drought, leaving few animals for hunting. On the other hand there would be times when food would be plenty, each hunting party bringing in many kills every night. We would lose and gain weight, dictated by the capricious weather system. Humans from different regions would adapt to their environment. Orientals are small in size simply because they live in the tropics and need to climb trees for survival. People living in the tropics would have diets that would contain more fruits and nuts because of their abundance. On the other hand people living in plain areas would probably be more dependent on hunting. The point still is that our diets were much more random and erratic than the regular three meals that we get today. Another point is that, since our diets were erratic hence a survival mechanism must have evolved which would be able to take advantage (or at best survive) this erratic nature of our ancestral dietary habits. If that is the case then, we probably are not used to the high calorie three meals that we get daily.


The high sugar content in our meal has forced our pancreas to work over time. Most people become diabetic early in life and this has now become a very common disease. The increase in sugar content can be attributed to the agrarian lifestyle we adapted a few thousand years ago. Carbohydrates themselves are therefore unnatural, especially in the form of wheat and rice. Its hard to imagine ancient humans having anything to do with rice and wheat. These were wild plants that were discovered much latter and most of the carbohydrates derived came from wild vegetables and fruits.  These fruits also did not look anything like the genetically modified fruits seen in our local super markets. These fruits were much smaller and less sugary then their modern counter parts. I have posted a picture of a wild banana to give you an idea about what we were used to eating.

Now coming back to the topic, fasting has been a very ancient ritual found in many traditions and religions. No one really knows what the origins are. In my opinion fasting probably came from rituals which were derived during periods of drought. As humans migrated during dry seasons then their food supplies would run low. Rituals like fasting were probably helpful in reducing the food intake of the tribe on the move and must have helped during tough times. The mythological aspect of fasting can be easily derived from one spiritual leader (prophet) in the tribe who probably built an entire mythology around the idea. An interesting thing about mythology and their development is that only those mythologies survive that actually use the same prevalent ideas. Mythologies that are radically different from the social norms are generally rejected. If one studies Islam, then it is extremely difficult to differentiate the original creed from Judaism which was thought superior to the Arab creeds at the time. Almost all ritual, social and moral ethics of Islam are copy pasted from Judaism, except that it is worded differently. The point is that fasting probably preceded the mythology.

Lets examine how fasting helps physically and mentally. The most cited scholar on the subject is Mark P. Mattson who has conducted several studies on mice and studied the physiological aspects of altering caloric intake. Mark has discovered that many age related and cardiovascular diseases can be tackled by intermittent fasting and binging. This could also be achieved by simulating the much more unpleasant semi starvation diet but intermittent fasting with excessive binging is much more pleasant. Feasting and famine is the way to go according to Mark if one yearns to be physically fit and healthy. Chronic stress is bad but a severe shock lasting for a shorter interval is beneficial and turns on the bodies defense mechanism. The results obtained by Mark Mattson have shown the benefits of shocking your digestive system, and improvement have been seen in diabetes and Alzheimer. Its also found extremely beneficial for cardiovascular diseases and leads to better and more efficient (blood) circulatory system. Some research has also shown the effects of fasting on making cells more resistant to chemo therapy (link). Here's a link to read some of Mark Mattsson's research.

Personally I have been on a fast for twenty days with the occasional binging at night when the fast is broken. It amazes me when i realize that just twenty days ago I would have suffered immensely from hunger pangs at 12 noon but now my body has so expertly adapted to this (artificial) famine that it hardly asks for food. I can perfectly go hungry from 4 in the morning till 12 at night except that it is not recommended. If i do that, then i would be in chronic stress and its very important that i binge after 7 in the evening to break the fast.  I am currently on a complete fast which includes both food and water and it lasts for 14 hours every day. I need to also stress that a complete fast is different from living on fruit juices which are sufficiently packed with calories. To keep an effective fast one needs to make sure that one's body is capable of ketosis. Otherwise fasting could be dangerous, but most normal humans generally achieve ketosis where the body starts scraping calories from the stored fat and muscle and switches off the digestive track as nothing could be found there. In my case, after the first few days, my body adjusted and switched off my digestive track which put an end to all those initial hunger pangs. I can safely state that i am living on my back up system and the effects on my life style have been minimal. Energy levels do go down significantly as you prolong the fast but I have also experienced better concentration poweres as one's energy levels go down, which is similar to going into a meditative state. Prophets through out the world, from Budha to Muhammad have taken to fasting to improve their mental prowess and intuition.