Monologue
I'm sick of the 'ogues'. You know, the demagogues and the pedagogues (which is just a horrible-sounding word for teacher actually) and the ideologues - oh brother the ideologues! Those guys really, really get my goat.
Take this guy for instance:
Biju Mathew
He's written this long 'analysis' of the situation in Bombay, and with the title itself "As the Fires Die: The Terror of the Aftermath", you know you're in for a long read. And it doesn't disappoint you at all.
This left-winger unleashes all the usual boogies - the facts are just emerging, however the story so far is all conjecture. He then goes on to insinuate that the Indian Government is lying about Pakistani involvement - or at least that he believes they're lying.
And so on and so forth, with standard 'intellectual' bilge straight out of the red book in his head about the modern liberal state being a hollow shell filled with neo-conservative err... fillers. Of course, the list of hollow liberal states (he throws 'bourgeois' in too, don't the lefties love that word?) includes - surprise! - the US, Israel and India.
OK, all three states have plenty going against them. But come ON, can't the left at least find a fresh set of suspects?! I mean damn, I bet even bin Laden is probably getting bored with railing against the Great Satan, you hardly even hear from him anymore.
You know what really, really pisses me off? Some disaffected leftie - say, a taxi labour organiser like this dude - sitting in New York, and pontificating about what Indians and India should be doing. If he's so concerned, he should come back here and try and make a difference. Ideologues - both Left and Right - are the worst kind of hypocrites. Everyday we hear of some right-wing leader of 'impeccable' credentials being implicated in some sleazy crime or act. And equally regularly, I am reminded that Lefties and Communists are quite content to sit in the world's most Capitalist country and enjoy a high standard of living while mouthing off at the natives and telling them where they're going wrong.
Where was Arundhati Roy & Sergeant Pepper's Habitual Protester Band when the Communist State of W. Bengal was crushing peasants - the very people they claim to represent and protect? Where were all these intellectuals and habitual farters? Not ONE protest did I hear that was effective and impassioned. Some sheepish rambling was all. Maybe I didn't look hard enough. Maybe it's different when a Communist state unleashes its goons on hapless protesters - 'we must destroy this village to save it'. If you want to witness the effects of cognitive dissonance, please do check out the Indian Left's reaction to the Singur situation. Brinda Karat's contribution? "Maaro!"
Here's another gem:
Goodness me, it's von Clausewitz. The beauty of modern technology is that you don't have to set up a police post every few kilometers. You have sensors to do the work for you. But that's just a detail. And in any case, a few will always get through so why even try and stem the flow? Let them all in, 7,000 miles of red carpets and warm welcomes.
And maybe he's right. Maybe we don't need armed forces any more. We don't need the police, we don't need soldiers - after all only an "archetypal bourgeois liberal State" needs soldiers, right? I mean, look at the Soviet Union, they never had a... no wait that's not right. OK, how about North Korea, which I'm sure we can all agree is the least archetypal bourgeois liberal State in the whole world? Um. They've got the 5th biggest army in the world. Damn.
It's also typical of an ideologue that after pointing out the 'hollowness' of the bourgeois liberal state, Mr. Mathew fails to suggest an ideal that we should strive towards. Oh he mentions an ideal, but refrains from sharing its vision with us, no doubt afraid of casting pearls before bourgeois swine like me.
My goodness, it's a good thing that there are solid states like China to show us the way. You know I've always wondered - why don't any of these guys talk about China's problems & violations & judicial killings? Please, anyone, find me ONE leftist ideologue who is Indian who has anything negative to say about China. You won't, and that just underscores their level of credibility and objectivity. And courage, because I bet not one of these guys would have the testicles to go into China or indeed Pakistan, and lecture them on rights, on witch-hunts, on treatment of minorities (Tibetans, Uighurs in China, Ahmedias, Hindus, Christians & Shias in Pakistan). So what's the answer? Pick on the hollow bourgeois liberal states.
You know what I can go on and on and on about this, but I don't think there's much of a point. The faithful will believe what they do. So let me ask a simple question. When a woman is raped, would it be OK for a certain kind of person to immediately start talking about how she was asking for it by being obnoxious and insulting to men? Maybe she even hit a guy, and he retaliated by raping her. Is that ok? Maybe she was torturing him for 10 years or killed his wife. Then is it OK for him to rape her? Is it excusable? Does the burden of responsibility lie on the woman alone?
If I were to apply Biju Mathew's logic, then all the answers to those questions would be YES. And what's worse, he wouldn't even believe a single thing the woman had to say. She's capable of anything, isn't she?
When it comes down to it, I'm made aware of one simple fact: this kind of thought process is eerily similar to that of the Taliban. Which leads me to the conclusion that whether you go so far Left or so far Right, you arrive at the same place, just from different directions.
Take this guy for instance:
Biju Mathew
He's written this long 'analysis' of the situation in Bombay, and with the title itself "As the Fires Die: The Terror of the Aftermath", you know you're in for a long read. And it doesn't disappoint you at all.
This left-winger unleashes all the usual boogies - the facts are just emerging, however the story so far is all conjecture. He then goes on to insinuate that the Indian Government is lying about Pakistani involvement - or at least that he believes they're lying.
And so on and so forth, with standard 'intellectual' bilge straight out of the red book in his head about the modern liberal state being a hollow shell filled with neo-conservative err... fillers. Of course, the list of hollow liberal states (he throws 'bourgeois' in too, don't the lefties love that word?) includes - surprise! - the US, Israel and India.
OK, all three states have plenty going against them. But come ON, can't the left at least find a fresh set of suspects?! I mean damn, I bet even bin Laden is probably getting bored with railing against the Great Satan, you hardly even hear from him anymore.
You know what really, really pisses me off? Some disaffected leftie - say, a taxi labour organiser like this dude - sitting in New York, and pontificating about what Indians and India should be doing. If he's so concerned, he should come back here and try and make a difference. Ideologues - both Left and Right - are the worst kind of hypocrites. Everyday we hear of some right-wing leader of 'impeccable' credentials being implicated in some sleazy crime or act. And equally regularly, I am reminded that Lefties and Communists are quite content to sit in the world's most Capitalist country and enjoy a high standard of living while mouthing off at the natives and telling them where they're going wrong.
Where was Arundhati Roy & Sergeant Pepper's Habitual Protester Band when the Communist State of W. Bengal was crushing peasants - the very people they claim to represent and protect? Where were all these intellectuals and habitual farters? Not ONE protest did I hear that was effective and impassioned. Some sheepish rambling was all. Maybe I didn't look hard enough. Maybe it's different when a Communist state unleashes its goons on hapless protesters - 'we must destroy this village to save it'. If you want to witness the effects of cognitive dissonance, please do check out the Indian Left's reaction to the Singur situation. Brinda Karat's contribution? "Maaro!"
Here's another gem:
"None of the well educated masters of the media will write that the 7000 odd kilometer coastline cannot be protected - that all it will translate to is billions in contracts for all and sundry including Israeli and American consultants."
Goodness me, it's von Clausewitz. The beauty of modern technology is that you don't have to set up a police post every few kilometers. You have sensors to do the work for you. But that's just a detail. And in any case, a few will always get through so why even try and stem the flow? Let them all in, 7,000 miles of red carpets and warm welcomes.
And maybe he's right. Maybe we don't need armed forces any more. We don't need the police, we don't need soldiers - after all only an "archetypal bourgeois liberal State" needs soldiers, right? I mean, look at the Soviet Union, they never had a... no wait that's not right. OK, how about North Korea, which I'm sure we can all agree is the least archetypal bourgeois liberal State in the whole world? Um. They've got the 5th biggest army in the world. Damn.
It's also typical of an ideologue that after pointing out the 'hollowness' of the bourgeois liberal state, Mr. Mathew fails to suggest an ideal that we should strive towards. Oh he mentions an ideal, but refrains from sharing its vision with us, no doubt afraid of casting pearls before bourgeois swine like me.
My goodness, it's a good thing that there are solid states like China to show us the way. You know I've always wondered - why don't any of these guys talk about China's problems & violations & judicial killings? Please, anyone, find me ONE leftist ideologue who is Indian who has anything negative to say about China. You won't, and that just underscores their level of credibility and objectivity. And courage, because I bet not one of these guys would have the testicles to go into China or indeed Pakistan, and lecture them on rights, on witch-hunts, on treatment of minorities (Tibetans, Uighurs in China, Ahmedias, Hindus, Christians & Shias in Pakistan). So what's the answer? Pick on the hollow bourgeois liberal states.
You know what I can go on and on and on about this, but I don't think there's much of a point. The faithful will believe what they do. So let me ask a simple question. When a woman is raped, would it be OK for a certain kind of person to immediately start talking about how she was asking for it by being obnoxious and insulting to men? Maybe she even hit a guy, and he retaliated by raping her. Is that ok? Maybe she was torturing him for 10 years or killed his wife. Then is it OK for him to rape her? Is it excusable? Does the burden of responsibility lie on the woman alone?
If I were to apply Biju Mathew's logic, then all the answers to those questions would be YES. And what's worse, he wouldn't even believe a single thing the woman had to say. She's capable of anything, isn't she?
When it comes down to it, I'm made aware of one simple fact: this kind of thought process is eerily similar to that of the Taliban. Which leads me to the conclusion that whether you go so far Left or so far Right, you arrive at the same place, just from different directions.
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