The Problem with the 'Left'

Over the past few weeks I ve been following the developments in Europe and Latin America. There seems to be an halcyon atmosphere prevailing in Latin America; but as far as Europe is concerned, the political scenario is anything but rosy. I would like to take Italy into consideration to make myself absolutely clear.

Owner of AC Milan, media tycoon, a roaring businessman; Silvio Berlusconi, the man who was defeated in the recently held Italian elections. Although this filthy rich upper class moron had ties with extreme right wingers, Fascists, Jingoists, he was able to muster up almost 50% of the votes polled. Is Europe getting back its recidivistic tendencies again? Is this an era where one is going to see the triumphant return of the Nazis and the Fascists? Are people so bloody blood thirsty? The answer to this question is of course a big YES and a big NO.

The answer is Yes because one could always feel the Racial Heat when one is in Europe. I believe these kind of "Superior Racial Feeling" get a vent when one's country is distressed economically or politically. To get you a classic instance, the attempt on life of an Indian Medical student in St. Petersburg was only the tip of the iceberg. This is not the only case because events of much lower magnitudes are not brought into notice by press or its best to say that people tend to ignore these kinda racial attacks by citing psychological reasons. This particular feeling of Xenophobia is intrinsic in all Europeans except some. I would say these individuals are those who have a broad vision for things and strive to bring about a social change which would help us in achieving "International Camraderie" which the real Marxist dreams of.

Analysing the political scenario particularly in Italy and Germany, Why did people vote for extreme right leaning parties even though they had the option of choosing the centre-left? Silvio Berlusconi got almost 50% of the votes despite the fact that he was not the best man around both politically and ethically. His five years as Italy's premier increased the debts and did nothing to improve the social equality of people in Italy. The gap between the rich and poor was widening at an alarming rate. To put it in a nutshell, he had a good time at the office as he amassed millions of dollars for himself.

Did the Italians had an alternative? I would say no. They had no other option but to choose Berlusconi himself because left wasn't the best alternative. Left just doesn't provide the perfect alternative. The prime reason for not getting the confidence of the Italian public was left's poor mandate and their failure of not taking astute political stands. Power is everything. But if you kid around with the voting public forming all kinds of filthy alliances with parties with a narrow perspective for things, this is not going to make them believe that the Left will stand for its values and convictions in the future. Not only because of their political partnerships did left lose out on a big chunk of votes; it was also due to the fact that people doubted a strong leader from the left. "Moral Fibre and Integrity" alone couldn't run the show for the left.

Particularly after the disintegration of Soviet Union, the left has been experiencing tremors when it comes to power. The downfall of Soviet Union sent shock waves across the left around the world. They need to get themselves out of this quandry and give people a strong mandate and win the confidence of people by standing tall for their convictions and philosophy. We need the Conventional Socialist Paradigm again to revive the hope of a Socialist World. This is a really broad issue. I'll try handling it in my next post.

Lok Paritran

This is the new party which has been formed by the IITans. This is not a motion picture or any hypothetical documentary. This is reality. But it has been seriously disappointing to know that this development hasn’t attracted much media attention. The party has decided to contest 12 seats from Tamilnadu in its assembly elections. This is a consummately encouraging and promising sign.

Although I’m short of words expressing my congratulations, I feel there is a bit of void. The initiative taken by the IITans to form a political party was bold and affirmative; but I feel this is not the right time to contest in elections. Much of ground work needs to be done. I have always wanted to do something out of the ordinary to change the stereotyped things in the Indian electoral politics. But as an individual I won’t be a potent force to do anything. I believe all the youngsters who have wanted to be a part of the Social system have got a wonderful chance to step in and change the way our country looks.

The most discouraging part of this whole thing is the fact that all the votes in Tamilnadu are heavily polarized by caste, religion, favoritism, cronyism etc. I don’t see a highly literate individual voting in the coming assembly elections. How many educated people out of 100 would you believe cast their votes in the first place? I ‘m sure even 25 is an exaggeration. If “Lok Paritran” is to become a potent force, we need to wake the educated middle class from slumber. An insouciant attitude won’t help things. We need to apprise people of various things that are happening behind the screens. It has been more than half a decade since we have been getting dissimulated.

The objectives of the party should be to start working from the lowest point of organization in society. How are we going to make the exploited and the needy vote for us? They will usually vote for someone owing to caste bias, favoritism or party. They will seldom take into consideration the integrity and ability of the individual who is contesting from their constituency. How is “Lok Paritran” going to change this trend? How do you think the major political parties in India are still surviving? Every party in India represents a particular sect. For instance Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Jan Shakti represents the lower casts of Bihar and Jharkand. This particular party gets its lion share of votes only from members of this sect. This is not the only instance. Consider BJP for that matter; its vote bank is solid as far as right leaning Hindus are concerned. And also the upper caste Hindus usually tend to have an affinity towards BJP. The story of Congress party is more comic. They are still petty mongering for votes by telling people that they gave India its independence from the English. Our so called “ingenious” voting public has given it more than 40 years in the office. And we still her the same old hackneyed cliché; India is developing. Give me a break; Or rather give Indians a break.

“Lok Paritran” is not a parochial or a jingoist party. It doesn’t represent a particular sect. And I’m sure the office bearers have a kind of flexibility and openness to the party principles. This doesn’t mean that they need to change their principles often. They can take the best things from world politics. Flexibility doesn’t represent shallowness or feebleness of mind. We must be open to all kinds of perspectives and thoughts so that our party doesn’t become a place of “medley of mediocre dogmas and principles”.

Already “Lok Paritran”: has a website and a good student network. We can elect representatives and entrust them with the responsibility of doing the ground work. We need to consider this day zero and work towards building a strong group that will work towards forming a vote bank for the party and inform people about whats happening around them and more importantly whats happening to them. Before proceeding with this step, we must prioritize our actions. We need to target the lower and lower middle classes first because these people need convincing principles to trust and vote. We need to vociferously propagandize our party objectives and principles to all sections of the society next. After getting a solid vote bank, we can contest for the elections. Losing elections is not falling from grace. This is just the beginning and its going to be a brand new beginning. We can go from strength to strength if we are able to make an impression among the exploited and needy. They should be at the top of our priority list.

The Sound of Music

Why do Human Beings get moved when they listen to a particular piece of music? This particular question has been baffling me for a long time. How does a weird medley of vibrations get into one's ears? And it changes everything.

Generalizing this issue would seem parochial for some; But as far as I know, we won't be able to get to a "generalized tenet" on why people respond to certain sounds? I believe this depends solely on "sensitivity" of people as I call it. A Mozart or a Beethoven won't sound intoxicating to everyone. I'm compelled to say that a Metallica or an Iron Maiden won't be a tempting proposition to some after they listen to them for the first time. It just happens that our heart gets incarcerated to certain refrains and once that happens to us, we would be enchained for the lifetime.

I was listening to Williams' Schindler's List theme last night. The "Sound of Music" was better than life itself. In these five minutes, I got lost into the "unremitting, compelling, hallowing" rhythm and poise of it. My brain, my heart or whichever physical part you may wanna attribute gets engrossed and entrenched into the subtleness of sound. The strings of violin look like "The Stairway to Heaven" and this never ending Sisephean World seems like "The Highway to Hell" to me. I'm still perplexed as to how a lifeless instrument like Violin is able to create such a cajoling and mellifluous rhythm.

Music is something that is helping me live at the cost of myself. I interminently die and live for a finite interval of time. Nobody would want someone to be that. These moments that I forget this finicky and futile world are the moments that I've been "alive". My harmones scream to me," You're alive!!". The adrenalin rush that I experience when I listen to certain sounds affirms me of the fact that my tribulations in this Sisephean world haven't come to an end.

I experience certain voices; I'm sure this is not a prelude to schizophrenia. My tone does'nt represent a sluggish and a negative prophecy. The clairvoyance of Nostradamus would'nt have told you this explicitely. Truths are what I'm after. The Sound of Music or even the "Sound of Sound" tells me the same thing. Nothing's much different if you die. Everything in this world is philosophy.

We experience all kinds of emotions; What do these emotions mean? Its a "ruse". We deceive ourselves by these happy and tragical moments that we go through. The mood swings, Happy and depressing events that happens to us just alleviates us from the "pain". Everything is mirage. Now I'll tell you something. Camus was a legend. Yes he really was.

Sound of music is the sound of thernody.

If I don't mention the fact that people do have opinions and whatever they perceive and believe depends on a number of things, I would fail. Whatever I had posted here may be farcical and inane,but its just to get my side of the story.

Here I Am - My blog's here

This post is for nobody. Not even for me. Just to wake the wide narrow world up with a barbaric yap!

I'll be right back.