The 'is-ness' of the IS

The ‘is-ness’ of the IS, is beginning to scare the reason out of me. I can think of no other explanation for wondering if it might not be time for the United Nations.org to contract with Mossad to deal with the problem; which is a terrible thing for a pacifist, dyed-in-the-wool, one world anti death  penalty, hippie freak to have to admit.

On the one hand, there is this. A caliphate needs, must have, a caliph, a leader appointed due to his proximity to god, One whose Voice must be obeyed, thoughtlessly. A vast swathe of the Middle East is now under the command of just such a Caliph. Catastrophically for some, a huge number of some, unfortunately for the rest of us, that Caliph seems to be the kind that thinks blood is a good cleansing fluid and that the world needs a good cleansing, as per His god. Proof of that, according to him, is the wealth of resource that His god has given unto him; wealth that He can use to convince testosterone stoked young men who think virgins are actually fun to…uh, you know, have a relationship with. These young men are, of course, in no mood to think about the bloody task that has been given to them. Their blood is not cooling their brains. Their dumb-sticks are driving the tanks that seem to be the favored mode of transportation for the cleaning crews. Besides, they don’t do any thinking. All of the thinking is done by the Caliph, who knows everything and has shown them the map to paradise.

Now, under those circumstances, does it not make sense for the rest of us to do something about our, (yes, our, we, all of us allowed him to happen – but that’s another chain of thought), Caliph and his delusions? Caliphates are not hydra headed monsters. One head, one motivator, remove him and his thoughtless followers can be treated as the petty, if violent, directionless criminals that they are. Mossad has shown itself to be quite proficient at surgical strikes, quite a few times. Why not let ‘em loose on Whacko al-Insani of the IS? Think of the amount of concentrated misery that can be alleviated. Think of the resources being squandered that can be put to far better use. There is an emotional satisfaction in the thought that the Caliph’s demise could bring closure for some of his victims.

The other hand has a whole bunch of “Yeah, buts…”; among the whole for-very-good-reasons thing about political assassinations not being conducive to amity and world peace. Then there’s the killing for justice and its oxymoronic euphony; ethical, public trial and conviction before condemnation thing, working its way into the confusion of what-to-dos and the need to do something. The knowledge that killing the head is not getting to the root reason for the Rise of the Monsters

My head hurts.

Better Governance

How to make India better, how to make the United Nations better, how to make governance better, how to be a better parent, child, teacher, student – worthy as those concepts are, they miss the well intentioned point. The simple (okay- simple and easy don't mean the same thing, yeah?) one-stroke solution to the aforementioned Gordian knots would be for each of us, as, individuals, social individuals, to wonder how we are doing on the homo sapience-y scale; whether the self is in balance with the awareness.

Self is, uh, self-evident.

Awareness, okay, yeah, here’s where things start to get messy. For instance, I was just apprised of a couple of young women physically assaulted, in consecutive incidents,   for having the courage to defy an upper-caste (my fingers feel slimy as I type those words) khap panchayat ruling of exile imposed on their family for being kin to arrested, tried, and convicted felons. The beatings administered for non-compliance with the exile orders, to wit, arrogantly continuing their pursuit of education, which, by the bye, the young women were doing by trekking long rural distances and then doing well in their studies. And there you have it; an instance of selves and their degrees of awareness.  On one side an inner directed collective of selves and their awareness, on the other a more educated sense of self and its place in the larger scheme of things. Are those Young Women better persons? Is the upper (yuck) caste (even more yuck) behavior closer to the animal in man, somewhat lower on the whole personhood scale? Yes and yes. Will the Young Women make better governors of a multi cultural, many-self world? Hell yes. The khap panchayat selves?  Uh, D’oh.

Oh, and mention needs to be made about the personhood of the husbands of the Young Women, who abandoned their wives on imposition of the exile. Way to go guys; so much for the holy vows you took to protect and honor your, no doubt, underage brides. I’m sure god will understand.

Saffron Rock

There’s an oily sort of feeling to the politics of India today. There is a nausea inducing sort of slipperiness masquerading as the process of governance. Faith and religion’s imperatives are working their way into the oh-so-fragile skin of reason that is attempting to hold this billion plus collection of ego and emotion together.

And, it all feels so familiar. There is déjà vu happening all up in here. It’s like I’m hearing Carl ‘Retro’ Rove and his Christian Crew tuning up to play a gig in India; Christian Rock morphed into Saffron Rock (lyrics by RSS). Thrash music that assaults and overpowers the sense of the listener; rhyme and reason battered into submission by the screaming chorus of Because My God Says So.

Not that I’m accusing the Hindu Right of plagiarism, not at all, I hasten to add, as quickly as possible. I just think that the brains trust of India’s new Governors saw something that worked and by adding the much richer masala that is this ancient culture, made it their own.

Take this business of Ancient Culture as a simple solution to the trials and issues of a not at all ancient, far from simple, social organism. Do this. Don’t do that - Edicts of a simpler time as the way to manage the mad mélange of self-interest that is this modern construct, India. Any suggestion that those Ancient Rules of Behavior might not be an exact, or even comfortable, fit on the modern body politic is dismissed as the work of the devil, quite often, the foreign devil. Any argument that Ancient Writings, Vedas, Commandments, what have you, are guidelines and not, as it were, carved in stone, is howled down as anti-national and disloyal, treasonous, Christian America and Hindu India. Culture elevated to the status of Religion. It wasn’t that good a song when Ronnie and the Republicans were doing their thing; it hasn’t gotten any better by adding masala to it. But for some reason, or the lack thereof, Ronnie and the Reps were able to spawn a faith based form of governance that produced George W. Bush and the Democracy Destroyers. It took a while, but Carl and Crew got there. I don’t think it is going to take that long in India. After all India is doing in 60 years what took the USA 200 years to do.

I guess I’m hoping that India’s lean and hungry youth will do better than the fat and happy US electorate. Maybe India’s youthful intelligence will recognize the dangers of isolate purity and vote for the exhilaration of diversity. Festivals are best when new meets old and dances in the melodies so created.