The 'ism' of Capitalism !

This post should have come in first before I wrote Capitalism I , II and III . In this I wish to explain what I think is Capitalism and what people think about Capitalism. Please do not assume that I am a 'communist' because I am not. I do not really believe in any 'isms' because they are attached to individuals/'philosophers' and I am not into hero worship on serious issues. So let us get this clear that when I criticize Capitalism I am not supporting Communism ! Let us also get this clear at the outset that Capitalism is like sensuality or what is known in traditional Hindu philosophy as 'kaam' or 'kaama' . 'Kaama' is a vice like 'Krodh' (anger), 'Lobh' (greed), 'Mada' (arrogance) and 'Moha' (undue attachment or love for someone/something) ; but the big thing about 'Kaama' or sensuality is that it is so beautiful that it appears more like a virtue than a vice or should we say more like a friend than an enemy similarly about Capitalism. So if you feel you are too much in love with Capitalism just remember this!

Now the problem I have with Capitalism is a bit different than one would expect - I have no problem with Capital but only with 'ism'. Let us take the example of Chikan - chikan is a special kind of embroidery done only in Lucknow - authentic Chikan embroidery cannot be produced on a commercial scale anywhere else except Lucknow because it is a very complex art and also because a special kind of bleech is used to wash the garments to give them the white colour. The potential of Chikan has not been fully explored and most of the profit is still made by big exporters based in Mumbai as the industry is not organised. The worker who produces the chikan embroidery is generally very poor but he/she is poor because by and large he/she is not willing to work hard and stick to deadlines. This is where the wholesalers come in they take the risks they invest money and get high blood pressure and heart attacks because the chikan workers by and large are very very lazy - even if they are offered double the money they still go according to their whims - also a lot of stuff is lost or stolen by them and there is nothing the wholesalers can do about it. It has been this way since the last hundred years, many wholesalers lose heart and close shop. I know this because many of my relatives are in this business. So I guess Capitalism is more being wronged against in this case than doing the wrong and probably it has been this way even before the world Capitalism was coined . I am not saying that wholesalers are entirely in the wrong in this or the workers but one thing is sure and that is that things are going to remain this way in this industry in the near future. There were some efforts by some so called NGOs to organise the workers and give them more profit but ultimately it turned out that those NGOs were being run by polished con people.

My problem is with the 'ism' . People with capital were always there and big business families like the marwaris were always there and probably controlled a big chunk of business but this Capitalism is a new phenomenon. 'ism' means the whole society is oriented towards that idea. The endeavours of the society the government and everybody else is to achieve the goal defined by that 'ism'. So suddenly only those people who have the Capital can really do something only those. Because they have the money to pay MSM and other advertising pimps. Their voices are the loudest since they have banner ads on internet, ads on FM radio, big print ads in major newspapers, on TV, huge billboards and God knows where. This is what I am against ! Did you know that the so called spiritual channels on which polished 'Mahatmas' give discourses charge a hefty fee to air the discourses! And since this is how it is you can very well understand who gets to have his/her discourses aired. This is not to say of course that all the mahatmas that speak on those channels are fake of course not but having to pay an unbelievable amount of money for spiritual discourses thank God in-spite of Capitalist propaganda still appears wrong. I wonder whether people will think the same away in a few years. So this Capitalism means that only babas like one who was recently arrested will get to speak and to mislead people.

Also this whole emphasis on generation of 'revenue' means that the most attractive jobs in coming days will be in 'sales' which means that people will be 'selling' something to their neighbours all the time and getting all kinds of diseases in the process as they are controlled by slave drivers. Isn't this a throwback to the early barter system society the newly material society when the emphasis was to hoard and barter 'things' and the more advanced stage which came later was the spiritual society when people exchanged spiritual ideas to achieve a higher stage in spiritual development. So is the Capitalistic = materialistic society a progressive or a retrogressive society.

I have written about this earlier but must write again - when society becomes Capitalistic and the already corrupt capitalistit MSM has to survive in this it has to delve deep into morbidity to bring out a new 'pearl'. They have almost done with gay and lesbian themes and now the next stage is incest and bestiality! A gay character already coming up in Archies comics (if I am to believe certain tweeters on twitter) to keep up with newer morbidities.

This is the problem I have with the 'ism' you see - it is not about the PR definition of Capitalism - the 'privately owned means of production' and blah blah blah... spare me that crap please!

When the whole of society is geared up to this - freedom is curtailed - and the fallacy that Capitalism = freedom comes to the fore. For example content in MSM - as you might have observed they favour only a certain kind of news mainly those connected with celebs, sports, beauty pageants, sex scandals, soap operas ... well you know all that so where is the freedom .. are their correspondents free to do a story they think is important! These are early stages of Capitalism in MSM a later stage would be - they would never hire a correspondent who shows even the smallest traces of being original .. Ha Ha!

So well this was in short - a short objection to 'ism' in Capitalism that I am dead against. I will expand this further as I am able to organize my ideas.

Thanks for tolerating!

Capitalism III

Please be warned what you are going to read could be disturbing. That is how Capitalism is - very disturbing. I am a very lazy blogger and only things with great seriousness behind them can move me to write. This is an attempt to let you know what Capitalism has done and can do to us. So beware!

What caused the AIDS epidemic?

If you wikipedia this you will find a lot of theories. Some are downright funny and some are unbelievably fantastic but what I am going to tell you is horrendous! So one of the theories is that trials of polio vaccines caused the AIDS epidemic ! Now let us talk a bit about polio vaccines. If you are not very young you probably were inoculated with Salk's vaccine. Salk's vaccine consisted of killed polio virus which alerted the body's immune system against the polio virus. This vaccine eradicated polio from the US and many other countries. Salk was so selfless he did not patent the process of preparing this vaccine! How could this be.. maybe because he was partly Russian.. ha ha that was just a joke! Now comes the horrendous part.. you and I who were innoculated by Salk's vaccine are doing fine and so are our friends but big drug companies in US saw a big opportunity - the capitalist giants of pharmaceutical industry. Just imagine what could be better than that sale of millions not billions of vaccines all over the world but they had to better Salk's vaccine! Three guys got onto producing 'better' polio vaccines these were Cox, Hilary Koprowski and Albert Sabin. Of these Mr. Koprowski backed by a very big US drugs firm was the guy in a tearing hurry. While Salk's vaccine trials were conducted in full public knowledge Mr. Koprowski conducted his vaccine trials in regions which roughly correspond to Burundi, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo some of the poorest countries not only in Africa but the world. This could be a co- incidence but those three countries mentioned before have the highest density of population infected with AIDS virus!!!!!!!!!! This theory has been analysed in very great detail by a British journalist Ed Hooper in his book The River . He has spent nearly 2 decades researching this theory and has been threatened and cajoled at every step to wrap up his work as it would show the whole of the west in a very bad light. So what really went wrong! It seems the great hurry with which Mr. Koprowski conducted his trials let to jumping of Simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV) from Chimpanzees to humans which later caused AIDS .. you can read more about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPV_AIDS_hypothesis . Later Sabin's Oral Polio Vaccine which contained a live but greatly weakened virus largely replaced Salk's vaccine. Sabin's vaccine is safe according to WHO and Hooper agrees with it.

Now the point is why this sudden change ? Why the hurry? The point is not whether Ed Hooper's theory is right or wrong. It could be just sensationalism but is such a situation impossible? Is it absolutely impossible that events could indeed have happened as Ed Hooper thinks they did?

I do not need to tell the readers here about the reach and might of big pharmaceutical companies. Recently when I was in tremendous pain I got to know that my GP had been sent on a free holiday to Australia, Bangkok and Singapore by a pharmaceutical company. Are you confident that the drugs you are using are indeed safe and if they are why are certain drugs banned after very few years of their use. What the hell is going on ? Drugs which are banned in US are being administered in India like http://hubpages.com/hub/BANNEDDRUGSUSEDININDIA

This is capitalism for you - this is what happens when green backs are laid so thickly on eyes of decision makers that they become blind and sign on the dotted line. This is capitalism for you and let us pray it does not overwhelm our country.

By the way the above was published as a newspaper article about nine years ago in TIMES OF INDIA, Lucknow edition and was of course written by me.

Can a minor teenager be sentenced to months in a correctional facility by a judge for a prank on myspace - the answer is yes?

Now you may boo me as much as you like but this is something which is only possible in a capitalistic society.. it is unimaginable in India.. well that is my opinion coz if someone attempted that the public would tear that guy to shreds. But it happened in US. To cut a long story short two Your Honour type judges hearing cases of juvenile offenders who often did something as insignificant as stealing loose change from cars and creating a page on my space to mock an assistant principal, sent these 'offenders' to long 'sentences' in correctional facilities newly set up. It later emerged that these judges were paid per youth per day by the owner of the facility. Do you think this could have happened in India.. I don't think so.

You may read more about this at

http://www.timesleader.com/news/hottopics/judges/Ciavarella_and_Conahan_enter_federal_court_in_Scranton.html

and

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29142654/

Also I must give credit where it belongs - I first got wind of the above scandal by watching Michael Moore's movie Capitalism - A Love Story !

So well that was Capitalism III... I know it is full of errors but I could not afford to waste more time in polishing up this post coz I wanted to warn you as soon as possible.

Capitalism II

I thank everybody who responded to my previous blog post titled Capitalism. It was severely criticized by some and appreciated by others so what I set out to achieve by that piece was in fact achieved which was to set people thinking because if I wont probably nobody else would why because publication houses have turned capitalist in a big way even Indian publication houses and please do not let us talk about that big pimp MSM. If you do not know MSM google it please!

So the main objection was from people who had already studied or were studying for an MBA degree. They felt they were duty bound to tear me to shreds.. well I sympathize with them for they know not that they are not co-conspirators in this Capitalism thing but were in fact the victims! I really sincerely sympathize with them! Victim how? Victim because they probably left home and hearth to study for an expensive degree often taking educational loans! What they were taught essentially - how to fool their brethren and create demands for things one does'nt need, how to create illusions and get people to empty their pockets and how to spread lies effectively! I see you itching to say no no no that is management and blah blah blah.. .well cut that fancy....! And let me tell you the aforementioned are not my words but the words of an MBA student, someone who just completed and MBA and I was stunned to see that coming from him because those were precisely my thoughts. And after doing all that what does one get - a huge EMI to pay off that loan and to pay off that loan a job with a lot of responsibility and 'targets' and the perpetual anxiety of a lay off. There is really no relaxed day for a big shot manager and you know it though it suits some people who would have been pushy MBA or no MBA , Capitalism or no Capitalism but it does not suit a majority of people why because Indians are not brought up that way. Indians were basically not into Capitalism and I daresay never will be due to our lives being constantly guided by religion and philosophy. We are not pushy people!

Now the main thing that makes people support Capitalism is free market.. damn it ... For God's sake please understand that free market is not = capitalism. Ha ha please do not make that mistake. Free Market and Capitalism are close friends but they are not husband and wife or should we say Romeo and Juliet who would die without one another. What would you call Chinese economy? Can you possibly call it Capitalist economy ha ha now Can you? No it is to a certain extent free market economy just like India but it is predominantly a communist country. So you will give the plea that look at China and how it has made progress.. well do your research.. Chinese made that kind of progress by exports.... probably you buy 4 or 5 Chinese items everyday. China has inundated markets worldwide with their produce, thank yourself that in India there is still stuff produced domestically. It is not that way in the west which are purely capitalistic countries and are motivated only by profit! So effectively Americans are destroying their own economy by peddling Chinese stuff! You see? It is not much different in Europe either though in Europe there are still checks against Chinese goods.

Also the biggest thing is that the PR machinery of Capitalism is active and what you are witnessing is the romantic phase of Capitalism in India. It is like a dashing boy romancing an innocent girl, just wait when the guy abandons the girl. Nasha jab utrega to gutter me pada payenge.

I wish I could but I cannot even say that I am a supporter of free market because there is no ideal free market - it moves to monopoly! Capitalism is uncontrollable ! It is like lighting a cigarette using a hand grenade, the cigarette would light up but you would also go up in smoke! Capitalism really is centered around pure profit making which is the primitive stage of human development when materialism just came in and the primitive man cared about nothing but accumulating stuff and bartering it away - the next higher stage was spiritual and social development when man had higher motives in dealing with each other. You all know that I do not need to tell you that.

Chinese example is good in that the state has checks and balances and regulations and in fact they have two special administrative regions like Hong Kong and Macau which are almost purely capitalist but are insulated from rest of economy. Hong Kong is the hub of business in Asia maybe only because of its strategic location.

People protested that 'if not Capitalism then what' in response to my previous post and it is very simple seemingly but on the ground we need to do a lot of work or rather the FM needs to do a lot of work. We need to identify areas where free market and Capitalism cannot be allowed at all like Media and Pharmaceuticals and Health care. Sectors like these cannot be allowed to make insane profits, if we just regulated the profit they can earn those Capitalist pimps would get off these sectors. Let me tell you that the way things are going on it is going to be really dirty with media. The state cannot watch while media spreads all that insanity - the state cannot watch a whole generation of young people, its bright hopes wasting their time on cricket and celebs no the state cannot do that. The state cannot watch as healthcare mafias make money out of people's pain. We need to regulate profits in some industries. We need checks and balances and regulation - China does it!

My own theory is , and you can call me insane, that all this drugs and promiscuity thing and this breaking up of the institution of marriage is all because of capitalism. The west is so insane, it cannot stick to one ideal philosophy, sometimes it becomes too promiscuous and sometimes it becomes very strait laced like in Victorian era. In the sixties the publishing industry and the entertainment industry hit the wall and they suddenly discovered Hedonism or rather rediscovered it. Aha that was opening of the floodgates, thousands of rock bands teaching that Hippy thing and the drugs and the delinquent behaviour cropped up overnight. Unscrupulous , adulterous and promiscuous writers came out of closet and started supplying the publishing industry with the necessary gunpowder. It became a big achievement to be free to proudly display that naked body full of so much accumulated fat! Give me a break ! You don't fool me - I could never accept the Beetles as so many Gods even if I were living then. I see your conspiracy. The question now is do you see it! Now do you!

Don't give your money to those mutual funds and shares, don't think you will outsmart them. In any case working hard can yield you more money than gambling away at shares. Do not act innocent , if you want to make a quick buck and do nothing for it well you have joined the bandwagon of conmen and if you feel cheated you have only yourself to blame.

So beware! In India we have an additional handicap of highly insincere people being in power because they came to power riding piggyback on the phobia they generated. Hindu parties generated the phobia that Muslims will kill Hindus and vice versa, parties supporting so called 'low caste' people said they had been exploited since generations and scheme underway to destroy them and they had their own following. You know all that! So do not expect the government to do any kind of regulatory stuff for you! Though it is a comfort that Indian people are intrinsically smart, only a tiny percent of them, at this stage are at all affected by Capitalism. In UP at least, people invest in land and gold not in shares and debentures and whatever all that is! People do not buy items they do not need like for example we recently had a store selling very expensive pens in a very expensive mall. It closed down! People do not go for big brand names by and large even if they have the money! Ha ha that gives me hope!

So well I did not write this blog for a thesis, I did not write it to show I am erudite because really I am not and I know this, I did not write this for money because I never monetized nor will ever monetize this blog, I did not write for your votes because I am not a politician and not a member of any voting stupidity - I wrote it just to warn you! I cannot possibly cover all the instances where you may be fooled by the capitalist con industry I am not competent enough to do that nor do I have the necessary resilience!

For the one last time I am warning you, you just have to remember this simple thing - before you give someone your money think - think - think!

Capitalism

I could have done this fifteen years back but this lethargy and laziness would be blamed for my not being a success in life (most probably) when I am no more. Well so I have been wanting to do this thing for a long time. I asked many people about what is their opinion/definition of Capitalism and after receiving their responses my resolve was steeled - I had to write about it because people were so ignorant!
My definition of Capitalism is - it is a form of madness in which the guy with the most money smothers all competition and he is there on top only by virtue of his money, whether he earned it by smuggling or gun running or pimping are questions which are not asked in capitalist economic system. So there you are isn't this so different from "An economic system based on a free market, open competition, profit motive and private ownership of the means of production" ha ha the PR department definition of Capitalism.

The basic thing we have to understand is capitalism is far from what is mentioned above in quotes, and this reminds me of a movie I watched almost a decade back on TV in which a young girl in America becomes a nude model for a magazine so that she could pay for her university! If that did not alarm you please do not read on, you are probably too dead to understand what I write further.

Capitalism = colonialism! now that is a big one. That means capitalism drowned those millions of people in colonies in their own blood! That is a reality it did precisely that! What was the East India company? Of course that was a gigantic capitalist enterprise!What else was it if not that?

Capitalism also means that your friendly green grocer from where you and your father bought stuff will soon have to close shop and probably go down and work at a big general store chain in a big mall! He just cannot compete with them! That is capitalism!

Did you feel that content in newspaper or magazines has changed. I asked my journalist friends because I felt I could be biased about this and they said it is more infotainment now and less news. Well that is a toned down response from them probably they did not give it that much thought but I did. Content has changed dramatically - now the magazines and newspapers are talking all the time about sports and celebs. The small stories the small news is altogether missing. Like I remember this story about a graveyard worker, he was interviewed by a reporter, those little stories, they are altogether missing. Reporters are no longer at liberty to report what they think is important and feature writers have been instructed only three or four things to talk about. Also did you notice that they are talking so much about sex now. As if the whole of India became so much sexier overnight . Sex sells you know, they discovered it long time back but newspapers discovered that only recently. Every other day there is a survey in which 'sexy' things are brought out of covers supposedly exposing the sexy underbelly of Indian society. Wow thank God for telling us that you sickos!

What really disturbed me and alarmed me was capitalism in media and entertainment business. Did you notice that none of the Indian films now are small budget well it is not possible to make small budget movies anymore because half the budget goes in publicity. The blitzkrieg of publicity - that disturbed me - and one by one I stopped watching movies backed by big publicity which left me with no movie to watch in the end because all movies or nearly all were riding piggyback on publicity blitz. The reviewers ha ha it makes me just laugh, the reviewers, if you are a pimp come on say it don't call yourself a reviewer.

Capitalism in MSM = Main Stream Media - baby these are the real knights of Capitalism. Those polished news anchors talking about how a celeb brushes his teeth or what girls a certain sport person meets. Even those journos who were say only a decade back were serious people have turned jokers just to take home a huge pay packet. Sick! Sick! Sick! And you people watch those channels all the time - don't just switch off your TV like I did but then again there is the problem of ladies. Thank God Marx died or all over the world they would have had to stick a narrow strip of printed paper on "Religion is the opium of masses" so that you would now read "TV serials are the opium of masses". Imagine the glee a lady must be experiencing who found after watching those serials that it is after all alright to have extra marital affairs because decent looking ladies are having it in TV serials. Aha! Every supposedly immoral thought is now okay! Great ! Watch on watch on !

Did you ever stop to think that none of the MSM channels criticize big telecom giants like Idea, Reliance, Airtel etc. Why? Could it be because together they are the biggest ad revenue providers to MSM.

It looks like there is a separate university altogether that trained some smart guys to fool people by television programs and they were then unleashed on the general populace. So you have all these programs where people are voting like crazy for reality shows at almost Rs.6 per sms and then sending multiples sms messages per day. If I asked a million people to throw Rs.6 per day in the gutter for almost a month would they do it? No! Obviously No! Because I am not trained to fool people. You have to learn the esoteric art of fooling people and they are teaching it at universities. It is legal! It is called studying for an MBA! MBA courses were there when I was a student but I never ever thought for studying for an MBA, why should I study for an MBA I thought, I always wanted to study literature and history but a lot of young people out there do not think like that. They are not to blame, capitalism laid traps for them. So capitalism is not kind to its children. What is slavery or rather wage slavery - that is the difference! Slavery is inter alia being allowed to meet your children for a limited time, working long hours in an uncomfortable position, not being allowed to go out and enjoy during 'work', doing work highly abhorrent to you, being forced to assume and obsequious persona - well that is what a so called 'professional' specially a management guy has to go through. Gradually things are coming to a pass when both husband and the wife will need to work because due to societal pressure they need to maintain a certain standard of living. Long hours at work, not being able to see one's own children, not being able to tell them stories and tell them about their heritage, a bad back plus myriads of health problems - well one would like to break free but Capitalism will not allow it - why because the guy/gal took a huge loan to study for an MBA abroad. How are you going to pay the loan back? Ha ha - caught!

In recent times clubs have become religion for people the sports clubs of course ! ha ha Manchester whatever and others. Capitalist media in cahoots with these club bosses is bringing it on thick! Capitalism is keeping people occupied in this stuff while it schemes the next big scam. It is so funny their chosen club is religion for people, they buy T-shirts, expensive memorabilia and stay awake most of the night to watch matches in which their favourite club is playing! What do you think about this?

I promise you I am ending soon just this last bit - do you think a capitalist society is a more advanced society? Ha ha ! Do you think that is true? What caused environmental pollution, irreversible environmental degradation . I leave that to you. A society's emphasis on aspects of human life can be gauged by the complexity of its institutions - did I phrase that correctly - in the west financial institutions and their working is very very complex but thankfully in India religion and philosophy is far more complex - so there you have the answer - the emphasis of Indian civilization is on God, religion and philosophy - I hope these act as bulwarks against the juggernaut of Capitalism - I am quite hopeful they will!

So do analyze the life around you a bit and do not give your money to those Capitalist bandits!