2008 and The Culture of Merit

I am 2008. 

I believe I did a lot of good to the world. 

But as is the case always when you do good unbidden what you get is blame. So while the cheers that greeted my departure still resonate let me reason with you a bit. 

Is the fact that a world gone mad with greed has been restored to fiscal sanity good or bad? 

There is pain now but the fact is that the so-called economic meltdown is bringing back the culture of merit to the world of business and economics. 

No longer will the brilliant engineer cracking the next breakthrough in fuel cells feel belittled by the money and adulation showered on some ethics-challenged sharpie at Lehman Brothers. Is that good or bad? 

The culture of merit has been a long time coming but it finally arrived with me. It is no accident of history that I saw Obama become the most powerful man in the world. Bush Jr. was perhaps the epitome of a world bowing to the ever so common marriage of privileged sperm and bad but stubborn DNA. 

On the other hand, Obama symbolizes the return of merit to organized human effort. As for the continuing scourge of hunger, poverty, terrorism, corruption, war and worsening climate I had my fair share of all. But let me make a prediction.

A decade from now the golden age of a new flowering of civilization will be traced back to the return of the culture of merit in 2008. It will be the power of merit that will put away the despots in Africa and across the world. It will be merit empowered expertise that will finally get control of hunger, poverty and get humanity on the road to reining in global warming. And it will be merit-promoted understanding that will kill terrorism not at the hand of those who sought to wipe it out through military power but from within, by the very people who used to shelter it. 

And it will be the culture of merit that will make corruption untenable. So while you look forward to relief with 2009 remember the pain that I gave you was the kind of pain that is a harbinger of great gain.

Brevity, Interactivity, 'Virality'

The enduring image of our times is the traffic jam.
However the jam is not just on our roads.
It is also in our minds.
It is not just that we are being bombarded with more and more messages.
It is also that the mainstream media all use the same few "thought-ways".
The resultant jam is why mass media and mass advertising are both going the way of the dinosaurs.
And a new paradigm of communication effectiveness is being forged.
It should not be surprising that this new paradigm is most visible in new media like Web 2.0.
The mantra of this new effectiveness is: Brevity, Interactivity and 'Virality'.
Brevity is putting the message on a nimble two-wheeler instead of a bulky truck. It avoids roadblocks and negotiates jams better.
Interactivity motivates the receiver to take the message for a drive down the open roads and side-streets of her mind. And perhaps even off the road, free-ranging the countryside and forests of her sub-conscious.
"Virality" is when the receiver likes the message so much that she introduces it to close friends that she meets on those unclogged free ways of her mind.
The new media is creating a new media structure built on the principles of "many to many" instead of "one to many".
And "one to many" will be rescued from the depredations of mass media and go back to becoming the sole preserve of genius. A Shakespeare, a Kalidas, a Mozart, a Picasso or a Fellini will communicate with mind-blowing impact, whatever the age, whatever the paradigm.

Rice & Dal

Meaningless Violence is a tautology.
However when jingoism emerges (doesn't matter if it is in reaction to jingoism- two wrongs don't a right make) the truth is the first victim.
Yes the USA has not faced another act of terrorism on its soil after 2001. But let us remember that it is the richest and most powerful nation (as of now and for some while yet) on earth. It was hubris that lead to 9/11 and after that jolt it put its guard up and protects its territory with all that it has.
So should India. Protect our territory and our citizens with all that we have. We do not have the wealth that the USA has but perhaps we can bring more ingenuity and more intelligence to the task. The famous "Indian Jugad" has never had a greater task.
The response of the USA to 9/11 had a dimension other than homeland security. The specific interventions first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. There are many in India today calling for an intervention in POK by India.
Once again it is paramount that we do not take anything anyone else has done as template. USA and the world continue to pay a heavy price for Afghanistan & Iraq.
We don't have to create another black hole that voraciously drains positive energy from us and the world.
Yes we must act with strength. But is it strength that will send out our
ground and air forces to wipe out terrorist camps in POK? Or will it be an act that will only assuage our collective ego that is currently hurt and does not want to be perceived as weak by not reacting with speed?
Questions that have no easy answer but we must wrestle with them. And as we do we must remember rice is rice(pun intended Ms.Rice)and dal is dal. They go well together but are cooked differently.
We must act in consort with the USA but act in a way that is us.

Mumbai 26/11/08 and "Them"

This time the terrorists hit "them" where they and their children frolic.
"Them" being those who live of the fat of the land and walk the corridors of power.
Usually they make inane statements after terrorist attacks kill and maim those who live and work in the real India, the crowded bazaars & the rickety buses and trains.
And then go on right along with their cowardly and effete lives.
Will they now use their privileged position to take some real action or will they just create more barricades and "Z" and other alphabet soup security for themselves and hope they can get away with just watching the world around them crumble.
And I who write this and you who read this, we also need to take a minute and reflect upon the likely fact that we also are a part of "them". And if not yet part of "them" aspire and work to be asap be part of "them".
And perhaps recognize the shame and care to delve a little deeper into what really is life about.

Open Eyed Meditation

For over 7 years now I have practiced meditating the conventional way.
In a quiet place, preceded by various other practices designed to calm the mind.
And most importantly with eyes closed to enable perhaps the shutting out of thought.
This practice has helped me in many ways. The benefit I value most is my work-in-progress movement from being self-centered to being centered.
However yesterday I came to realize that all "closed-eyes" "traditional" meditation has an overarching purpose.
It is to enable us to reach finally a state of living in meditation.
A state of unreasoning acceptance that participates in the world around us with a unchanging calm.
An involvement in emotions, relationships and work that transcends entanglement.
In other words Open Eyed Meditation.

Why is the world bust?

I am going to attempt an answer in the fewest word's possible.
Americans, Western Europeans and the Japanese work too little for too much. In a world where billions of others are now as productive and glad to work much harder for so much less this has great consequence. It makes most of what America, Western Europe and Japan makes economically not viable.
At the same time the financial system is jury-rigged to feed the world's surplus and savings into these "rich" economies so that they can continue their profligate way.
This ultimate Ponzi scheme had to fail sometime and that time is upon us.
So will things change? Watch this space.

Overhearing Change

Yesterday at an airport lounge I overheard change. It was in the glum silence of a group of previously fat cat investment bankers. Gone was the glib self-satisfied banter I used to irritatingly overhear just about a year ago.
In the uneasy quietitude was change at work. Intelligent, perceptive minds back to pondering reality and real work. Instead of the chemirical world of done deals and greed forever unsatisfied. This morning I am at another looking forward to another day another portend.