Life and Exclusive!
The Times carried a thought provoking article on which way the world could be headed.
Our lives are increasingly governed by the principles of exclusion. Some of these examples readily come to mind
1. Our housing societies have multiple layers of security, not the smallest of insects could steal their way in. Have you ever noticed how any stranger who 'walks' into a society gets treated at the gate by the watchmen compared to say someone who drives in?
2. We have AC cars that shut the smells of the city out and tinted glasses that effectively color our view of dirty uncleaned streets and urchin
3. Even when we walk, we effectively use ear plugs of all kinds that dish out music to the ears... who wants to hear the traffic honk or the cacophony at the railway station
4. Ever noticed the ease with which people dismiss slums off when the make statements like these "I've just bought a flat, actually it's under construction. You know what, I got a steal cos there are slums in front of the plot right now. The builder tells me that the slums will go away".
5. Think about the last time you looked the rickshaw or cab driver in the eye except for a fight over the fare
6. Think about how the so called lowest layer of our society seldom have names they just have titles like Peon, Mali, Courierwala, plumber
7. Ever thought about the ease with which we hand out stale food to beggars- if you couldn't eat it how would they?
8. Think about how all of us condemn flooding during rains when it appears on the news, but how many of us drive past flooded homes and do nothing about them?
There could be many more examples here. Most of us who either write such stuff or read them are part of the exclusive excluder set. High time we started introspection before someone else comes along and begins to exclude us.
Comments
on the article you linked to: this is written by a typical bleeding heart 'human rights' guy...the first para makes clear his plan:
> Everyday in the inside pages of newspapers, we read about one suicide bomber or the other in the killing fields of Iraq or somewhere else. The easiest thing is to dismiss them, label them terrorists and legislate them out of our lives and concerns.
It is easy to fall for these heart wrenching socialistic stories. But doing so only compromises the security and well-being of people like you and me who earn their money by slogging. Yes, people who kill other people and bomb innocents have to be removed from our lives.
Check some other stuff he writes:
> Pan-Islamic ideology is both a critique of new imperialism and an assertion of a reactionary politics based on exclusion.
Right. why don't we just invite a few jehadis over for dinner so we can 'critique' some imaginary imperialism. But of course, the jehadis are not influenced by Islamic exhortations. They are only asserting their 'reaction based on exclusion'. Poor kids.
On the economic side the message for the day is simple - socialism is dead. You can't expect to sit around expecting to be fed by some government. You just have to be competent. If you are not, tough luck. BUT, that's no excuse for you to go around bombing places or killing people. Unfortunately, people like this this author do exactly that.
(i just did a cursory check on this author - as expected, seems to be linked to missionary organizations)