Skip to main content

Alone in the Crowd


As English has become the language of the world, capitalism has become the world’s religion.  Wealth is the only real god.  Unlike the jealous Yahweh of the Bible whose very first commandment was “I am the Lord your God; you shall not have any other god besides me,” the god of capitalism says, “I am the only God who can buy up all other gods.”

Apart from a god (or many gods depending on their tolerance level), a religion requires certain norms and values by which people organise their lives.  Capitalism has its own system of ethics and morality.  Egotism and profiteering are the elementary lessons in the catechism of capitalism. 

Every child is taught that it is special.  It is brought up like a prince or princess.  Pampered by parents at home, the educational system at school, and the businesses and their advertisers in the society, the child grows up seeing itself as the centre of the universe.  The child grows up to be a monarch, the monarch of a little kingdom which is his private world, a small little world.  

Ensconced on his/her virtual throne, the monarch establishes virtual relationships through a smartphone with other monarchs.  It is the most sacred duty of every monarch to make conquests.  The only purpose of existence, reads the capitalist catechism, is to make profits.  At any cost.  You can sell anyone for that purpose.  Including parents.  Use other monarchs to make the conquests.  How you use them is your own affair – laissez-faire.  All is fair that brings in the fare.

Relationships are either diplomatic strategies or casual affairs.  The former rakes in the moolah while the latter panders to the body.  The body is divine, dictates one of the commandments in the capitalist catechism.  Pamper it with savoury foods, branded dresses, and all the luxuries possible including the one night stands or ten night affairs.

Once in a while visit some Guru’s convention at the makeshift pavilion built on the bank of a holy river and learn how to supersede the sanctity of the nature with a wealth of verbosity (and possibly some plastic smiles).  Make a video clip of one of the many jokes cracked by the Guru and send it instantly to all the friends on half a dozen social networks.

Networks matter a lot, says the catechism.  Your opportunities lie therein.  Watch out for the next prey.  Watch out for your own safety at the same time.  We are the prey and we are the predators.  While we are at the game, let us take a break and play by texting jokes and exchanging new age gospels.  We need the game in order to ward off loneliness.


PS. Written for Indispire Edition 149: #AloneInWorldOfTechnology



Indian Bloggers


Comments

  1. Ha ha.. we need the game in order to ward off loneliness. The picture is not all that scary. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True. Actually the picture can be fun depending on which side of the fence we are.

      Delete
  2. But isnt it our responsibility to guide the younger generation towards embracing a Kinder, Gentler philosophy of success ?? Because, across the world there is a realization that pandering to excess profit will never result in a person climbing to the summit of Maslow's need hierarchy theory...
    Yes capitalism is not great but there are no/less workable alternatives around us. Need of the hour is to promote the benign face of capitalism, a more inclusive one !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't satire a corrective more effective than moral preaching?

      Can capitalism be benign rooted in egotism as it is?

      Delete
    2. Capitalism based on greed has hit the nadir....the chasm, they are discovering is not bottomless.....the consequences are visible across many frontiers....environment (pollution), philosophy(greed), entertainment (crass), belief(aggrandizement) backed by crass consumerism and mechanisation (drones, robots)most of all....the glaring inequality in terms of wealth (read thomas piketty)..From here if they try to press the above model it would be chaos....because if you look at the above it doesnt cater to the intrinsic needs of the exploiter as well as the exploited...as per maslwos need hierarchy theory...
      Is there an alternative model around ? Yes but they cannot work on a grand scale.....then what to do ?? you need to reimagine capitalism....by factoring in the environment (low carbon growth trajectory based on renewables and phasing out emission), belief (to make the capitalists think about the other half through the Universal Basic Income), philosophy (more inclusive and sustainable), entertainment (scripture replaced by culture through better news,arts,movies,literature and architecture)...This needs a thorough overhauling of institutions as we know today.....There is every possibility of this happening across the world...but it would be gradual across the world.....but has already started in the west...
      You are missing the woods for the trees....
      Satire can backfire spectacularly creating more chaos...
      Satire can incites hatred....CHARLIE HEBDO is the greatest example..
      conversations based on socratic method would be more inclusive and thought provoking....
      As elders it is our responsibility to steer children away from greed by creating such conversations.....by serving as an example by our behaviour as well as by gradually increasing our sphere of influence...

      Delete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Deep and insightful, loved the deconstruction of capitalism, Sir.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Second Crucifixion

  ‘The Second Crucifixion’ is the title of the last chapter of Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’s magnum opus Freedom at Midnight . The sub-heading is: ‘New Delhi, 30 January 1948’. Seventy-three years ago, on that day, a great soul was shot dead by a man who was driven by the darkness of hatred. Gandhi has just completed his usual prayer session. He had recited a prayer from the Gita:                         For certain is death for the born                         and certain is birth for the dead;                         Therefore over the inevitable                         Thou shalt not grieve . At that time Narayan Apte and Vishnu Karkare were moving to Retiring Room Number 6 at the Old Delhi railway station. They walked like thieves not wishing to be noticed by anyone. The early morning’s winter fog of Delhi gave them the required wrap. They found Nathuram Godse already awake in the retiring room. The three of them sat together and finalised the plot against Gand

The Final Farewell

Book Review “ Death ends life, not a relationship ,” as Mitch Albom put it. That is why, we have so many rituals associated with death. Minakshi Dewan’s book, The Final Farewell [HarperCollins, 2023], is a well-researched book about those rituals. The book starts with an elaborate description of the Sikh rituals associated with death and cremation, before moving on to Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and finally Hinduism. After that, it’s all about the various traditions and related details of Hindu final rites. A few chapters are dedicated to the problems of widows in India, gender discrimination in the last rites, and the problem of unclaimed dead bodies. There is a chapter titled ‘Grieving Widows in Hindi Cinema’ too. Death and its rituals form an unusual theme for a book. Frankly, I don’t find the topic stimulating in any way. Obviously, I didn’t buy this book. It came to me as quite many other books do – for reasons of their own. I read the book finally, having shelv

Vultures and Religion

When vultures become extinct, why should a religion face a threat? “When the vultures died off, they stopped eating the bodies of Zoroastrians…” I was amused as I went on reading the book The Final Farewell by Minakshi Dewan. The book is about how the dead are dealt with by people of different religious persuasions. Dead people are quite useless, unless you love euphemism. Or, as they say, dead people tell no tales. In the end, we are all just stories made by people like the religious woman who wrote the epitaph for her atheist husband: “Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and no place to go.” Zoroastrianism is a religion which converts death into a sordid tale by throwing the corpses of its believers to vultures. Death makes one impure, according to that religion. Well, I always thought, and still do, that life makes one impure. I have the support of Lord Buddha on that. Life is dukkha , said the Enlightened. That is, suffering, dissatisfaction and unease. Death is liberation

Cats and Love

No less a psychologist than Freud said that the “time spent with cats is never wasted.” I find time to spend with cats precisely for that reason. They are not easy to love, particularly if they are the country variety which are not quite tameable, and mine are those. What makes my love affair with my cats special is precisely their unwillingness to befriend me. They’d rather be in their own company. “In ancient time, cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this,” Terry Pratchett says. My cats haven’t, I’m sure. Pratchett knew what he was speaking about because he loved cats which appear frequently in his works. Pratchett’s cats love independence, very unlike dogs. Dogs come when you call them; cats take a message and get back to you as and when they please. I don’t have dogs. But my brother’s dogs visit us – Maggie and me – every evening. We give them something to eat and they love that. They spend time with us after eating. My cats just go away without even a look af