What do we want - A History of Dogmatism or A History of Sustainability (at the backdrop of COVID Outbreak)?

While the world is undergoing through a struggle and fight against a deadly virus COVID, it has to be remembered that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The struggles right now all across the world and in this Anthropocene are far too many - a) Struggle between validation and legitimacy, b) Struggle between winning and understanding, c) Struggle between the periphery of truth and legitimacy of politics, d) Struggle between unmasking of power and the hardship of creating solutions going beyond the rhetoric of proving and disproving everything by a genealogy of hypocrisy, power relations, e) Struggle between class struggle dogmas and enabling a discussion to win over dogmas and create solutions.

Beyond all of this, the humanity has created a struggle for the self existence through a claustrophobia of self destructive, perpetual, multiplicity of truth. Going beyond these possibilities of the struggle of existence, the civilization on the Earth is also facing a struggle between human kind, peace, mutual coexistence with nature, aliens, future machine and humanoid civilization.

Challenges of all the listed struggles are too many. This precisely requires a breaking away from all dogmatic pedagogies from any past, existing scientific disciplines and seek for the new truth. In such truth seeking, the past has to  be remembered. But there also has to be a delicate balance in how much of the past should be remembered and how much should be delved upon and over pondered to create new solutions for a new future. If this is not done, then I wonder whether we will really be able to create a history of sustainability.

It is an imperative at this juncture, therefore to start a truth seeking through validation going beyond too much of the dogmatism of being a critique, an argumentative, a debating and a skeptic being. At the core of all this, what it has done to the humanity and society at large is that - "We have converted ourselves constantly into a race of winning something over the other and that itself to me is being dogmatic". The need of the hour is therefore not to win a debate, an argument, a critique, or be a skeptical and create a new claustrophobia of dogmatism within a world which is already plagued with too many challenges.

The harbinger of peace making process needs to be practiced. It  requires the journey of truth seeking which can then also lead to the self - defeating question of - "What is the truth that we are seeking for?"
These leads to questions of - "What are the truths of the history of human civilization - Is it only a history of oppression, class conflicts, one winning over the other and fighting which has led to this situation or - Is it also a history of mutual coexistence, a fight against dogmatism, peaceful coexistence?" 

So, the prevailing question is which truth is being demanded by the society, institutions and which path do we want to follow?  In the past, too much of critique, debate, dogmatist thinking of class oppression by observing one reality definitely has exposed us to some realities - But the pertinent question is - In that truth seeking have we enabled a culture of winning or of practising peace making?

Isn't it so, that the culture of truth seeking in a way got disrupted, validation ended and then we have knowingly and unknowingly moved towards a culture of legitimizing a dogma, a hypocrisy. Well, it is actually an easy task. This is because, hypocrisy is natural, instinctive and banal at the same time. But a soulful search for truth should also move towards and then beyond such a banality and establish the new norms of validation of truth which are coexisting in a culture of complexity by understanding - "What is the value of such a truth?"

 The world needs it quickly, by going beyond the establishment of any dogma to immediately overcome the struggles mentioned as above. Otherwise, we will only write a history of dogma for the world and mother Earth and not a history of sustainability both for nature, humanity and civilization. The future will answer the course of such a history!

When "Environment" can become a "Helicopter" or "RBI"!

Imagine, there is a patient who is having a fourth degree haemmoroid with constant internal and external bleeding. Moreover, say, due to blood and haemoglobin loss, the HB level drops to 2. As an emergency situation the doctor will pump in pure blood and haemoglobin.

This body will be stabilised for a while. But, this is not enough. The body will finally need the haemmoroids to be removed through a surgery to cure the body. This is less risky if the haemmoroids are non carcinogenic. Moreover the body also has to be resilient to accomodate  post surgery situation. This year's budget measures for the Indian Economy were like the blood and haemoglobin pumping to such a human body. However, surgical measures were still not applied which may be required and implemented soon.

Yes, certain positive steps have been taken in terms of pushing the infrastructure demand. Such demand will however be realised only when the lagged or halted projects are pushed along with a clearance of dead investments complemented and accelerated by fresh investments for specific sectors with strong auditing structures and mechanisms.

However, these investments might not be enough to boost demand creation and paying capacity of every income class. We have to see the response of the economy very closely and keep on implementing the demand side measures.

Moreover, class specific income tax measures to enhance paying capacity will soon be required. The consensus around everywhere is that demand creation and it's sustainance is a key now to realise the 5 trillion dollar growth path. At this juncture, I feel that "environment" and "renewable energy" as a sector can act as a "helicopter economy" gift for Indian Economy. The focus of the article is to analyze how this can actually happen for the Indian Economy in future. 

The current budget indicates an allocation of INR 22000 crore for the renewable energy sector. However an allocation complemented by its efficient utilisation and regular auditing can lead to green job creation. If this money is utilised in setting up of renewable energy power projects along with its efficient distribution, then it will create a demand for jobs for carpenters, fabricators, designers in the entire value chain. The same can happen in renewable energy projects related to biomass, wind and waste sector. The question is - can some of these sectors absorb migrant and informal labours considering the differential in skills of sectors. The answer is not yet clear but can be explored. Can this money also be applied in cleaning processes of waste, water, land through new renewable energy projects by enabling employment generation with a strong, digital and transparent auditing systems? Why not. 

Similarly if solar power pumps are given to farmers, can the same measure create some new employment and also be complemented by agricultural productivity enhancement measures for the same solar power pump users? By doing that the same farmer can raise the awareness for using solar pump and also come out of the agrarian crisis. Gradually, the early users can create a network with new entrant farmers who are in distress and can take them out of such a situation. This can be enabled through a new governance structure that can be implemented by the central, state government along with district, village level institutions.

This might need additional assistance too through incremental credit allocation and it's distribution and utilisation by the farmers. Gradually these measures can be expanded to other farmers too in distress. Similar employment creation and processes can also be initiated in the air pollution sector through the budget allocation of inr 4200 crores. 

A lot will be said in the next few days about what budget didnot do and could have done. Therefore in the limited space of this article I will however highlight that the budget did inject the haemoglobin and has created a scope of a helicopter economy through "environment" as a multiplier sector. However, the future will suggest whether "environment" becomes a rescuer and the lender of the last resort for the Indian Economy. As an eternal optimist, I will believe and hope that such a lender of last resort will go a long way to ensure a green and sustainable growth and development in India in the long run.

Can Climate Change create a new liberal regime?

The latest Australian wildfire is being considered as one of the worst extreme consequences of human induced climate change impacts. However, climate scientists through the Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change titled - "Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation"  have already predicted about the possibilities of such climate extreme related disasters. The recent occurrence of this massive bush fire is being explained scientifically through the persistence of extreme drought conditions due to the climate change. The worst part is that the wildfires are so extreme that they are triggering their own thunderstorm and leading to a massive "Khandava Dahan". The initial parametric conditions, pattern structure of the event are following a nonlinear differential equation structure which is constantly creating an exponential, spiralling and chaotic path. Many natural events can be of this type depending on their initial conditions and the degree, nature of the pattern of accumulation or depletion over time.

In order to bring an analogy of the event to a Hindu mythology, Khandava Dahan was also caused by the humans where many innocent animals died as a sacrifice to the politics of the human on the earth. A strive for power and kingdom also led to the sacrifice of animals. Somethings, however, donot change ever. Today, in an Anthropocene, therefore, owing to human induced impacts of climate change, the earth is bearing the cost. The Special Report of IPCC has already predicted these types of extreme events due to the shift in the tail of the event occurrence distribution curves which indicates the probability of the occurence and recurrence of these extreme events.

All scientists working in the special report have predicted that there will be an urgent need to create more humanitarian, relief based measures to enhance the resilience of the ecosystem which can be impacted from the impacts of climate change. Scientific data based measures, adaptation and coping mechanisms and systems need to be built up immediately to address the risks and exposure to these extreme events in future. And the reality is - "These events are going to increase."

 However, there is still a little window of time before it hits the peaking point if we act with urgency. The sense of urgency in these actions are enmeshed with politics too.

Coincidentally, the wildfires have set in and around Sydney and New South Wales. The current liberal party head of Australia, Mr. Scott Morrison, also comes from Sydney and studied economic geography at the University of New South Wales. Climate disasters and Dystopia always create a background for a magical fiction. Therefore, a leader who heads the liberal party and studies economic geography also has to see the break out of a disastrous, catastrophic event during his regime. Human relief measures are also on full board with the plethora of media visuals potraying the desperate, empathetic, rescuing hugs between scared, bawling kangaroos and kind humans. A Khandava Dahan (induced by human greed and human greed induced climate change) has also created a new love and bonding between the nature and humans. Hence a balance is also created. This is fiction and magical realism at the same time. However, if these disasters have to be dealt with, then the adaptation measures need to be strengthened. It will also mean implementation  of measures which reduces human greed and creates a larger policy push towards conservation measures. These conservation measures have to come out as policy and political decisions.

Some of the core tenets of liberal party in Australia are based on a right of the centre vision with promotion of conservative, liberal conservative, conservative liberal and classical liberal futuristic vision. It also relies on economic liberalism, free markets, individualism and small government.

The recently occurring catastrophe can lead to a dystopic earth too if frequency of such events increase in the future. Will such possibilities enable and create a larger push to change political vision of different leadership across the world starting from Australia which is currently suffering. However, similar such sufferings have already happened in Mozambique and in other parts of Africa and Latin America too very recently. Will nature, the science of climate change and action push us to change different political vision all across the world as an imperative to survive on the Earth? Will there be a convergence between the right of the centre and left of the centre towards centre to ensure survival of species on Earth which as a co-benefit will also lead to a political peace on the land of Earth? These are the questions which are left towards the future of a science of fiction story. Some of these types of political questions enmeshed with dystopia are also dealt in - "Lucy and The Train: Tryst with Sustainability"  and in an upcoming book of the Lucy series. However, these are the questions that the world will deal with more in the future days in whatever form it comes. Till then, the characters and plots are being shaped up organically every moment by nature and all species and humans on the earth in the age of an Anthropocene. 

Why I am just trying to be a Zero and not a Writer or Author or Researcher?

The number zero is very interesting. It is a sense of completion, a feeling of timelessness, and fallibility of being incomplete with mistakes. Every time, Lucy, Shapno, Aman, Hema and others are born zero becomes important. It is also a circle of life and completion at the same time. It is this circular journey but not an economy which tells me that I am just striving to be a zero but not a researcher, writer or author.

This feeling of zero and not a writer or author comes up when I realise everytime that texts are nothing but an amalgamation of several indiscernible voices. A space called literature is nothing but to invent these voices and hence the space is neuter. A similar notion is also associated with zero. Zero is always a neuter full of discernible voices to be heard and then sung in their own harmonies. It is a neuter, as it is a space where every subject and predicate, identities of a text escapes and gets lost. In that zone of neuter, the body which creates the text is also even lost in eternity. The tissues of the body are created and cremated at the same time in that space.

Everytime, this loss of text happens, there is a fall of a writer or author or researcher followed by the rise of a zero. The feeling of this rise of zero in the gender of text which is neuter can be traced back historically. In primitive societies, narrative and text were never undertaken by a person but by a performing speaker. At the end of the middle ages, with the advent of French rationalism, English empiricism, personal faith of reformation, suddenly it was one human being who became more important than the zero or the neuter. As a result of that advent of reformation, author and writer suddenly became important in literary history, biographies of writers, magazine interviews, private journals. Literature and text transformed from a neuter to a world centering around the writer and author. So therefore, explanation of the work started relying on the writer and the author who produced it and delivered confidence about it.

Hence, the empire of author and writer started growing. However, people like Mallarme (in France), Proust consistently tried to blur the lines and relationships between the author, writer and the texts, imageries of the work. Proust reversed this by making his life into a work of novel rather than  a novel of work into life. In doing that, language as a system also needed to be broken to create the neuter zero and imageries. Hence, abrupt violation of expected meanings of texts started happening. Linguistic importance of the texts of author, writer needed to be broken to create this surrealism in the neuter dimension of texts for imageries. Hence, the role of language is to just often create a subject and as the subject ends, the language should end and visual imageries and zero should begin. Hence, to strive to write a modern text is to push one self in a journey to completely isolate the work from the act of writing to a visual imagery deposited in the collective account of the readers. The readers can use the account in their own ways and can also interpret the account as per their own perspectives and needs.

Thus if a zero can finally happen with someone, then every work becomes a past of the present and just like a relationship of antecedence which a father or mother maintains with his or her child. So writing is just a one time act and the writer is just a one time actor. An author or writer is a subject for one time whose act ends with every work and then creates a predicate in the next work to be left in the custody of readers. With every such act, there is a shift in the power from the writer or author to the reader through a set of visual imageries creating a space of many dimensions. If this happens, then the journey of zero and completion, circle of life completes. Otherwise, everytime, a writer is combining all forms of genre, writing, countering and not countering oppositions, criticisms and not sustaining oneself with just one of such writings. So, does the act of becoming a zero means - "A release of humors, sentiments, naiveties, passions, impressions and an enormous sun from where all the energy comes out but the release has no halt or end to it?"

Zero and the neuter is therefore supreme and a book can only imitate that zero in an infinite loop of an energy coming from the sun within. Once, therefore a zero is established, a writer and author collapses like a star, the need to claim and decipher a text becomes useless. Such deciphering exercise actually stops the text and imagery then in the minds of the reader. Let the critic and reader conquer those imageries, texts and the zero and if after everything if required the author can be discovered. It is more important to traverse the space of such imageries, neuter zero rather than penetrating it. If such an act can happen, then only literature can liberate an activity and a secret by refusing any meaning to zero. It is almost like refusing the existence of god, reason, science and law with a continuous existential crisis. The true locus of this entire journey is therefore reading and zero and not the existence of the author or writer.

Well, investigation of this journey reveals some case studies in my mind based on some of the current readings of last four to six months. Unilateral understanding of characters, imageries instead of language happens a lot in Greek tragedies. In these tragedies, a text is linguistically not perfect but is a set of multiple writings, imageries, collection of a multiplicity of dialogues in the minds of the reader. It also happened in the case of - "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr, "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro. However, in past one week, as a reader I got it most from a book called - "Man Eater" by Eka Kurniawan. A supernatural tale of murder, desire and crime poignantly creates a Zero even at the end of the reading. After completion of the book, one can easily say, that modern writing is all about establishment of a Zero and only aims at the birth of the reader with a blurring of the author or writer. 

Marvelling in DC: Celebrating Joker in Diwali

Yes, it is again the same time of annual celebration of light, smoke and pollution. Perpetually, we are celebrating these three facets of an urban Delhi life consistently since last so many years. We have got used to the usual clamour and cacophony from all corners to stop this and come out of this deadlock. 

However this year it got a little different and an irrate, chagrin,  delirious tinge to it for me. While the AQI climbed up from 160 to close to 1000 from the noon to the night of Diwali, my delusion and state of an incoherence increased by almost a similar pattern on the next day. No, it was  not the impact of PM 2.5 on a physiological system. 

But a larger causal effect of this impact came from Todd Philip's Joker. Joachim Phoenix through Arthur Flake established frames which kept on reminding me about a book called - "DC Comics versus Marvel Comics" written by Ron Marz and Peter David between April to May 1996. In the book, batman wins over captain america and in a similar way while I was immersed in the trembling, jarring, coloured, darkish chromes of Joker, it only reminded me of a win of DC over the billion dollar weapons of mass destruction of Marvel.

While the ballet and contemporary body gestures of Joker in the silhouette of changing lights and frames of Modern Times in a luxury theatre of the bourgeois established in the social tensions of Gotham was a straight tight slap on our face, the frames strengthened the impact of cinema on us. 

As an immersive experience of cinema, I could not stop myself from loosing out from being dropped in the vacuum of a rabbit hole. While, the insanity of Arthur through a constant repression of a system on him was rising, the normalcy of conspicuous consumption of Modern Times by consuming Charles Chaplin through their laughter was also going up. 

The rise in the laughter however could not dominate the irate cry of the subalterns in the streets of Gotham as an outcome of the so called civilisational progress. The arrival of insanity through Arthur Flek in the minds of the society was like a definite progression of a meandering path of a basist and a drummer in a rock band. The cinema frames in a truthful, honest way showed this meandering progression of the meandering insanity of modern civilisation through a constant retrospective feeling and aura of 1960s, 70s and 80s. Role of media, politics, class consumption and the innate darkness of it was reflected and also stabbed on us intentionally by Joker. 

Hence, the starking vividity of the rise of such an insanity, incongruous mind state is also celebrated through the rise of Joker on the bonnet of the car bounded by a proletariat, subaltern crowd struggling to create a change to an existing history and story written against them. So, radical maddening eccentricity itself becomes a normalcy to them in such a moment and Joker rises up with a smile and turns back to the crowd in the visual frame. But Joker actually smiled back at the fact that while we are again annually celebrating smoke, light and pollution there are villages where they are not there at the same time due to absence of everything which creates them.

 The smile of Joker was meant to remind us that while we grow, develop, win nobel prizes, climate change continues, species deplete, inequality rises, abuses of all forms continue along with ethical bankrupcies in  varied forms under the garb of normalcy. Therefore, while we strive for peace by celebrating Gandhiji's 150th birthday, America celebrates , announces the abolishment of ISIS in Syria.  

Yes, Joker through delusion, crime, thriller, darkness showed us to smile at each of these facts of life on the planet. And, Marvel didnot Marvel, this battle through a cinema called Joker was again won by DC just like in April - May 1996.

The Puzzles of Energy Trilemma

Views are Personal - Dr. Anandajit Goswami

The Energy Trilemma is a word which includes a dilemma in it. Essentially, the dilemma is to ensure human progress and meet civilizational needs by balancing the needs of energy equity and environmental sustainability.

If we look onto the three planks of the energy trilemma viz. energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability, the puzzle will become clearer. Any country, for the betterment of quality of life will need energy which is clean and secure for a long time in the future.

Hence, for progress, development of human society, energy security is a must. This energy security definitely also imbibes the quality of energy which is being supplied. To give an analogy, India can only grow and develop when all the 10 crore rural households  are provided with a clean energy for cooking like LPG in a sustained way for a long term. However, energy security is not enough.

The sufficiency condition of the energy trilemma comes from the remaining two planks of - energy equity and sustainability. The moment these two planks are introduced into the  energy trilemma definitional frame, the picture becomes a little murky. 

By imposing these two essential planks into the energy trilemma, it is ensured that questions of energy justice and social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability are plugged in within the energy discourse. Energy justice, equity and the social, economic and environmental domains of sustainability are quite complicatedly inter related.

Hence,  for defining human progress, it is essential that any country grows, meets her energy needs by balancing the pressing questions of energy equity and justice and addresses the social, economic and environmental domains of sustainability. Justice is an ideal and abstract term and takes a long time to achieve. 

Moreover, justice and all domains of sustainability are very much perspective dependent. It is being guided by the existing and futuristic policies of different agents in a society and how it shapes up in future.  In an anthropocentric world of today which started with a Descartian thinking, it is essential that the planks of energy trilemma be solved. Some of the principles of solving this can be borrowed from various ecological movements, environmental justice related movements across the world complemented by local solutions.

A country like India, which stands  very low at 109 in World Energy Council’s Energy Trilemma Index has a long way to go to solve the puzzles of Energy Trilemma . It will  go a long way and take some time and tangible actions beyond rhetoric in ensuring that India also stands together with developed countries like Switzerland and much above countries like Gabon, Namibia, South Africa, Thailand, China, Brazil which are all doing much better than India in the context of World Energy Council’s Energy Trilemma Index as of now. A country which created the birth of decentralized Gram Swaraj movement by the Father of the Nation  only has a bright future ahead to solve this puzzle and move upward in this index.

'Sustainability with music: What does Bach’s Musical Offering tell us about Sustainability?'

Disclaimer: Views are personal

One of my favourite historical references to understand sustainability is linked to the story of Bach’s Musical Offering. Bach had once made an impromptu visit to King Frederick, the Great of Prussia. On his visit he was requested to improvise on a theme presented by the King to him. Bach had no clue about the theme. Bach composed a musical offering and made fifteen two part inventions. These two part inventions were later written by Lewis Carroll in 1895. While explaining these inventions Carroll referred to Achilles and Tortoise from Zeno. Here in turn, I am borrowing it from Carroll and Bach. What did these inventions say about sustainability?

The inventions essentially talked about reasoning and then reasoning (about reasoning) and a reasoning about (reasoning about reasoning). The loop of musical reasoning continued this way in Bach’s musical offering to King Frederick.  Lewis Carroll proved that if we use an infinite regress of reasoning then reasoning actually becomes impossible. Today, often the notions of sustainability and the irresponsible actions taken by various sections of the society towards denial of climate, ecologically, culturally, sociologically and politically responsible actions are defended by means of an infinite regress of reasoning which was explained by Bach and later on by Lewis Carroll. A pattern of this infinite regress of reasoning by different groups of countries exists clearly in climate negotiations and sustainability related discourses.

Prof. Albert Einstein said that we cannot have the same way of thinking, reasoning to solve the problems which created them. Similarly, when we are at the brink of an anthropocene driven by human materialism, consumerism and capitalism interfering in the natural processes destroying the mother earth, the importance of breaking the inertia of infinite regress of reasoning has to stop. Sustainability can then only be attained on this planet at the backdrop of an anthropocentric culture of complexity.