The argumentative man and the doctor
I was reading through one doctor’s advisory to people who are 'habituated to arguing'. His was quite a medical prescriptive for people who, he thinks, are suffering from some kind of psychiatric troubles which are manifested in the form of an argumentative conduct. The meaningfulness advisory is something which I would like to talk .
The doctor begins by stating “ Arguing is almost like a disease”.
The start of the article itself left me much repulsed to it. Long ago, I have written my article on what does the arguing conduct bring to human relations and their society as a whole. Arguing is the hot process of evolution of right decisions. ‘Right’ is , as we all know, a very subjective matter to decide, but then an unavoidable one for human relations to continue and democracy to prevail (Democracy, over here, means respecting everyone's view point when living in a multicultral society.). There are methods known by almost all of us on how the ‘Right’ is arrived at in many of the issue we come across. For example, a simple issue as to why a movie “A” is a hit and “B” is not, has it methods commonly understood as the box office collections of each movie. Important, at this point, is to bear in mind that although this methods of comparisons of box-office collections, is nowhere dictated to be the supreme means of determining the right answer to the question of which movie is a hit, but them that is how it the answer is commonly agreed upon. The aberrations to the choice of method happen when he compare the total collection of some sensible movie 'that of classes', with a popular cinema that of masses.
Similarly, the choice of critics award for a movie is chosen by a panel consisting of people renowned in the field of film making.
Eventually, the bigger conclusion that any person with a standard degree of common sense should infer is that the method of resolution of a conflicting situation is what should be sought in a conflict.
In the society which the present generation belongs to, Democracy has become the new choice for a peaceful co-existence. This is what is the most preferred style in public governance- by the governments on its citizens , and also the most preferred style of leadership in corporates, as taught to business management students and people occupying the managerial ranks.
Issue turns out, in my observation, is that our society, particularly the Indian society, is basically a feudal society. The whole course of evolution of democracy is belonging to the western sphere of earth where the revolutions of nationalism resulted into formation of the basic tenets which yielded democracy as the most chosen governance style. The American revolution resulted in the ‘Bill of Rights of a man and a citizen’, the British internal wars with the monarch resulted into the six basic fundamental freedoms , and the French revolution resulted into the motto of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
So, that is what was demanded out from the governments by its citizens. Understandably, people in that region slowly became habitual to enjoying their fundamental freedom and even grew mature on how to resolve conflicts between themselves in the absence of the monarchial decree on various issue. The system of justice followed the course of these freedom giving it a shape which evolved from their new methods of conflict management. The style of leadership of Democracy grew, not just in public governance , but also in the corporate.
The problem of the east side of planet earth begins with the dual views it generally maintains on the issue of democracy. Democracy was witnessed in the west abut it was liked even by those in the east. The easterners also wanted this new style in their places—the democracy. The problem is, culturally, they are habituated to resolving the conflict by means of a royal decree. So, they easterners ended up adopting a very confused kind of system which they called it by different name.-- the Socialism.
Our own country , India, is itself one shinning example of what this new and funny mixture of governance style is—the Socialist Democracy—a style in which the people will only be choosing their leaders and then the leaders will decree upon the citizens which all ‘rights’ to be granted to the citizen, outside which everything is under the control of the government. Our leaders in the past, as a matter of fact, chose the mixed styles on the reasoning of taking the best of all possible worlds.
Going by the Microsoft™ Encarta Kids ™ lessons on democracy and how it is introduced to small children who read it, the article says that when ‘your’(referring to the small children who are reading the Encarta) play group chooses the methods of sitting together and voting to decide what should be the rules of the game, it is the presidential form of democracy. When your group decides to elect some of your friends those who would decide what is ‘right’, it is the parliamentary form of democracy. Communism, it defines, as a system whereby the government becomes the owner of all properties, and it is attempting to keep no rich and no poor citizen. It further mentions that Communism seems to be losing its appeal.
Comparably, it is clear that a socialist democracy- an offshoot of communist style, is more about control than about freedom. Plainly, if an individual’s choice doesn’t conform to the decision of his socialist group, he is expected to keep shut. In full democracies, technically termed the Liberal Democracy, the individual has a right to prosecute the leading group as well, and it even happens at times that he wins it over the leading group. Apparently, some arguments happen in this style of Liberal Democracy, which eventually result into some different method- a universal standard- to deciding the right.
Looking closely, I observe that almost all the Liberal Democratic nations lie on the western sphere of earth, while all such- the mixed styles of governance- lie on the eastern side. Moreover, all these liberal democracies are the Common Law countries. In the other –mixture styles—the statutes hold supreme. The arguments, in my opinion, in a liberal democracy therefore shift to the court cases and the verdicts of the court settle among the people in the form of Common Law—a law which all common people should be aware of. Parliament or President, all are expected to conform to the common law, unless some special law is made.
In the eastern style, the law remains what the leading style finally decides upon.- the special laws. so much that the common man may not even be aware of them.
That elaborates more convincingly how the style of leadership of the Easterners, example of which contains the Indians, the Chinese, and the Japanese -- differs from that of the westerners who are from Liberal Democratic societies.
This difference should further give clue to why do arguments happen and what should be the better method of resolving the conflict.
The prescription of the doctor, which I was reading, itself raised some arguments inside my mind- Like, when two or more people are arguing—logically because one person should not argue with his own self—how do we decide who is arguing with whom , so that we may prescribe the doctor’s advisory to that person.!!?
Would it be that we prescribe the advisory to both the parties who are involved in the arguments; or the one whom we arbitrarily pick up for our treatment; or the one who is senior to the other.
The court law based system, in effect, decide upon the ethics of the matter in conflict. In other words, Arguments are the Battleground of Mahabaharat in the modern, non-violence, civilized world, where the Dharma, the ethics, churn out. The prescription of doctor may be advised to the party ones we have some Ethics method to decide who to nominate for the treatment of the doctor.
But the problem is , even for that selection, we require to have a ‘methods to decide’--- isn’t this which we call the Ethics.
The irony of a conflicts between two person is that it happens not just when a person or persons are psychiatrically unhealthy, or when somebody has set one person against the other (the proverbial ‘divide and rule’ trick), but also when the goals of two people about an issue, collide.
Such collisions are not resolvable by making a neutrality approach— when both of them are hushed away-, or by taking sides with the one who has closer allegiance to another-, there are the same wars of Ethics which call upon an Objective Approach, path of Nirmoh(disenchanted analysis), to analyze the problem and find the good ethics,- or finding the solutions.
Solution-finding is the best means of resolution of such conflicts; the problem that comes up further is the method of making objective analysis. Immense knowledge is required by the parties involved, or the third party which is tasked with conflict resolution. Expertise and knowledge become essential, evidencing becomes more crucial, public accreditions begins to matter, -- these are what are required for conflict resolutions by way of an agreeable solutions. It is for properly achieving these methods that we are often taught to have an open-minded approach, to stay objective, and to listen to both, or all, the parties involved. The purpose , eventually, is to reach to the ethics of the matter.
It is a different knowledge that sometime Ethical path is not the middle path which is acceptable to both or all parties involved. An Ethical solution may lie closer to any one of the parties, or completely away from all the parties in the conflict. Ethical solutions sometime may not necessarily be the amicable solutions.
The doctor’s prescription is meant for those cases which can be publically agreed to be belonging to a category of psychiatric disorders. It will be worth mentioning that, infact, most of the psychiatric disorders have no definitive parameter in themselves to decide whether a person has the disorder or not. They are merely decided by a public opinion on them, which obviously, can be subject to much debates and arguments, like any other issue of conflict between two persons. To find a peaceful resolution to the problem , the American Psychologist Association (the APA), itself resorts to the Diagnostic and Statistical Method (DSM) whereby to decide that a given case belongs to the illness category or not.
Did our doctor miss out this point??? There are debates and arguments behind that too, which he is prescribing.!
The issue of arguments, in my thinking, is a case of management issue—and the more such arguments are reported, the more is the possibility of poor style of management being exercised, unless , ofcourse, there is some psychiatric trouble somewhere.
It is another observation story to narrate how the cultural disposition, too, is capable of producing a person which by standards of another culture may be called psychiatrically unwell. It becomes a cultural war then.
For once, this nation owes it to the Russians, owes it to the Gandhi's
For once, this nation owes it to the Russians, owes it to the Gandhi's.
I am not sure, but even as I try to unsolve the issue of how the Jan Lokapal Bill can become a threat to national security , who may be having the maximum of black money stashed away abroad, and where did the Gandhi family get all their money from, I chanced upon certain bigger facts of our history, about the days of the Cold War , about the international relations which existed in those days between India and the USSR, between Pakistan and America, and ofcourse, the India-West&East Pakistan.
It was only recently I stumbled upon another hard fact of diplomacy world-- Indians had not resisted the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the UN, back in 1979. From today’s relations it appears really appaling as to why us, who had once been subjugated by the British and many other people, did not oppose suppression of some other country by another. It is mysterious in some ways until we explore the history and the diplomacy game behind such abberations.
Back in 1962, during the Chinese incursion of Tibet, India was not so much self-dependant to be able to contest with China. Some recently released confidential letter reveal of how Nehru had desparetly attempted to seek help from the Americans who refused the help to us, perhaps because they are already engaged with the Pakistanis. Nehru had asked for fighter planes, asked for weaponry, but in vain.
It was from this experience perhaps that even after being so called Non-Aligned, we maintained quite a heavy inclination towards the Russians because it was them who came to our help later. During the Pakistani invasion in 1973 from both the frontiers, East and West, Indians could manage to have the East Pakistan liberated, maybe because of an indirect support of the Russians. US President, Richard Nixon, had already ordered their aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, to enter the Bay of Bengal to help Pakistan, but it was never used by the Americans due to fear of retaliation from the Russians. India won the war and liberated a new nation, Bangladesh.
Another news of around (y.) 2007 told that the KGB chief has admitted to having paid some USD 200,000 every year to the family of Gandhis for getting India to help protect Russian interest far and at the UN.
These broken tales of the intel may perhaps reveal how the Gandhis became so rich, today with their black money stashed abroad and why political authorities are citing national security as the reason for not bringing the Prime Minister within the ambit of Jan Lokpal.
History,I believe, is read but not with the purpose of doing the judgment and pronouncing who was right and who was wrong. The ‘was’ contains certain sensibilities of its times which can perhaps never be properly understood the present day reviewer. History lessons are meant to give lessons of what happened, and what needs to be done to prevent its recurrance.
The 9/11 event brought a massive change in the global order. Diplomacy table turned over completely, and the old sensibilities have had to be forgotten to make the new ones. Anna Hazare and the Jan Lokpal are the post 9/11 events.
Will it be ethical and intelligent of us to attempt to punish or undo what the leaders of the Cold Wars did which was required of them to do in the interest of this country?
I surely don’t aim to dilute the agenda of Jan Lokpal(JLP), and still continue to demand that all governement offices be brought under the JLP, including the PM, but at the same time I don’t want to stand unethical and cruel and inhuman to do something which is self-humiliating. To punish the very mongoose who killed the snake which saved the child.
The JLP should contain provisions to address the corruptions of such nature, but it should not attempt to undo which was achieved by means of corruption in the interest of some larger group. I do not mean that such acts not be investigated and not be prosecuted, but the penalities must encompass waivers for what all was achieved by way of corruption. Corruption was (and is) our way of life, good or bad, truth or lie, whatever. And the new law must not attempt to judge the history by its own lenses.
At the same time, the JLP should also have safeguard to ensure that should the situation demand, then again the leading authorities be given freehand , without fear of trial away in future, to do what is best for the country.
We know what that implies.
Until the time I assembled these jigsaw pieces of history and diplomacy, I would think that everytime a political leader opposed JLP on the grounds of national security, perhaps what the ‘bloody politician’ was declaring was that the country had already been sold out and it was too late of us to demand an awakening, by means of the JLP bill.
But as the jigwas unsolved before me, if it really be as how I am solving the puzzle, I now have a heart change. Maybe it is true that they saved us by means of corrupt means somewhere sometime.
‘Us’ contains our full nation, and ‘they’ are the Gandhi family.
I am not sure, but even as I try to unsolve the issue of how the Jan Lokapal Bill can become a threat to national security , who may be having the maximum of black money stashed away abroad, and where did the Gandhi family get all their money from, I chanced upon certain bigger facts of our history, about the days of the Cold War , about the international relations which existed in those days between India and the USSR, between Pakistan and America, and ofcourse, the India-West&East Pakistan.
It was only recently I stumbled upon another hard fact of diplomacy world-- Indians had not resisted the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the UN, back in 1979. From today’s relations it appears really appaling as to why us, who had once been subjugated by the British and many other people, did not oppose suppression of some other country by another. It is mysterious in some ways until we explore the history and the diplomacy game behind such abberations.
Back in 1962, during the Chinese incursion of Tibet, India was not so much self-dependant to be able to contest with China. Some recently released confidential letter reveal of how Nehru had desparetly attempted to seek help from the Americans who refused the help to us, perhaps because they are already engaged with the Pakistanis. Nehru had asked for fighter planes, asked for weaponry, but in vain.
It was from this experience perhaps that even after being so called Non-Aligned, we maintained quite a heavy inclination towards the Russians because it was them who came to our help later. During the Pakistani invasion in 1973 from both the frontiers, East and West, Indians could manage to have the East Pakistan liberated, maybe because of an indirect support of the Russians. US President, Richard Nixon, had already ordered their aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, to enter the Bay of Bengal to help Pakistan, but it was never used by the Americans due to fear of retaliation from the Russians. India won the war and liberated a new nation, Bangladesh.
Another news of around (y.) 2007 told that the KGB chief has admitted to having paid some USD 200,000 every year to the family of Gandhis for getting India to help protect Russian interest far and at the UN.
These broken tales of the intel may perhaps reveal how the Gandhis became so rich, today with their black money stashed abroad and why political authorities are citing national security as the reason for not bringing the Prime Minister within the ambit of Jan Lokpal.
History,I believe, is read but not with the purpose of doing the judgment and pronouncing who was right and who was wrong. The ‘was’ contains certain sensibilities of its times which can perhaps never be properly understood the present day reviewer. History lessons are meant to give lessons of what happened, and what needs to be done to prevent its recurrance.
The 9/11 event brought a massive change in the global order. Diplomacy table turned over completely, and the old sensibilities have had to be forgotten to make the new ones. Anna Hazare and the Jan Lokpal are the post 9/11 events.
Will it be ethical and intelligent of us to attempt to punish or undo what the leaders of the Cold Wars did which was required of them to do in the interest of this country?
I surely don’t aim to dilute the agenda of Jan Lokpal(JLP), and still continue to demand that all governement offices be brought under the JLP, including the PM, but at the same time I don’t want to stand unethical and cruel and inhuman to do something which is self-humiliating. To punish the very mongoose who killed the snake which saved the child.
The JLP should contain provisions to address the corruptions of such nature, but it should not attempt to undo which was achieved by means of corruption in the interest of some larger group. I do not mean that such acts not be investigated and not be prosecuted, but the penalities must encompass waivers for what all was achieved by way of corruption. Corruption was (and is) our way of life, good or bad, truth or lie, whatever. And the new law must not attempt to judge the history by its own lenses.
At the same time, the JLP should also have safeguard to ensure that should the situation demand, then again the leading authorities be given freehand , without fear of trial away in future, to do what is best for the country.
We know what that implies.
Until the time I assembled these jigsaw pieces of history and diplomacy, I would think that everytime a political leader opposed JLP on the grounds of national security, perhaps what the ‘bloody politician’ was declaring was that the country had already been sold out and it was too late of us to demand an awakening, by means of the JLP bill.
But as the jigwas unsolved before me, if it really be as how I am solving the puzzle, I now have a heart change. Maybe it is true that they saved us by means of corrupt means somewhere sometime.
‘Us’ contains our full nation, and ‘they’ are the Gandhi family.
news.outlookindia.com | Jan Lokpal Bill Criticised at Parliamentary Panel Meet
news.outlookindia.com Jan Lokpal Bill Criticised at Parliamentary Panel Meet
OUTLOOK report is only mentioning what each of them desired to have, it did not mention their causes for the like an dislike.
This is one incomplete reporting by the OUTLOOK.
This report can be a good example of what bad reprt on important matters is like.
It may be possible that the meeting before the Paliamentary Standing Committee was indoors and therefore not accessible to media persons, but what it effects is that most of the sentences go such as " He favoured..", "He contended that it will be dangerous for the country..(without mentioning the reasoning)", etc.
No responses can be made from such report.
OUTLOOK report is only mentioning what each of them desired to have, it did not mention their causes for the like an dislike.
This is one incomplete reporting by the OUTLOOK.
This report can be a good example of what bad reprt on important matters is like.
It may be possible that the meeting before the Paliamentary Standing Committee was indoors and therefore not accessible to media persons, but what it effects is that most of the sentences go such as " He favoured..", "He contended that it will be dangerous for the country..(without mentioning the reasoning)", etc.
No responses can be made from such report.
Our uncertainity avoidance cultural Attitude ..
Reference the post of Nice Guy
http://niceguy251.blogspot.com/2011/09/do-we-know-what-next-moment-holds.html
Sir, u blogs are truely very enlightening, and not just for what u write but also for reading the responses u get which help me build an insight on how our Indian masses feel.
I am the 31st responder to this blog. And before I make the response, may i tell that I am also a Safety Officer on merchant ships and I am often given a training to attend to this kind of accidents too.
U know what, the training course, often designed by the foreigners says that "Indian culture has less uncertainity-avoidance disposition." U should refer to the Geerte Hofstede study on cultural dimensions, which are easily available on internet, to learn more on this.
All the thrity responses I read have expressed sorry on the accident, and all including yourself have expressed a complete incapacitation on human beings to avoid such events.
Abroad, there are often times books and material written on such aspects of life too, the uncertainties , which sometime may also exist for simple reasons such as - the performer of a task was noice and inexperienced although the uncertainity has been previously experienced by other human beings.
Our "Code of Safe Practises for Merchant Seamen" is one such publication, which is printed under the seal of United Kingdom Her Majesty's Stationery office (UK-HMSO).
This richshwaw toppling incident is also a new but only for the two women travellers and the young child, but surely not for the entire mankind. We have many times heard of them.
Is it not time that we built a kind of data bank on such kinds of uncertainities and make it a part of school curiculum for knowledge to be transfered to young children.?? It is a training on the survival skills of human, isn't?
http://niceguy251.blogspot.com/2011/09/do-we-know-what-next-moment-holds.html
Sir, u blogs are truely very enlightening, and not just for what u write but also for reading the responses u get which help me build an insight on how our Indian masses feel.
I am the 31st responder to this blog. And before I make the response, may i tell that I am also a Safety Officer on merchant ships and I am often given a training to attend to this kind of accidents too.
U know what, the training course, often designed by the foreigners says that "Indian culture has less uncertainity-avoidance disposition." U should refer to the Geerte Hofstede study on cultural dimensions, which are easily available on internet, to learn more on this.
All the thrity responses I read have expressed sorry on the accident, and all including yourself have expressed a complete incapacitation on human beings to avoid such events.
Abroad, there are often times books and material written on such aspects of life too, the uncertainties , which sometime may also exist for simple reasons such as - the performer of a task was noice and inexperienced although the uncertainity has been previously experienced by other human beings.
Our "Code of Safe Practises for Merchant Seamen" is one such publication, which is printed under the seal of United Kingdom Her Majesty's Stationery office (UK-HMSO).
This richshwaw toppling incident is also a new but only for the two women travellers and the young child, but surely not for the entire mankind. We have many times heard of them.
Is it not time that we built a kind of data bank on such kinds of uncertainities and make it a part of school curiculum for knowledge to be transfered to young children.?? It is a training on the survival skills of human, isn't?
On genesis of corruption.
Reference gaurav's blog:
http://gkbansal.blogspot.com/2011/09/another-moral-victory-for-my-stand-on.html#links
'Genesis of corruption of private sector '..this is ltlle far-away statement. I think that the core lies in th ideologies our leaders picked up way back in the past. Communist ideology is the genesis cause i think. Most places on earth, and even going by a quick glimps of the Transparency International's report on nation's ranking on Corruption, the communist nations will be on top of the list. This is perhaps because this ideology wanted people to surrender their rights to the government's planning. Social needs versus Individual need-- the war begins. Socially everybody is expected to appear against social evils, and accept and respect Governemnt plannigs and decrees, Individually everybody chases his own dream for which money is required. Therefore , one massive inner Society takes birth in which lot of people are welcome , thse who are willing to pay and those who are ready to receive. That is the birth place of corruption.
Governement makes the rules, the incentives are higher if someone successfully breaks it ensuring that many other abide by the rule. GIvernemnt people help and collude some single party to break it , they take their share. Corruption happens. Others in Govt and Private see the success of this law breaker. More Avalanche starts.. The society starts eroding.
In all this i think the beginning point is the communist ideology, which itself found roots and nutrition in the extreme poverty of the nation. Most of the communist nations have same story.
We need to allow free-will and freedom to come around. Freedom mean less number of laws, free-will means laws obtained by common understanding of the trade practises. That is what the English Coomon law is, which is formed by a court verdict of the conflict.
In another view, Common Law is a kind of Ethical resolution of a dispute, something like a battle of Mahabharat in the court.
Let not parlimentarians and state legislartures make laws, the statutes, on their whimiscal terms.
The number of times, the court and legislature dispue has risen in india may perhaps indicate where our fundamental understanding of the Ethics, Bhagwad Geeta , and Matters of Philosophy stands. The legislatures are as mcuh departed from Dharma, the ethics, as mcuh as the times they have been overruled by the courts.
Today court is looking personally into the investigaions of 2G, the job reservation policies, censorship of movies like "arakhshan'. These all silently show where is the overall wisdom and ethics of Indian Legislatures--both Parliaments and State Assemblies.
making sensible laws has become distant event, and then corruption will become more pervasive with more of rampant and illogical laws. UP is seeing this trend.
The free-will and freedom socities, in turn, develop there own kind of legislation processes and economics. It is then that one can understand why the governments of most of the developed nations is democratic and the economic system often "alleged" to be "Capitalist", although practioners themselves called it lessze-faire--inclined type.
Let us also contemplate about the core characterstics of "Freedom and Free-will" societies, which may bring a more permanent solution of corruption.
http://gkbansal.blogspot.com/2011/09/another-moral-victory-for-my-stand-on.html#links
'Genesis of corruption of private sector '..this is ltlle far-away statement. I think that the core lies in th ideologies our leaders picked up way back in the past. Communist ideology is the genesis cause i think. Most places on earth, and even going by a quick glimps of the Transparency International's report on nation's ranking on Corruption, the communist nations will be on top of the list. This is perhaps because this ideology wanted people to surrender their rights to the government's planning. Social needs versus Individual need-- the war begins. Socially everybody is expected to appear against social evils, and accept and respect Governemnt plannigs and decrees, Individually everybody chases his own dream for which money is required. Therefore , one massive inner Society takes birth in which lot of people are welcome , thse who are willing to pay and those who are ready to receive. That is the birth place of corruption.
Governement makes the rules, the incentives are higher if someone successfully breaks it ensuring that many other abide by the rule. GIvernemnt people help and collude some single party to break it , they take their share. Corruption happens. Others in Govt and Private see the success of this law breaker. More Avalanche starts.. The society starts eroding.
In all this i think the beginning point is the communist ideology, which itself found roots and nutrition in the extreme poverty of the nation. Most of the communist nations have same story.
We need to allow free-will and freedom to come around. Freedom mean less number of laws, free-will means laws obtained by common understanding of the trade practises. That is what the English Coomon law is, which is formed by a court verdict of the conflict.
In another view, Common Law is a kind of Ethical resolution of a dispute, something like a battle of Mahabharat in the court.
Let not parlimentarians and state legislartures make laws, the statutes, on their whimiscal terms.
The number of times, the court and legislature dispue has risen in india may perhaps indicate where our fundamental understanding of the Ethics, Bhagwad Geeta , and Matters of Philosophy stands. The legislatures are as mcuh departed from Dharma, the ethics, as mcuh as the times they have been overruled by the courts.
Today court is looking personally into the investigaions of 2G, the job reservation policies, censorship of movies like "arakhshan'. These all silently show where is the overall wisdom and ethics of Indian Legislatures--both Parliaments and State Assemblies.
making sensible laws has become distant event, and then corruption will become more pervasive with more of rampant and illogical laws. UP is seeing this trend.
The free-will and freedom socities, in turn, develop there own kind of legislation processes and economics. It is then that one can understand why the governments of most of the developed nations is democratic and the economic system often "alleged" to be "Capitalist", although practioners themselves called it lessze-faire--inclined type.
Let us also contemplate about the core characterstics of "Freedom and Free-will" societies, which may bring a more permanent solution of corruption.
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