ON BEAUTY

W   H   A   T         I   S         B   E   A   U   T   Y

“BEAUTY” 

Philosophers have philosophized and intellectuals have rationalized about ‘beauty’. Have they succeeded? I think not, but what I think is that only a very few have, and the rest have only managed to build imaginary castles in the air without any solid foundations, and into these castles they have imprisoned most of the people of the world.

I don’t intend to demean anybody in this way, but the idea of beauty has been so very drastically misunderstood and misrepresented that I think strong words are needed indeed to express this idea with due gravity for what it actually means.

Beauty in simplest essential terms is nothing but a ‘sense of harmony and perfection’. This harmony and perfection applies to anything that we wish to take up with the intention of aesthetic examination, whether it be an ordinary pebble, a painting, music, nature, human body, human character etc. It even applies to the realm of ideas.

An idea, an object or anything at all can be considered beautiful if all of their constituent parts fit together into a coherent logical structure and project harmony and perfection. A perfectly proportioned human face looks beautiful because of the nature and arrangement of its constituent parts i.e. when the eye, the mouth, the nose and the overall shape are all, harmoniously integrated together. Suppose it were not so and the face were disfigured, like an uneven forehead and a nose flattened sideways one eye smaller than the other, cleft lips etc. then one would certainly not find such a face beautiful because different parts contradict, are asymmetrical and hence disharmonious. Beauty is not always merely visual but can also be abstract and can sometimes, be grasped in conceptual terms. For example, the character of a person, which depends on appraisal of the sum total of the virtues possessed by that person, can make the person beautiful in an abstract way, or consider a scientific theory, in which all parts fit together and are able to explain flawlessly a true picture of reality. An example is Einstein’s theory of relativity, though the theory does not explain everything but it definitely is able to explain successfully with unerring consistency, a true picture of reality pertaining to massive objects. The theory is coherent in itself and demonstrable to be true and thus it is quite harmonious in the way all its parts fit together to explain reality as it is.       

    

The present day widely accepted notion of beauty is, “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.” This thinking originated in ancient Greece and today it is still going strong because philosophers like Hume and the intellectual brigade with similar ideologies have been keeping it alive. Hume said that, “Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them." I am sure almost everyone agrees to this and today most of the world swears by it when questioned about beauty, but this idea is actually wrong. There are inherent fundamental flaws in it, which are so great, and their impact so wide and far reaching that none realize the damage they have incurred to our understanding of not only beauty but even other important areas of life.

This very notion, even if it looks right and logical on the surface constitutes the greatest fallacy pertaining to the idea of beauty. Much of the modern art is a direct result of this flawed conception of beauty and this article is, aimed at refuting this idea and showing reasons why it is wrong. Furthermore, the article’s goal is to bring about a proper understanding of what beauty truly means and show an overall picture of how beauty must be understood and why.

“Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.” Let us first examine the statement and see if it really is as ‘fallacious’ as I say it is. One chief direct implication of this statement is that beauty is something, which depends only on an individual’s perception and hence is independent of the outside reality, i.e. that anything we choose to call as beautiful must be beautiful because we say it is beautiful. This constitutes a purely subjectivist thinking on which most of the modern and  contemporary art is based. The premise that ‘anything we choose to call as beautiful, must be beautiful because we say it is beautiful,’ is a wrong one because it evades the consideration of ethics and morality in defining and understanding of what beauty is.

Now one may ask, what has ethics and morality got to do with beauty? Well here is the answer. Beauty is a positive concept because the very idea of beauty rests on a morality that is positive and ethics that is life enhancing. If we do not have the idea of good and bad then we cannot have the idea of beauty. For example consider dog shit, it may be hard to believe but there are really some people who will say it is beautiful, but when you ask them what is ‘beauty’ they will not be able to define it and will give a hazy and meaningless reply. So, in absence of any objective definition people gain free license to call something, anything they wish and this is exactly the matter with the idea of beauty in the world of today. To appreciate dog shit and call it beautiful one has to evade the ethical and morality considerations because there is no other way to call it beautiful without feeling any kind of guilt. To such a person each and everything can be beautiful. Dog shit and the Monalisa painting are to be held in equal regard, even a cheat and a noble man of character are supposed to be equal too. Such a person does not judge, but merely accepts any and every random thing as beautiful, ugly, good or bad because for such a person there is no such thing as good and bad because either everything is good or everything is bad. For such a person, the capacity to judge beauty or anything at all, has been paralyzed due to the moral and ethical evasions. Hence, the only way for such a person to justify his or her stand is by adhering to the notion that beauty does not depend on reality but is entirely dependent only on one’s perception and thinking. This adherence gives one an escape from judging anyone or anything. It works by providing refuge inside a faulty philosophical framework, which gives them guiltless freedom to do and proclaim as they please without testing its basis in reality.

The biggest hurdle in the way of an objective definition of beauty comes from the popular rationalization, i.e., “what is beautiful for one may not be beautiful for another and vice-versa.” The statement is true in a certain context, but here too lies a big inherent flaw in the way its meaning is generally interpreted and comprehended. Let me illustrate with an example. Let us consider people of different racial groups, the blacks and the whites. Now it is obvious that, what maybe considered beautiful by the white may not seem beautiful to the black. A white man may not like the facial structure and the skin color of a black woman and may think her to be ugly, whereas a black man may positively find the same woman to be beautiful. So, who is right? Well, both are right, but not in the way one might think, but for entirely different reasons.

On immediate reflection people usually get stumped by this example and begin to think that beauty must indeed depend only on our perception and hence beauty must really be a subjective idea and no other standards can be possible to define it. Due to such superficial examination, they must conclude that beauty truly lies in the eyes of the beholder. But in truth this is not the case, the error will become clear once we examine the example even more deeply.

There is always a precondition to judging anything or calling anything beautiful or ugly, that precondition is, ‘having knowledge’ about the thing under scrutiny. Because, without possessing any previous knowledge at all, you cannot have any reference for judging anything, you would be just like a newborn who has just opened its eyes to the world. Based on this ‘knowledge’, one develops a system of values, according to which, one judges the good, bad, right, wrong, beautiful, ugly etc. in varying degrees. Now, this ‘precondition knowledge’ that one possesses, does not come from mere imagination but it has to have a basis in reality which one has perceived in the past and integrated by thinking. Hence, the standards by which we judge anything, will have to be based on reality.

Now, the white man who has been raised among the whites, will have a different set of aesthetic values than that of a black man who has been raised in quite a different cultural and social conditions. Both men’s aesthetic appraisal will be quite different, because their value systems will differ and will depend to a great extent, on their cultural and social influences and also on their evolutionary differences. But, this does not mean that beauty is dependent merely on their personal whims and fancies. Because one has to keep in mind the social, cultural influences and evolutionary differences that go into the appraisal of the woman. To the black man, the aesthetic elements of the black woman will be more important due to his particular and unique cultural,social and evolutionary influences, than to the white man.

A male monkey would find a female monkey more beautiful than a female of human species. Why? Mainly because of the inherent evolutionary differences between the two dissimilar species. I will not say ‘cultural differences’ because monkeys do not have a highly developed and complex cultural structure as do humans, so it would be safe to assume that the cultural influence in monkeys, would hardly play a noteworthy part in the appraisal of an individual of their own species.

One might further interject and object, that what about when people of different racial background sometimes find each other to be beautiful. The answer is simple, because the value system they hold as true keeps changing and evolving as one learns more and more and one and one can then at times, override such cultural and social differences and consider them to be quite unimportant in appraisal of an individual of different racial background but of the same species. This is what learning brings to us. A person devoid of learning and stunted philosophical growth will not be able to appreciate something like art at the same level and within the same range of contexts as a learned person. So the conclusion is that, what we already know, influences to a great extent, our conception and appraisal of something as beautiful.

Now, there are those who think that beauty is a property of an object and no observer is required to judge it. They are few in numbers, but they are there with this definition of theirs and hence it must be discussed here, in order to get as complete picture as possible. The kind of definition propounded by them is a result of an intrinsic mode of thought. According to which something is supposed to be beautiful all by itself and it is a quality the object possesses automatically and is supposed to exist in some unknown and undefined dimension, independent of any need to be perceived. Well, this too, is erroneous and the error will become very apparent in a short while as we proceed further.

Beauty : How much is it actually based in reality and how much is it real, does it only reside in our imagination and nowhere else as Hume says? Well, let’s see. Consider again the example of a well-proportioned face, suppose that one finds such a face beautiful, now consider the question, why does one find the face beautiful? Is it that the observer is just imagining it or is the observer hallucinating that there actually is a beautiful face? The answer is ‘obviously not.’ Because, since the face is there, it is for real and it is exists. The essential to note is that the face actually must exist before the person perceives it. Now suppose the face were not perfectly proportioned and it were ugly, having cleft lips, lopsided head and drooping eyes and an uneven nose and very bad pale skin. Will the person still find the face as beautiful as the well proportioned one? The answer is ‘obviously not.’ A person actually finds a face beautiful or ugly, because the person first perceives the characteristics like the shape, symmetry, proportion, color etc which must be inherent in the object (face) and if these characteristics change then whatever he perceives will change too accordingly. Hence, the obvious implication to be drawn is that for doing an aesthetic appraisal of an object, it has to exist first, and it must have specific inherent qualities and characteristics which are absolute properties of the object itself. Then, through our senses, we perceive it (object) and appraise it on the basis of our knowledge, conceptual ability and philosophical criterion that we have learned beforehand in our life.

Hence, the conclusion is that beauty must depend on two things, the absolute qualities possessed by an object and, our perception and appraisal of its aesthetics. Hence, the ‘subjectivist’s’ thinking that beauty lies only in the eyes of beholder is wrong and the ‘intrinsic’ rationalization is wrong too, that beauty is an independent property of an object and exists in some unknown dimension having no need for an observer for perceiving it. ‘Beauty’ is therefore a positive thing, it is a sense of harmony and it depends on the object under observation and on the observer observing the object for aesthetic appraisal. Beauty does not merely depend on random whimsical thinking and imagination of a person and neither is it a totally absolute and independent quality possessed by any object outside of observation.

Most of the modern art and contemporary art is a result of this flawed conception of beauty. The Dadaists have done away with the idea of ethics and morality and have influenced a whole generation of artists with their flawed subjectivist ideology. The result is for all to see, art without beauty. It reflects the state of consciousness of the Mankind as a whole. It is very important for us to re-establish the right ideas and principles of beauty in art and also within our lives, if we are to see better times, in spirit and in kind. Good art nourishes the spirit and does not kill or diminish it. The purpose of beauty in art and elsewhere is the survival of consciousness, to show us life and not death.

Thank You.           

ON THE STATE OF THE WORLD (PART-II) : THE IDEA OF FREEDOM

The idea of freedom is something so important for man that without which life would be unlivable and meaningless. Men have fought wars, risked their lives and done what not to achieve this thing called freedom. What is freedom? Why is it so essential? These questions may seem simple but they do not have as easy answers as one might immediately think. Almost everyone has a good idea as to what freedom is, but very few people know in exact terms what it actually means and entails in the fullest sense. This article is about the meaning of freedom in all of its essential and valid context and its various far-reaching implications, which remain mostly hidden from the immediate common perception.

What is freedom? Dictionary defines freedom as, ‘the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints.’ This is quite accurate definition but it is important for each person to understand it because the idea of freedom is so very necessary for living life. The key to fully understanding this idea lies in two essential things i.e. first, comprehending its meaning and, second, understanding its implications in different contexts.

Freedom and Its Possibility and Impossibility : Consider this, a hypothetical situation in which there is just only one human being living on earth all alone, then in such a situation, the idea of freedom cannot be applicable. The reason being that in this situation, no one else is present there who can threaten or affect his existence or violate his privacy in any way. Hence, that lonely human being is left free to live, act and think as he chooses and has no threat to face, at least not from another human being. So, it follows from this that the idea of freedom can be considered valid only when two or more humans are living in such a way that they have to interact with one another on various levels to coexist peacefully.

The world is like this i.e. there are not one or two but many of us trying to live and exist together peacefully, but, there are some among us who like to interfere deliberately in various ways and make life miserable for others. It is a human tendency to interfere often into other’s business forcefully, hence, this can become a cause of misery for many. One does not want any such uncalled interference, therefore, to avert this and keep each one free of such intrusions, freedom and other related ideas are needed and ought to be enforced accordingly. It is this need to live peacefully that makes the idea of freedom possible and necessary.

Freedom and Happiness : One reason as to why freedom is important is, because, it is connected with happiness. ‘The final commodity sought by everyone in life is happiness.’ All humans activities, be it thinking, doing art, writing literature, climbing mountains or even fighting wars etc., are all ultimately aimed, directly or indirectly towards  achieving happiness. Freedom and happiness are inseparable because happiness depends upon freedom. When force and restraint are imposed on someone in an unjustified way, it acts as a killer of freedom and hence of happiness too. Hence, it is very vital for men to be free in order to live a worthy life and to achieve their true potentials.

Freedom and Slavery : Another way to understand the idea of freedom and its importance is by understanding the idea of slavery because understanding this provides a valid and easily comprehensible context for understanding the idea of freedom. The fundamental characteristic of humans is that they cannot work under any kind compulsion of which they do not approve. Slavery is coercing one to act or think in a way one does not want and hence it always leads to misery and unhappiness. Freedom on the other hand allows men to act as they choose, think as they choose and enables men to live a life which is free from outside coercion.

Freedom and Its Source : Almost all the countries of the world grant a number of basic freedoms to their people in form of rights, among them the most important are, the right to freedom of speech, right to equality before law, freedom to practice one’s choice of religion etc. But the important thing to note is that all these rights are an outcome of one single right which is the ’right to live’. It is by recognizing and establishing this right to ‘live’, we can understand all other rights relating to freedom, which are in place to maintain our peaceful coexistence. So what does this ‘right to live’ mean? It simply means that that one has a right to live and do with one’s own life as one wishes and that no one else must be allowed to violate this right in any way. To ensure that this right remains intact and do not get violated, all the other rights as mentioned above are put in place and are enforced by law.

Freedom and The Need for Restrictions and Prohibitions : The world, has always been overrun by restrictions and prohibitions. There is a reason for this. When so many numbers of people live together on a place like earth then to ensure peaceful coexistence of all, certain restrictions are required. Restrictions are put in place to safeguard wellbeing of an individual or group from another individual or group. Restrictions and prohibitions are good if they are justifiable and can be proven and demonstrated to be necessary. For example, murdering another person is prohibited by law and it is deemed  as punishable offence. This is a justified prohibition because it is necessary for safeguarding lives of an individual. This kind of prohibition restricts the abuse of freedom of others. Hence, only those restrictions are justified and must be observed which uphold freedom and save men from any unwarranted outside coercion.

Freedom and The Need For Removing Unjustifiable Prohibitions : There are so many other restrictions, which are unjustified and they violate our freedom directly or indirectly. Many of these restrictions are hard to see for what they actually are because they remain mostly hidden beneath layers of uncertain and hazy ideas. The most important thing to note is that many of such restrictions are put in to place by deliberate intentions and not by natural default.

Like for example, let us consider the prohibition on alcohol sale and consumption as is currently imposed by the government in the state of Gujarat. This prohibition, is currently imposed using various false and unjustifiable pretexts such as that of saving people from the harmful effects of alcohol, also on the pretext of maintaining women’s safety and that of Gujarat being the land of Gandhi etc. What it means for the people of Gujarat is that the government can now decide what grown and intelligent men ought to consume and what they ought not to consume and if any one defies this then they become liable to get forcibly punished. This is, in essential terms a direct violation of the right to life as I have stated above in this article. This prohibition threatens and undermines our basic freedom. Today, the government has taken this much liberty and if nothing is done then the government may also start assuming more powers and lay down even more such restrictions. The government may then begin to decide what one should wear, whom one should interact with or with whom one should not interact. In short the government may become like an unbearable Nanny who is out to slowly take away all of your freedoms. This is not a fantastical situation which I am constructing here, but a very possible one, it has happened in the past. ‘When the powers of the government go unchecked by the people then the government tends to slowly increase in size and become dictatorial in nature.’

Freedom and Mental Slavery : Even though human slavery, as we know of it, was abolished long before, like in Britain and in America it was abolished around one and a half century ago but today a different kind of slavery exists in the world and this too threatens and undermines our freedom in a very profound way. It is the slavery of the mind, i.e. mental slavery. This undermines our freedom because it shackles our growth in many ways. In simple terms, this kind of slavery means an unconditional support by an individual or a group for wrong ideas. Let me illuminate using some examples, the best one  is the idea of adhering to a religion without questioning its validity in a proper critical manner. Most of the religions on earth have roots deep in the past and are built mostly on assumptions many of which are usually unproved and taken to be true on mere faith. When seen through a lens of reason, the inherent contradictions within any religious system become easily visible and those who follow such religion blindly are no more free than prisoners of war in an actual prison.  

Sports, sex and screen : Three things continually keep the minds of the younger generation engaged all the time which is not all good and the media makes all believe that things will perpetually remain rosy and we are progressing with ease and no one must be much concerned about all this and about the future. The younger generation need to understand this and must learn think right and do right in order to be safe and ensure a better future.

Freedom to think definitely exists but real freedom of thought is not possible until one becomes capable to think in a critical and rational way. Brainwashing of mind by wrong ideas, either deliberately or innocently stands to threaten this in an enormous way. Hence, one must examine ideas very critically before accepting them to be true.

Freedom and The Threat From The Government : One of the biggest threats to freedom usually comes from big oversized governments. Our country India too, like most of other countries in the world has big oversized government. Our government perpetrates policies in economics and politics, which indirectly affect our freedom in various ways.

Henry Ford, The great entrepreneur, engineer and car manufacturer said, “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

Henry Ford said this about America, but I think the same is true for India as well. Our monetary system is flawed and it is flawed to the core. I will not go into details here and will tackle it in another article but as for now the truth of the matter is that our monetary system is designed to get the wealth in the hands of few by deceit. The banks and the government work together in collusion and people are continually being robbed of their hard-earned wealth via the greatest robbing mechanism in the world called INFLATION. The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer and an imbalance is in the making that cannot good in the long run for any country and its people.

Not many are aware but our Indian government has managed to clock a Debt to GDP ratio of 90% at present and still going ahead unfazed. What this means is that the government has overspent its reserves and is in debt up to 90% of our gross domestic product. So who will pay for all this? Of course the answer is simple, it is we the gullible people who will pay! How will we pay? By higher taxes and inflation! Our freedom is threatened because we have to face the ravages of losing our wealth due to lost buying power. A child somewhere needed books to study to secure his future but parents can no more afford because with their 2000 rupees now they can only buy things worth 1500 and hence they must forfeit the books to accommodate for other pressing needs. Someone needed urgent medical care somewhere but now their money in the bank savings account is worth less than what it was worth before and hence they can no more manage the required medical care etc. etc. etc…

Here I have presented with only a couple of examples of government threat but in truth to cover everything appropriately, a hundred articles will not suffice.      

Conclusion : To be really free in the fullest context, I believe, that one must be free from any outside physical coercion and one must have the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints of any sort. But adding to this I also think that at the same time one must also strive to be free from all sorts of wrong ideas which can easily corrupt one's thinking.

Today is 15^th of August as I finish writing this article, It is our Independence Day. But this 'Independence Day' means nothing more than getting free of the British rule and coming under the hood of Indian rule while the rules of the game remain unchanged. I think that this ‘Independence Day’ in truth does not signify our independence in the real sense. We are in fact, interdependent and enslaved in a big way and with no end in sight. Things need to be changed in a drastic and fundamental way to pave the way for a valid future. This is the time for us to awaken and to bring about a revolution in spirit and in mind and fight the wrongs that have pervaded within our nation and within us.

Swatantrata Ki Jai Ho!

Thank You. 

ON THE STATE OF THE WORLD (PART-I) : THE ASSAULT ON THE MIND

The story of man

‘Uncertainty plunges men into such darkness from which only the very rare emerge.’

The world is a great place, great in every imaginable sense and the story of man has been a heroic one, but this story has been blotched with occasional dark periods. What are these dark periods? What caused these dark periods when men suffered and became victims of the intellectual brigade of their times and before? Can we avoid this and if so, how? What exactly is going on in the world? One must ask these vital questions so that one may learn right lessons from them and prevent unwanted suffering and disillusionment.

We humans are making tremendous progress in science and technology, real visible unparalleled progress but our cultural and philosophical state remains not only stunted, but also is getting worsened, our morality is being corrupted, our truthfulness being depleted, our reason being slowly destroyed. What is causing this? Those who propagate false ideas have waged a war on the mind and have made innocent people their victims and it is not happening by default but happening deliberately at the behest of a handful and they are assaulting the mind with wrong ideas. It is happening in religion, art, schools, colleges, politics, economics, culture etc. This article is an attempt at revealing the true state of what exactly is happening, why it is happening and how to correct it.   

For centuries, preachers have been preaching potato philosophy to the mindless multitudes, like cunning parasites they are, seeking to devour not the blood in the veins but seeking to kill the thinking mind. None is safe from their assault, not even those who think themselves to be outside the multitude. They are right now also carrying out this assault on your mind so be prepared and arm yourself, not with guns and ammunition but with ‘reason’ if you are to survive like a man and beat them in their own great evil game.

‘The greatest injury one can inflict on an individual is not by hurting him physically but by making the individual believe in wrong ideas.’ An individual’s thinking and philosophy affects his entire life and if this gets infiltrated with wrong ideas then it will impact each and everything adversely. This is exactly what is going on in the world today, our intellectuals, teachers, leaders, gurus etc. have been doing a dastardly job, they have conned and conned and conned the people for so very long and in so many various ways that now that the ‘wrong’ has become the new ‘right.’ Truth is being deliberately suppressed ever so more and as a result, today, falsehood, treachery and myopia are having a bull run, but the bull run cannot just go on forever hence eventually at some point in time a peak will definitely be reached. I don’t know exactly when it will happen but I do know is that when the truth has played out its course and the toxic energy of wrong ideas built over the decades and centuries starts to explode, then the people will truly start to awaken to the truth and there will be a revolution, a transforming and liberating revolution! We are moving towards it for sure and such is the state of the world I see and foresee.

Mr. Karl Marx

The intellectuals of any time always set the standards for any culture and prevalent thinking in the society because they come out with the dominant ideas and these ideas slowly seep down the hierarchy into the multitude and are absorbed and assimilated by them. When such intellectuals propound faulty ideas then imagine what would happen, the entire base all the way down the hierarchy gets affected severely. 

For example, let us look at Karl Marx, a man of formidable intellect and the most influential socialist who lived more than a century ago. He was a philosopher, economic theorist and sociologist who constructed the socio-political theory called Marxism. He wrote ’The communist Manifesto’ and ‘Das Kapital’, two most influential books in which his socialist ideas were expressed. His ideas have been widely adopted even if they have always led to disastrous results. The greatest experiment of Marxist socialism was demonstrated before in Russia via the formation of USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) by overthrowing the czarist and aristocratic rule and establishing a socialist state. The USSR however eventually broke up with drastic repercussions because Marxist ideas about economy just did not work. Marxist ideas are fundamentally flawed and that is the reason why they never work and always lead to strife, unhappiness and oppression.

Today Marxist ideology mainly ‘socialism’ is everywhere and causing damage all around. The idea gained foothold because on the surface it seems to be very benevolent and harmless hence is readily accepted. Only a deeper analysis of the idea and its nature and historical impact can make one aware beyond any doubt of how evil the ideology really is. Socialism is opposed to capitalism. In socialism, the private ownership of means of production is disallowed unlike that in capitalism where private property ownership is the key essential. Socialism advocates that production of goods and services have to be done to fulfill the needs of the people and not for any personal profit. The idea seems nice and right on the surface, but in reality it always fails to provide for all what it proposes and more than that causes extreme dissension among the people. A socialist system tries to cheat and control the free market forces by controlling every aspect of the economy and this never works and never will because nobody in the entire world is or can be smarter than the free markets. An inevitable outcome of socialism is called communism which is even worse, it is so worse that I intend to devote an entire article about it. Communism attempts to equalize forcefully all different kinds of people having different abilities into one classless social setup i.e. the beggar and the drunkard are supposed to get the same privileges as the man who works earnestly and hard to earn his living. How much more contradictory can it get! However I will deal with this in another article, as for now, I will go as far as to say that this single man called Marx has caused so much damage with his ideas in the world and on such a massive scale that the ravages of Hitler and Mao seem like a mild walk in the park.

Ayn Rand said, ‘A mixed economy is a society in the process of slow death.’  India is a mixed economy! A mixed economy is a combination of state ownership and control of business and privately owned enterprise. This therefore represents a big contradiction as opposed ideas cannot coexist and sustain. The idea of regulating and controlling an economy has always proved to be disastrous and still we cling to it and think it is right only because on the surface it looks right, this is the tragedy of our time that most of us are easily convinced by just the surface appearance. They never dig deeper to find the truth and readily accept whatever is thrown at them.

Einstein, one of my heroes said this about socialism, "I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate (the) grave evils (of capitalism), namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society."

Einstein was and still is my hero, because I admire him for his scientific achievements greatly, but I think his socio-political ideas expressed above are absolutely wrong. I find them to be so fallacious that I fail for words to communicate in this short article the true extent of the inherent evil in this statement of his and I doubt if he himself understood fully the scope and implications of what he was saying. If the great Einstein could fall for such an ideology then what to talk of the common man and of our intellectual political leaders whom we supposedly trust so much. That is why one must question everything and dig deeper to arrive at the truth in any matter so that we can escape unscathed from the assault of wrong ideas.

Another example to note is our present system of education. The education imparted today has an overall effect of killing the passion in the individual and subduing his capacity to think critically in an objective way. The education is aimed at breeding helplessness and lethargy within the student and taming his mind in a way so that he becomes a slave to the system. What is the purpose of education? This aspect when is not clearly defined gets ignored. When it is ignored, the masses start to perceive that having a degree and passing through this education system is all that matters in life. What everyone is doing must be right and therefore unquestionable. Moreover today the education is so much overpriced and advertised as if the end of the world is near if one has not passed through the education system and acquired appropriate degrees, it is of secondary concern that if one has learnt anything of value or not.

What I want to stress here is that the education system is fundamentally flawed and incomplete. It is flawed fundamentally  because, the actual purpose of education i.e. to develop the thinking capacity of an individual is not realized but what happens is that the individual is conditioned and brainwashed to fit the system and become the bearer of wrong ideas and pass them along to the next generation just as his parents did.

The education system is incomplete because ‘philosophy’ is not included along with other subjects of study. This is the greatest drawback in education today and the impact of which is everywhere to see. The moral and cultural bankruptcy in the society today is a direct result of this. Religion, which is a crude and primitive form of philosophy, is taken for granted and deemed sufficiently complete for showing us the way to living a proper life and nothing better is thought possible or required. Hence, the idea of inclusion of proper philosophy is thought to be unnecessary for an education. The students are innocent and naive and their parents and teachers are a product of the same system and hence no worthwhile change takes place and the status quo remains as such.

Last, but not least the example of art is a very important one and hence it has to be discussed here. Literature, music, painting, sculpture etc. are all examples of art, they are different art forms but fundamentally, they serve the same purpose. Art reflects the true state of the society at any given time and even more. Today most of the artists come from the same educational establishment and are a product of the same kind of educational curriculum, and belong to similar intellectual and ideological stream of thought, which was, sown in their minds by the intellectuals whom they followed and looked up for ideological support.

Most of the art, which is being done today, is mostly lifeless and looks like drudgery. There does not seem to be clarity of thought but instead there is a hodgepodge of half-baked ideologies connected and loosely integrated together to guide the intellect of the artists in making art. The artists are confused and disillusioned and are unable to pinpoint what is wrong exactly. What is wrong is that fallacious ideas abound here in this field, and which, are usually considered and taken to be correct without even subjecting them to critical enquiry and there are not many to show the right way ahead.

The picture I have painted above certainly seems to be disconsolate and actually it is but I do not want to imply that the scenario is completely dark and no bright spots are possibly there. In fact, there are many bright spots where right ideas bloom and prosper and worthwhile progress is taking place. Science and technology are some of the bright spots because here there are clear provable ideas to deal with and no messing around with logic and reason is possible because everything is there supported with undeniable proof. People think that it is impossible to bring such clarity in field of philosophy, economics, education, art and other areas of life. But I think with certainty that it is possible and it can be accomplished by having an attitude to challenge different ideas, theories and beliefs via reason and logic, we have to find back our reason and make it the absolute standard in dealing with ideas and everything else. Only then can we be truly liberated and achieve the clarity of mind, a great life and a great future.

The world has suffered more from wrong ideas than from anything else. It is these wrong ideas we have to recognize and reject. It does not matter which field the ideas belong to or which great personality supports such ideas or how many numbers of people believe in these ideas. What matters is that people must not show support for any idea nor adopt any idea blindly without properly understanding it first. People must not hesitate to question the validity of ideas and the only way to do this is by using reason as an instrument of critical inquiry. This is the way to wither the assault of wrong ideas on the mind.

Thank You.

ON ‘EVERYTHING IS NOT ART, EVEN IF THE ARTIST SAYS SO’

Ancient Greek Sculpture

Before I begin, I must state my reasons for writing this. I find an increasing number of contradictions in the field of art pertaining to the question that what can be truly called as art and what cannot. Today there are no standards and the trend is that just about anything the artist says is supposed to be art and is to be accepted likewise.

This is the beginning of my journey aimed at bringing about a valid and coherent understanding of art and to give reasonable answers to such questions and clarify related contradictions. The aim of this article is to bring clarity in this matter and show where we have gone wrong and how we can correct it.

'The Fountain' by Marcel Duchamp

Today the situation in art is bad and it is further degrading, but the situation cannot be called unfortunate because the degradation did not come about by natural default but has resulted from wrong ideas and rationalizations which most of the artists, critics and intellectuals have been supporting, propagating and giving credence to since a very long time now. The condition has become quite deplorable but what exactly is wrong seems to be hidden from immediate logic. People mostly agree subconsciously if not consciously that something surely is wrong and something is definitely missing but one is not sure as to what it is that is wrong and why is it so. I will show here in exact terms what is wrong and what is missing and why the accepted conventional philosophy on art has become worthless and can no longer pave the way towards a worthy future.

The present day situation as I described above has directly resulted from abandonment and destruction of ‘reason’ in the field of art. This destruction has been brought about by destroying the meaning and the concept of ‘art’. The most effective way to destroy any concept is by inflating and expanding its meaning in such a way that the concept begins to mean ‘anything and everything’. The same has happened with art, initially art had a valid definition but today there is no definition because the concept has been raped and distorted by so called intellectuals and the result is there for all to see and witness i.e. the seemingly vivid yet wonderfully boring and chaotic art of today. Innocent people and new upcoming young artists have fallen victim to this anti-conceptual perspective and have taken to this by gulping down hook, line and sinker as did their predecessors. One of the villains who began to destroy the concept of art was Mr. Marcel Duchamp, I will tell about him later on in this article.

Sometimes breaking the convention to arrive at something new does not mean that you are on the right track and you are making worthy progress. This same is what happened within the field of art. Artists from the Dadaist movement  thought that by doing all sorts of crazy things they were reaching towards something worthy but actually they were not. The Dadaists prided themselves to be rule breakers and defiers of tradition but they could do only that and nothing else. Rule breaking is one thing but to arrive at something worthy is another and here they failed badly. Seen historically they seem to have been significant but not in the way one may think, they have been significant just like an error in time – Like the rise and fall of communism in Russia or as significant as Hitler in Germany or the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Meaning that they broke rules and revolted but could find anything better and worthy to replace the broken rules with. ‘Today’ is influenced by the past and the dreams of future but to understand ‘Today’ properly one must grasp the entire thing properly i.e. the forest, but it has to be grasped by looking at all the trees closely and then again from a distance to see the whole at once and all the while never losing one’s reason. Here one must first grasp what exactly is art and how it can be and should be defined and why.

So to recount all this I will begin at the beginning by stating one primary cause which affects everything done by man whether it is art or anything else. This primary cause is man’s perception i.e. his view of reality and his understanding of it. What does his perception depend upon? It depends on the Philosophy which man holds as true. Now what is ‘Philosophy’? Philosophy is a conceptual and comprehensive view of reality, it is like a map or a master key to understanding life and reality. A person cannot do without it, everyone must have some kind of philosophy. So philosophy is the precondition for everything we do including art and the nature of philosophy we hold true guides our actions in every possible way. 

So what is art? I think that art is nothing but reality ‘concretized’ according to the artist’s view and comprehension of reality. By reality I mean everything that exists. So what does an artist do? An artist understands the world i.e. reality based upon his reason and capacity and then he expresses his comprehension by recreating his view of reality in form of an artwork. The form of expression could be painting, music, literature or dance etc. But what one recreates always depends upon one’s view of reality and thus on philosophy one believes in.

For example look at Greeks what view of man did they project in their artworks. They portrayed men as Gods in their sculptures i.e. for them man was something very great and man held the highest status in their picture of reality. Contrasting with that now look at the works of artists of today, they display blank canvasses, urinate in galleries as performances, exhibit urinals, poop and rotting flesh as artworks and what not. The critics and the reviewers glorify all this using fancy language and faulty reasoning and they are successfully able to fool everyone making all believe that an empty chair or a plastic cow with fifteen udders is a piece of great artwork. They succeeded because that have destroyed the definition and concept first so they have a pseudo philosophy in which just about everything they proclaim to be art is art. One does not have to think long and hard to see the degradation and the nature of it once things are put into a proper objective perspective.

So in simple terms an artist creates an artwork depending upon how he sees and comprehends reality. But the artist sees and comprehends reality on the basis of the philosophy he or she holds true. But in truth reality is something that is independent of what one thinks about it so to have an accurate and valid picture of reality one must have a picture that is true, provable and non-contradictory. So to comprehend this true picture of reality one must have a correct philosophic system and it can only be possible if it is based on reason. But with an impaired and erroneous philosophy one will not have a true picture of reality and hence such an artist will recreate an erroneous and unworthy projection of reality in his or her artwork. Since art too is affected by philosophy then any change in one’s philosophy will affect one’s art and will reflect in it through various processes of which usually the artist is unaware but the change continues to manifest in the art. Between what is art and what is not, a number of intermediate levels exist which can be judged by the merit of the artwork.

An artwork must have a theme and subject matter if it has to be complete and remain in connection with reality. A said artwork lacking these two cannot be a valid artwork because an artwork has to be about something. If an artist says that his artwork is about nothing then he can never be proven right because to say the word ‘Nothing’ and to understand its meaning the artist must have had to refer to something even if in abstract and conceptual terms. One may not just escape it under any circumstance.

I will illustrate here by a famous case of the artist Marcel Duchamp, who called a ceramic urinal purchased from somewhere as his artwork. His justification being that he made the effort to choose and display it as an artwork and so this makes it an artwork by calling it ‘the fountain’ and it no further remains a mere urinal. It is transformed into a wonderful artwork just like that, Voila! And bravo too! But observe closely and ask how? Can one truly discern the ‘How’ in this, is it via reason and logic. No, of course not! The artwork contains neither a valid theme nor a subject. One would argue that the purported subject matter is the title ‘The fountain’, but is it so in reality. It is not, observe further that what it remains after so much thinking and fancy conceptualizing is still is a mere ordinary urinal and also that its true purpose for making the urinal was as utilitarian object, it was meant to be used as just a urinal. The artist tried to justify his artwork by categorizing it as ‘ready made’ sculpture. On the surface this idea may seems somewhat right but subconsciously it seems faulty and further deeper analysis will deem it worthless, let us see. Observe if the sculpture is ready made then it implies that the artist has not even made it but he has just played the role of a curator. Now a curator cannot be called an artist because he does not perform processes required to create art. So what I am arriving at is that even if Marcel Duchamp said that it was an artwork the truth is that it was not an artwork but a mere urinal because there is no way to justify it reasonably, the only way it can be justified is by using a irrational conceptual framework as Marcel Duchamp and other Dadaists constructed and fooled the world. Today the same kind of circus is going on in many places and a battalion of artists, curators, critics and intellectuals are doing their best to keep this circus running and many people of the world are falling easy prey to it but once all this is seen with an eye of reason then the circus doesn’t seem funny but disgusting. 

Many more examples exist today - plastic chairs, wielded utensils, broken and rusted tin boxes, crushed cars are called art. By what mental integrations does an artist connect a plastic chair with reality and deem it worthy of expression of something worthwhile. Imagine what would be the view of reality held by any such artists. Imagine what philosophy they must be holding as true and how much do they truly grasp the reality in which they live. Does it not indicate a breakdown of philosophy in some of those who ever had any and not to talk of the artists who never had any remotely coherent philosophy. Some of such artists are at the top, they have fooled everyone including maybe themselves never once questioning along their journey the nature of art and reality or what purpose does art serve or should serve. Such artists hold that art cannot be reasoned and it depends on merely the arbitrary whims and fancies of their fantastical imagining. Critics have tagged along such artists and they have developed together a seemingly sustainable yet unsustainable eco-system that does not show us life but death. The level of art has dropped to such dismal levels in many quarters that I wonder have they ever actually seen, felt and understood the works of Da-Vinci and Michelangelo.

The essential which I finally want to get across is that don’t fall prey to the prevalent conventional philosophy, hold reason as your best friend and dig deeper to arrive at the truth of the matter so that you can steer clear of such nonsense and reject it for good.

Thank You.