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It must be the saddest moment since the French Revolution. Even more sorrowful than the French almost ending up speaking German at the end of World War II. A moment of deep regret like no other.
Whenever i think of France, or Paris, I have the image of lean man, with a coat, wearing glasses, a wine glass that rests on the counter and his hand adorned with a cigarette. He looks up at the sky non chalantly while both cigarette and wine are consumed at a steady pace. It is a life that is immersed in art, culture and thought. Now, everything will stay untouched but the cigarette will be missing in the equation (link)
Such is life……….
Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout
The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray
And though she feels as if she’s in a play
She is anyway
- Penny lane by the Beatles
Its a surprise to note deep philosophical thought in a Beatles song! Funny I was pointed in that direction by a class I am taking.
To dwell in atheism is to be looked upon in disgust by some, smirked by others, thought of as a fashion statement by many, and shunned by a few. I find that belief is something that has been hardwired into me over many years of my childhood. Even while I try to shirk away the concept of belief, I find the task to be one that has taken several hours of contemplation. I dont understand why people are unable to treat the concept of atheism as another means of looking at the world? Why should one point of view be better than another especially in a situation where no one knows what ‘a perfect life’ or a ‘perfect world’ really means! That said, I have always found it hard to understand why scientisits buy into the concept of religion very easily. I think the point where I made it over a huge barrier in my internal conflict between religion and the lack of it was when i got intitiated into the scientific method of thought. I found ‘God’ to be a very simplisitc explanation to all phenomena that cannot be understood. I hate the blame game!
Time seems to have catalogued a conversation between Richard Dawkins and Francis Collins. (God vs. Science, Time, 2006) Dawkins could be thought of as famous or infamous depending on whom you ask. Collins consistently keeps insisting on the validity of science to blend with religion and belief. I find his arguments very arbitrary. All of his arguments stem from his primary assumption of the existence of God and then going on to apply the scientific method for everything else that ‘He’ has created (note: He- what a sexist god this one is!) Why invoke God so soon Dr. Collins? Science is more exciting in the last century than it could have ever been before. Many questions now have answers. I have great hope in the science and its promises. Hope is perhaps a futile indulgence but I’d rather resort to hope than belief. At least the world does not look as dark with one eye!
Its amazing how diverse a day can be. It can start of with me realizing that its 9.30 and I shouldn’t be in bed to some very interesting insights into my research and then leap frog onto a discussion about the moral responsibility that former imperial powers have towards their colonies. The last question has some interesting overtones. I haven’t much sympathy for imperialist powers but I wondered if people several generations down the line have any sort of responsibility, be it financial, social, political or economic, towards former colonies. The answer is not easy to wrestle with for to say no is to deny that much of the wealth of these countries has been acquired over many decades of conquest and plunder.
To switch gears and ponder for a moment about the concept of imperialism itself, I had a rather mistaken notion that perhaps the prevalance of slavery in medieval times was due to it being the norm of society itself. No one resisted or repelled because it was considered a ‘natural’ thing. Class was essential to the functioning of human societies. I got the answer from a rather unlikely source-’ The Matrix’. An underlying theme of the movie is that inspite of being hopelessly locked up in a digital world that has more to offer than a rather harsh reality, human beings strive to be free. Freedom is at the very core of our thoughts and actions. To justify the antithesis of it on the basis of being an accepted means of life in any kind of society is to belittle our very existence.
