On Newspapers

         I remember as a kid, whenever and wherever a newspaper was in my hand, I would turn first to the last page which talked about news that can be easily digested. Normally it would be sports new and told who won or lost with scores. There were times which I had seen the sports event and I already knew the result and had my own review of the event. Reading about it in the newspaper was to see whether I was right or wrong. Now, Why was I turning only to those pages? I remember my father never reading those pages. But he never tried to force his hand in the way I was reading the newspaper. He was happy that I was reading the newspaper, at the least.

        Compare this to the other extreme of one of my friends. His father was so serious , he had his son write down the entire headline article everyday during his summer holidays. This happened in his house everyday, while I played away at his gaming console. I never knew the intention of his father but for me it was a punishment. The punishment was a result of his anger towards the school for giving us vacation. Later I thought that this he forced his son to do this to improve his vocabulary. This idea of his was not working since we were not having any conversation in the English language. We conversed in our local language and we never discussed the topic which he had written for an hour. During the same time I had access to all the comics and magazines his father had subscribed.

        They were instrumental in me knowing about some broader aspects of those days. I think the writing in the magazines was a little special. It somehow grabbed my attention. Maybe it was a combination of visual aids and writing which would combine historical facts and extrapolation to the future. Comics took me to another world. A world devoid of all the perfect sciences and mathematics of my school. The law of least resistance of nature was at play. I had chosen to read things which required the least effort from me to understand what is being read. Now the thing is should we read based on the law of nature or your interests or read it in a sense it is intended to be read.

        What is the newspaper intended for. How is it to be read. In what mental state should the newspaper be read. I believe that the newspaper should be read in a holistic point of view and be read with an open mind without any preconceived notions. Yeah, i get it, you are telling me that whatever is to be read has to be done with the same attitude. Now there are reading objects which are like textbooks which are written with a specific aim and normally with a very narrow and specialized subject. This has to be read in depth. A newspaper on the other hand has to be read holistically and then if interested in a specific subject you can drill down with Wikipedia and then on to textbooks. Can newspapers do some job of Wikipedia and text books. What i meant was a little ahead than "informing" the reader.

        This is where weeklies, monthlies and fortnightlies enter. But there is a chance for newspapers also to do the same thing with their weekend specials. Very few newspapers have nailed the weekend specials. Reading sports news is so easy on the mind. There is no post-processing on the individual except for siding with a specific sides and then reasoning out why one side lost or won. The same goes for movie related articles. They are easy to digest. Newspaper was my window to international movies. This was the next section I used to read after the sports section. I waited for my opportunity to watch the movies I had read about and my god, did i watch them once i got an opportunity. And i love the way newspapers cover international movies. They dont go in depth. They just state the facts and leave the imagination to the user. In depth revies happened only for movies released in our country. And all movies never really made it, particularly ones with "critical" acclaim. This is exactly that moment where I thought that newspapers have to be read in their entirety.

         The act of choosing the newspaper to start doing it and continue to read the same was more difficult than I thought. But I did zero in on "The Hindu". It had impeccable engish and broad coverage and "plenty" of articles to read. The reason for the choice is very interesting. This particular newspaper had a very interesting way of giving out sports news. They mixed it up with other serious ones and the last page didnt have a single sports news. This was a winner in all the things I thought was wrong with newspapers. And then all of a sudden something happened they wanted to reduce the size of the newspaper. I think it was the increase in pulp prices which was forced upon readers with a reduced size. But the newspapers advertised it to tell that they were adjusting to the "millenial" generation. The size is better to hold and read.

        One more thing happened. A few pages went color. An excellent opportunity to increase the prices. So now we had the newspapers adjust the price increase of pulp and at the same time increase the prices showing readers colors. And then something else happened the quality of articles in the Sunday magazine reduced and the most important thing, sports started arriving at the last page, again. But, the present newspaper is back to its glory age with the last page having other articles interspersed with little sports. The biggest change which prompted me to write this post is that the Sunday magazine has changed, a lot. It is now a booklet size, a bigger magazine size and very near to my favorite fortnightly, "The illustrated weekly".

       This was one magazine which had one of the best writers of our time as its editor. There are eminent writers who complain on lack of good content and good writers, but when given an opportunity and responsibility to improve the same they sulk. Khuswant singh is an awesome writer and as an editor, I have not seen anybody in my reading period who is even a bit close to him. Everything about the illustrated weekly was different, awesome. The size, the front shiny pages, the layout of the mag, the collection of articles, the heading where all these articles went, the heady mix of national and international news, the wry humor, the language, the movies, the sports, the politics........ I just fell in love with the mag. I never used to miss it and would wait for the next week. In fact i would call it as fandom.

      But, all good things come to an end. The publication was stopped. To this day I dont really know why it stopped. To this day, I dont want to know what happened. I dont want that feel to end. If you know why and all, it would be like it is over and then move on the next case. I like the feel that I dont know much about why it stopped. Yes, you may know. Dont tell me.

         Compare the physical newspaper with the electronic versions. You will never get a holistic view. You will be fed a particular article. In fact you will be fed with articles you would like to read. This is again not decided by human intervention, but, by machines. The spread of a newspaper with various subject articles is a sensory delight. From generic knowledge/news we are moving towards specific list of interests. I am not against it. But more and more of your interests only and nothing of other information which do have bearing on your interests in various ways is bad.

        Withing walled gardens created for us, we further create walls by specifying our interests. Apps love when people do this. You are interested in sports but an app cannot tell you how the polity-economical condition, technological advancements, world order have any say on your subject of interest. Reading a newspaper is a ritual.

        The quintessential coffee cup with in-frequent sips and turning the pages one by one. I salute Mr. Gutenberg for the print medium he created. Newspaper is a journey in print. It is the existing "classic" in the present modern age. It is no big deal to understand why the apps started by these newspapers are not a hit among readers. It is difficult to squeeze the entire universe into one planet. I would always suggest to all the readers to spend some time a fixed time with a cuppa and read the newspaper, you never know which rabbit hole would interest you.........

Use happiness instead of fear/intimidation/punishment

            I have been reading a lot of articles regarding the troubles taken by the security agencies to find out more abut the issues created on their own. To remove one thorn you use another thorn and you start thinking that the thorn you used are better ones. But you have now created a thorn which is mightier than the one just removed. That same thorn will now start biting you in an indirect way. The thorn knows its owner and its creator. It will be careful not to bite the creator directly. But a time will come where the signature of the thorn bite is recognized by its creator.

            Now the creator is at crossroads. It knows that it cannot create a new, a better, thorn. The creator has learned from his mistake. Now the creator has no option but to use brute force to remove the thorn. In the process the creator has to undergo a lot of pain. The thorn has learnt from the mistakes of the one it dislodged. It is now housed deeper. The more you confront it, the more the pain. Now the creator resorts to really try to know ways to dislodge the The thorn now has so many branches it is difficult to decide the master branch. You destroy a master branch, another tertiary branch will take the place of the main branch. This tertiary branch will not do any mistakes done by the previous master branch. Continuous learning. This is an infinite loop with no end in sight with the infinite pain both on the creator and the thorn. Instead of inflicting pain and then eliciting information/response form the thorn, why shouldn't we allow it to grow itself into a nice plant which would yield edible fruits. Why not give the thorn so much happiness, near ecstasy, show it the paradise lost and then show them the paradise found. why don't we show the thorn that heaven is right here, on earth and can be experienced right now. why not lead the thorn through the dark prison gates to a place of high life. Why not show it the fruits of capitalism(which the capitalists are good at) why not tell them how it works or how they can make it work.

          Dont we talk aplenty when we are happy. Dont we cry when we are ecstatic. Make then so happy and at the same time sad by showing them what can be done with a little bit of hard work and education. People talk when they are happy. They do. In fact the let off all the guards when they are happy than when they are punished. Cant you remember the number of times it has worked with your boss, spouse, parents. Haven't you asked the most endearing request when the sponsor is the happiest. With this effort we may not be able to convince the thorn about happiness in the world but even if we create a small doubt in their minds it will go a long way in stopping people form carrying out ghastly deeds. There are plenty of examples of anti establishments wherein a doubt was created in their minds regarding their efforts and come over to the mainline to try that last ditch effort all because of a small doubt regarding their present activities. This is where the establishment should work seriously and support these and make them fine examples of the happiness available at the crossover. Every single case can be an example for aplenty. It should not do anything negative with the lot crossing over. The establishment should be very careful here. Compare it with confrontation logic wherein the response from the thorn will be based on older experiences/doctored thoughts and not on logic.

          Show them where they stand in the supply side. Show them the demand waiting for this supply which they are capable of creating. Instead of building bullet proof dark alleyed buildings and spending the tax payers money in using this investment on these misguided people let us spend the same amount of money in giving these people greater happiness and show them how they are using up the happiness of plenty others who are toiling hard and are not on the supply/demand map because these people are eating away at their expense. Open them out like this. When people are happy they are the most chatty. Get that information from the ecstatic captors and try to bring other people into the establishment. This can be done very easily considering the share of these people are minuscule. Let us kill the demon which capitalism has created by using the very fruits of capitalism. Normally these alternate groups are formed based on common ideologies. Creating a doubt in few of the people will result in clash of ideologies which will bring out the best. Ideologies should always be in question.

Money, money, money

        What is it about money? How much of it is necessary. How much is enough. How much is bad. How much is good. Does it depend on the individual and his place in the society. Does it depend on the money an individual is already having. Is money the means of consumerism. Is money the mother of all evils. Is the burning man which rejects money and brings back the barter system the answer to all the evils of money. Does barter bring about equality among people. Does barter reduce the rich and the super rich. Will people start honoring relations and human emotions if money is taken out of the equation. Will the removal of money bring in Anarchism which is supposed to mimic the "ultimate order" in chaos. Is money the first aspect of blinding of logic of humans resulting from emotions.

        Actually what does money bring to the table of human society. At the last mile of human society, majority of human emotions are expressed w.r.t money. It can be giving voluntarily, taking by force, taking without the knowledge of the present owner. Happiness, boredom, anger, love, time for love, condition for love, maintaining relations all change at the drop of a hat with change in the money holding power of the individual. Are human relations still strong enough to transcend the issues arising out of the effects of money on the same relations. Is money akin to God. If somebody has all the money in the world, would he have seen god. Since God is supposed to be everything. Is money greater than all the dark energy in the universe since money is what is required to research and find out about dark energy. 

         You are telling me that a genius might be born who would start spurting out all the details regarding the dark energy in the universe. But you forgot that he has to be born and he has to be bought up to this level. At least up to the time he can talk. There can be another option wherein god himself surfaces and shows us the dark matter of the universe Is money and Economics the greatest science of all time. Since this is what allows us to carry out science. If the journey is more valuable than the destination then money and its study is the most valuable study of all time. Should we commit more resources to concentrate more on this path than the destination. But there is a catch. If science is the destination of all the money based activities the path we have been discussing about is limited by the state of science. If this path has to extend then we have to extend the state of science. 

         Majority of investment from the biggest investors is towards this only. The extension of this path again re-iterates the importance of money. It is a chicken egg situation and cannot be solved that easily. Normally both have gone hand in hand and continue to do so. The rate at which the path is lengthening is greater in the modern times and so are the complications of money based issues. The human race is submerged in this path and its destination. Well I have asked enough questions. Are they related. In fact what is this post about. Is it about the human race, the human relationships, Is it about science or economics. Is it about behavioral theory which has found its way into economics as well as science. 

         How will humans battle the science and economics and maintain sanity in relationships and feelings. So humans changing their relations and their feelings according to the economic models and advancement of science a given. Does it remain same even in and anarchic setup. Why is there no study regarding anarchy. There have been many writings regarding this topic but never practiced in reality. The burning man which tries to do it is a capital intensive arrangement carried out by capitalists. Will humans start valuing relations/feelings more in an anarchic setup. If every man has a purpose will the it change in a capital setup or remains the same in anarchic setup. Money, the end of older relationships, beginning of newer ones, starting bitter ones, starting sweeter ones all in the name of increasing the amount of money. This is the present model of the human setup. Can this model be changed. Are there better models negating the use of money. Are there better models wherein an individual does not think that increasing what he has is the only way to be happy.