Thoughts on Freedom

Thoughts on Freedom

 

15/8/15

 

Today the country is celebrating the day of Independence – a national festival to remember the handing over the administrative charge of the country to its citizens by the colonial masters.  What is the opposite of ‘independence’?  Is it ‘dependence’ or is it ‘slavery’?  According to language convention it must be the former, but it terms of political ideas it could be the later, but also something else.  It could be compulsory or forced (alien) rule.  Our history books do not tells us that we had slavery, it was in the US and other regions where people (slaves) were traded as commodities, but we had different set of rules and privileges for the rulers and the ruled.  But an appropriate demarcation of the event would have been ‘freedom’ day – when the citizens were given the right to administer themselves as they saw fit.  This also included that the monarchs were made defunct, which was an important move to diffuse the situation from developing into a great anarchy.  After 68 years of ‘independence’ the current generation gets a chance to reminisce about the situation and sacrifices of a few individuals, but don’t have any direct experience or expectation from being independent. The concept of freedom is still very vague for the majority, as most still believe that their fate is in someone else’s hand.  Whether it is acquiring education, employment, creating policies, or in public participation in general, the majority feel that they have very little choice, and depend on some authorities to plan all things for them.

 

16/8/15

The value of freedom is only when it is earned.  It used to be said in pre-independence days by freedom fighters that one day people will be born in an independent state.  That is, independence is given to one without any asking, but it appears to me that  this does not work in practice.  A new born child is dependent for at least a few years.  The harsher the struggle at this stage of dependence the sweeter the freedom that comes later. For example, in the area of education, it is at the early stage in life education is enforced by the parents or state.  During this time an individual is dependent on some authority – a parent, a teacher, a coach, or a peer to be forced into certain habits or behaviors or learning.  It is a very indirect way of training one to become independent in thinking, learning, doing by being dependent on someone else. In my mind this model works like compressing a fuel to high pressure and suddenly releasing the pressure so as to set up the explosion.  The role of the catalyst (spark) is often overlooked or not seen.  This is the reason for so much variation the level of explosion one sees in human achievement.  You see a very small number of quick explosions, a little more of slow burning and a vast majority of unburnt fuel, unmet potentials.  Very occasionally you also see perpetual explosions that change the landscape.   You see in the education system in the country that in spite of pre selection of potentially productive individuals in areas of profession and training, there are more unused fuels than magnificent landscapes.

The Triumph of Mediocrity

The Triumph of Mediocrity

 

19/7/15

 

When I look around and see man-made creations, irrespective of the field, including all kinds of creations – music, writing, gadgets, buildings, services, jobs, etc. – anything and everything – one idea emerges consistently.  That is there is more of everything – poetry, prizes, pottery; and they are not better than the ones they have taken over.  Why is that?  Let me explore with a couple of samples.

 

All creations are the result of multiple skills converging to produce something.  An essay, for example is a product which can be produced only stage-wise, step by step.  The ‘good’ creators implicitly understand this and are able to devote time and effort to work on and improve each aspect of the skills that combine, and also work out the interface of association between the skills. For writing you start with an idea – a core or a kernel or a seed – which is pulled and pushed in different directions mentally, to be verbalized into contexts and examples and models and consequences.  While this process is on, the next process of recording these words on a medium is undertaken.  Till this stage the only tangible activity seen is the record on paper or PC.  Usually this is followed by revision or restructuring or editing before the product is ready for sharing by submission or publishing.  For this process there are many tools available which have made the tasks easier and many barriers removed.  But these tools are helpful in processes that can be automated; i.e., the ones which can proceed in the absence of human intervention, the ones which can be taken over by machines; and this is no doubt a sign of progress.  However, the most critical part of creating essays is the very first step, the act of imagination, the skill of coming up with a seed or a kernel.

Quality is an ephemeral concept.  Is it true that quality is inversely proportional to quantity?  Is the Taj Mahal a world-wonder only because there is only one of it?  If we were to replicate it a thousand fold, will its quality diminish or deteriorate?  When more essays are available for sharing, you find the ones that can be treasured and appreciated is becoming rarer.  Is the reason for this our inability to mechanize / develop tools for the most critical and creative first step of imagination?  This activity can also be parsed into two processes – throwing up of words, topics, sounds, syllables, numbers, templates, etc.  The other part is the synthesis – picking some or few of these and connecting to contexts.  Again, in this activity, the first is something which the machines are becoming better day by day, and it is the later which has been difficult to automate.  In many organizations which want to lead in areas of quality, they worship processes, but processes are meant for machines, and people seldom fit into a process mould well.  Some are better, but they are not the ones who produce outstanding creations.

 

Writing, Creativity