(1/6) World Order, a sweeping tour of the world of high politics and diplomacy, is one of the last publications of the US diplomat and former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger. Kissinger was the secretary of state when two [...]
These two items are quite famous. Almost associated with the Swiss brand. But does Switzerland have a reasonable military of its own? The strength of Swiss military is about 100000, with another 100000 available as reservist. It does not [...]
One of the things I was fascinated by during adolescence and early adulthood was the rapid rise of fortunes in the Western world which began in the 17th-18th centuries. We learn from our History and Civics textbooks that this rise [...]
What lies underneath the marbles that covered the Colosseum? But you hardly see any marbles in the real Colosseum. It’s all bare stones! The story of the marbles that once covered the Colosseum’s is the story of major ‘switch’ [...]
Recently I was on a panel discussion on neuroscience datasets at a premier engineering institute. The discussion was part of a symposium on Data-driven innovations. As the meeting was held when semester examinations were going on for the students [...]
Revisiting his magnum opus Brave New World, Aldous Huxley cites the story of an institute founded by a group of philanthropists in New England in the late 1930s. Established to counter the Nazi propaganda-machinery rampant during those times, it [...]
Fashionable nonsense is a sequel of the ‘Sokal’s hoax’ on the manner in which ‘postmodern’ writers abuse language and scientific concepts. It describes a community of people who encourages obfuscation in their communications. Sokal and Bricmont give detailed excerpts of authors [...]
Micheal Foucalt’s The Birth of Clinic is a relevant read for those who are interested in the evolution of the conceptual jumps that led to the modern medical practices. It is a useful reference point for comparing the evolution of [...]
Sept 2021 ‘Karma is not real; it’s psychological’ This above was the quip my 9-year old son, Siddharth made when he was asked what he had finally concluded on the notion of ‘Karma’. We were speechless. It was quite an [...]
The COVID global pandemic was one such phenomenal event that incited the deepest convictions of the politicians. Thus, when the idea of lockdown was mooted to right wing politicians like Boris Johnson (Boris Johnson fashion himself to be like British [...]
Counter-Enlightenment traits are a group of beliefs and attitudes that run counter to the values that made possible the modern world. We can list 5 such beliefs. These are mysticism, idealism, totalitarianism /anti-individualism (or communalism and/or communism), anti-republicanism and the [...]
Modern nation states and organisations are mostly run by virtue of what is known as Enlightenment values (EV) (for more, see) There may be various permutations of these values in an organisation. Though permutations may vary, for large organisations to [...]
I attended one of Isha’s online cum contact programs eager to know what he offer for all the techies to flock to him. I had got positive reviews of ‘mindfullness exercises’ from the writings of ‘reliable’ skeptics like Sam [...]
Narender Modi is a charismatic leader. In the range of his influence, he is undoubtedly the most charismatic political leader India has ever seen since Indira Gandhi. His tricks and tips of social communication are unmatched. But more than his [...]
Enlightenment values are a set of values that have their origin in the ideas developed by European thinkers from the Age of Enlightenment. These ideas primarily involve a break from the Church-dominated Middle Ages in European history. Enlightenment values are [...]
Postmodernism is a heterogeneous movement in literary theory, sociology, architecture and philosophy that emerged in the second half of the 20th century as a radical departure from the sensibilities of what was considered “modernity and modernism”. Modernity loosely emerged from [...]
British historian Niall Ferguson’s book Civilization: The West and the Rest ( Alien Lane, Penguin Group, 2011) is an interesting survey of the history of the world over the last thousand years. It examines the rise of Western civilisation through [...]
social contract is the basis of all our laws and morals. Human rationality is agency that make people follow laws and morals. Laws are boundaries of major infringements of social contract, while morals are minor infringement of social contact. Change [...]
What is it like to be a goldfish in a bowl? Does the curvature of the bowl distort its vision enough to prevent it from “knowing” anything beyond the water Can an “intelligent goldfish” make an “estimate” of the world [...]
Auschwitz is the location that acted as the switch which turned on a great resetting in the West after the Second World War. Visiting Auschwitz was like watching a silent horror film. During our three-hour tour of the location, there was [...]
Kerala is a state that shows signs of an advanced application of European Enlightenment values. Its social cohesion is the direct result of these shared values. North Indian commentators do not understand this phenomenon in Kerala. They comment [...]
Agnosticism can be explained with a simple statement. I will borrow from renowned physicist and science-writer Carl Sagan for this, who said (in the context of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence), “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” He said this after stating [...]
Social capital is the aggregate influence a person by virtue of his birth and social connections gains in the society. It is the fundamental basis for institution of reservation in Indian society. In India, caste is an important factor of [...]
Ideology driven opinion is fundamentally different from evidence driven opinion. For the sake of this article, I will shorten these terms to IBO ( Ideology Based Opinion) and EBO ( Evidence Based Opinion). It is important to distinguish these two [...]
The Accidental Prime Minister is an interesting peep into the intrigues and tribulation of work in the high offices of Delhi. The book has been marred with controversy regarding the timing of its launch in the rundown to the Indian [...]
Skepticism is a general approach to the world, and not exclusively linked to ‘denial of God’. Most of the people are skeptics except in a few walks of life. As what Richard Dawkins said concerning atheism, all monotheistic religious people [...]
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