The Future of the Left-Some Preliminary Reflections

 
The Future of the Left—Some Preliminary Reflections

The Rise of Rightist Domination and Extremism

I lack knowledge and experience in politics and economics. However, based on whatever news I have had of events and trends around the world, combined with my own experiences and observations over the course of my life, I find myself increasingly alarmed.

Among other things, one notes the increasing resurgence of the Right, manifesting in extreme forms, such as the increasing concentrations of wealth and power, the consequent growth of inequalities, the very close, incestuous relationships between big capitalists, government, and military industries, the associated capture of the mainstream media, the rise of authoritarian governments headed by dictatorial “strongman” figures, exclusive hyper-nationalism, incitement of divisive and violent ethnic conflicts, the demonization of minorities, and the persecution of those who try to speak out against oppression and exploitation, or try to act against these.

This persecution is directed not only against the few who resort to armed resistance, which is to be expected, but also to those whose attempts at resistance to discrimination, subjugation, dispossession, injustice and violence are through the courts, through organizing of collective movements, theough peaceful protests and publicity, and through other nonviolent means.

****** 

Liberty, Equality and Fraternity

Because of all of this and more, many of us are searching for some means of hope for humans and others in our times as well as for those who will hopefully survive and succeed us.

In this context, I find myself returning to the ideals and practices most clearly expressed and utilized by what came to be known (by a historical accident of seating in the French parliament during the French Revolution of the late 18th century) as “the Left”. 

In particular, I find great value in the three basic principles, ideals or impulses articulated, in that early revolution, as “liberty, equality and fraternity”. I believe that these should form an essential part of the basis of our interactions with at least others of our own species, with each of these three impulses being constrained by the other two. 

One could go into some detail about this, but I will leave that for now as a mental exercise for the reader.

******

Difficulties and Mistakes

That being said, if one looks back at the known history of the Left, including what became of the French Revolution itself, and how the later “communist” revolutions, beginning in Russia in 1918, ran their courses, one has to pause and reflect, with some sobriety, on the difficulties encountered and the mistakes made. How can we learn from and avoid these difficulties and mistakes? 

******

Current Problems

Looking next at the current state of what is left of the Left, one notices several things, including the following:

a) Most countries, including the affluent ones, had not only retained significant levels of inequality of income, wealth, opportunity, and access to resources, but have, over much of the past four decades, been moving steadily towards increasing levels of these.

b) There has been disarray and disunity within the ranks of the Left, at the local, national, and global levels.

c) There has been a movement, especially in the more affluent countries, away from the prior main focus of the Left. This had been on reducing economic inequality and exploitation. Over time, the focus has shifted more towards what has come to be known as “identity politics”. 

Each of the longstanding issues associated with our less pliable human identities, such as ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, surely deserves attention. Among many other things, the following, well publicized movements come to mind: 

 - the struggle for voting rights for women;

 - the attempts to combat the very long legacy and consequences of caste discrimination in India;  

 - the struggle for basic civil rights and against segregation and other forms of discrimination by African Americans in the U.S.A.;

 - the struggle against apartheid rule and its consequences in South Africa;

 - the attempts by gays, lesbians and others to be free of discrimination and gain basic rights all over the world.

However, increasingly, these struggles have become disconnected from the struggles on the more universal economic issues that affect the majority of human populations, even in the affluent countries. 

d) What is worse, the increasing focus of the Left on “social issues” has increasingly served divisive ends, disuniting us and distracting us from the core, common economic issues. 

This diversion of focus, away from unifying economic issues, has served to deepen some of the very divisions that had long hindered the formation of united fronts, at local, national and global levels, across all sorts of borders, to secure better deals for ordinary working people, and to free them from oppression and exploitation.

******

Destruction of  the Biosphere, including through Extinctions, and of Human Communities, including through Genocides

I had not mentioned the "environmental issues" that include such cataclysmic things as manmade climate change as well as a host of other things associated with pollution, destruction of habitats and extinction of species. Clearly, these affect all of us to varying degrees and need to be recognized and addressed. 

There are at least two dangers associated with this. The first is that of ignoring or dismissing these issues, no matter how lethal their consequences. The second is that of making these into niche issues, that are perceived, rightly or wrongly, as things that matter to only the affluent classes, ignoring both the basic needs of the others, and the very real adverse impacts of human activities, potentiated by technology, on their lives. 

I had also not mentioned the destructive, atomizing effects of economic pressures on communities and even families. These issues deserve a separate discussion, including things such as the physical and cultural genocides, within our own species, that have been ongoing for several centuries and show no sign of abating. 

******

What to Do?

Finally, looking forward, can the Left still contribute in meaningful, practical ways to increasing the chances of human happiness? Can it do the same for the long-term survival of our species, along with that of all the others? If the answers to both of these two basic questions are “yes”, then how can this be done?

2024 April 12th, Fri.
Berkeley, California

The Two Realms in Which We Live

 

_*The Two Realms in Which We Live*_

I had read, when young, some of the works of Erich Fromm and been touched by these. 

But rational thought is, at base, a survival tool, as are memory and imagination.  

We are driven by our instincts and emotions. These set our primary goals, with memory, imagination, and reason being tools for reaching these ends.

We, along with other sentient beings, including surely all animals and perhaps most plants, live in at least two connected realms. One is the physical, objective realm. The other is the mental, subjective realm. 

The physical realm is the one on which observations can be made by one person and independently verified by another. We access phenomena in this realm through our sense organs and instruments of observation, including those of measurement, the earliest ones being perhaps our own fingers, hands, feet, strides, etc., later standardized, along with days, lunar months, solar years, etc. 

This is the realm of study of the natural sciences, the physical universe of space and time, of matter and energy, and of information and its processing and transfer. 

This last part--information and communication--may, in fact, be a bridge between the two realms.

The physical, objective realm appears to be one that is shared by all of us and that exists independently of each of us. 

If you or I lose consciousness or die, the physical universe will continue. It was there before we were born. This is an assumption made by the natural sciences and by most of us, appearing to be a reasonable (but still far from uncontested) assumption.

The second realm--the mental, subjective realm--is the realm of experience and of the experiencer, and so also the realm of sentience/consciousness itself. 

I cannot usually access your mental realm, nor can you usually access mine. 

I cannot really "feel your pain", "experience your pleasure", sense your other sensations, including those of your five senses, or experience your emotion (beginning with fear or aversion and desire or attraction) or directly experience your thought, memory or imagined thing. 

The natural sciences cannot be applied to the mental, subjective realm. They are restricted to the physical, objective realm that we all share and in which we can independently make and verify observations of physical phenomena. 

Things such as faith and divinity exist only in the mental, subjective realm. 

Although reason, memory, and imagination are also part of that mental, subjective realm, they are limited in their reach and power, as are symbols and language. 

We usually agree that there is only one, shared, physical realm, although quantum physics and the multiverse theories cast some doubt even on that.

Is there an infinite multiplicity of mental realms, constantly being born with every birth of an individual sentience and also constantly disappearing with every cessation of sentience, including the irreversible death of a living organism?

Or is there also only one, shared mental realm of which our individual mental realms are either portals or portions, shielded from one another for functional or protective purposes, just as our individual, physical bodies are. 

I have had a couple of experiences, not communicable through reason or language, that suggest that this is so. 

I expect that many others have had similar experiences. 

We often tend to disregard these "breaks in the shielding", even if they are  consciously noticed, as misperceptions, coincidences or delusions. 

Delusions do, of course, occur, and some rationalists would group all spiritual experiences, faiths, devotions, divinities, etc. in that broad category, along with bhuuts, shaitaans, et al.

_2024-03-24 Sun._

_Berkeley, California_

The Issue in Palestine

 

***The Issue in Palestine***

*The Problem with Zionism*

Even if one stops short of equating Zionism with Nazism, and so also Zionists with Nazis, the sad fact is that Zionism, in both its original and developed theory and practice, cannot be reconciled with basic, universal human rights as we normally define those. 

*The Impunity Enjoyed and Employed by Israel*

One may of course claim that human rights, as so defined, have been and still are being constantly violated all over the world. 

The problem is that public criticism of either the Israeli government and military or of Zionism in its theory and practice has for a very long time been very difficult to carry out without being labeled as an "antisemite" or, more recently, a Hamas supporter, or even a supporter of ISIS. This tactic has been used to not only silence criticism but to destroy the critics. 

Hamas has of course been bracketed within the caregory "terrorist", while the governments and military of Israel, the USA, the UK, France, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and (until 2022 February) Russia, along with others, have escaped that bracketing. 

This situation is one in which Israel, in particular, is in a very special category. It is both shielded zealously against criticism and also free to basically do as it wills, no matter how heinous its actions.

No government had been able to directly challenge the Israeli government's actions or to halt its long and seemingly never-ending stream of criminal injustices and atrocities. 

To attempt this meant having to face not only the might and wrath of Israel's very well equipped military, but also the  military, economic and political might and wrath of the governments supplying it with their weapons and their economic and political support and shielding. 

Those governments that had tried have either been eliminated and replaced or have been besieged, by various means, including massive violence. 

*The Criminality of the Enterprise in Palestine*

These actions of the Israeli government, carried out by its military and other agencies, as well as through its settlements and settlers, include not only legalized discrimination and injustice, but also routinely carrying out chronic harassment, kidnapping, incarceration, dispossession and displacement of the Palestinians, while continuing to illegally occupy and settle their territories, including by violent, even murderous means. This has been going on through my lifetime, starting earlier.

These clearly criminal actions of the Israeli government have also included carrying out, periodically, sustained massacres of thousands (indeed even at times tens of thousands as in Lebanon and again currently), of defenceless civilians. This too has a long history, starting in 1948 and only increasing in scale and ferocity over the decades. 

These civilians, mostly children and women, have continued to be killed and injured in the most horrific ways imaginable, as most clearly evidenced through reportage from the ground over the last five months, even as the reporters have been systematically targeted and killed, including with their families.

*What is Needed--and the Obstacles*

This has to stop, without further delay. Israel needs to return to the land area granted to it, however illegitimately, by the UN General Assembly in 1947, pulling out its illegal settlements and its illegal military occupation from areas taken by force. 

This can no longer wait for fraudulent "peace processes", including the recruitment of regional and local collaborators. The injustice, slaughter and suffering have to be ended forthwith.

However, the power of money and influence is such that, whether it be for the strategic or economic interests of the Western Alliance or for narrow Israeli ends of domination and expansion, or for both, public criticism of Israel (and of the flow of funds and arms and more to it from the West that enables these crimes, all clearly such under whatever there is of international law) has been impossible to sustain. 

Every Western politician who has tried, including past U.S. presidents and more recently a Labour party leader in the UK, has been ousted or otherwise silenced, along with their supporters. 

More importantly, every new crime of epic proportions results not only in no sanctions or condemnations, but in increased support, especially from the USA and the UK, including literally tens of billions of more armaments with which to carry on the atrocities. 

In addition, there is the never ending threat of military, economic and political action taken, not only by Israel but also by its supporting Western governments, against any government that dares to challenge or intervene in this sordid enterprise.

*The Unfortunate Implications of Zionism for the Jews*

Returning to the basic tenets of Zionism, one must also ask whether those who are of otherwise "liberal" or even "leftist" bent, should reconsider continuing to associate themselves with such a pernicious political ideology and its lethal consequences.

Tens of thousands of Jews in the USA and elsewhere have recognized this and have been trying their best to distance themselves from Zionism. Setting aside basic humanism and idealism, this is also clearly in the long term self interest of Jews, be they religious or secular, all over the world, including even in Israel and the Occupied Territories, although it may be far too late there, given especially what has occurred over the last five months.

The long-running scam has finally been exposed for much of the world to see.

Unless Jews, all over the world, make a very public and successful effort to not only distance themselves from Israel and what the world has seen the Israelis doing in Palestine, but also to put an end to this horror immediately, can one expect anyone who is not unusually insightful or sainted to not associate not just Israelis or Zionists but Jews more generally with these repeated and horrific crimes? 

No calling out of "antisemitism" is likely to have any effect, past a certain point which we sadly seem to have already passed. 

This would be as sad and as predictable an outcome for the Jews (and surely others) as was that which resulted from the  arrogance of establishing a state for European Jews in West Asia--for not only the Palestinians but for many others in the region, including the Jews of Africa and Asia. 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/671935595067485

Two Emailed Messages on US Politics and Palestine

 
******Two Emailed Messages on US Politics and Palestine******

Owing to the dying of my mobile phone, and associated problems, I may be inactive on Facebook and other social media for a while.
Meanwhile, here below are two emailed messages I sent recently to a few relatives and friends here in the USA who have been upset with me for stating that I cannot vote for Biden or his associates. 

I have lightly edited the emails and have added some starred (***...) separators, along with section-labels within the second email. The (mainly labeled) sections that are explicitly about Palestine in the second email are towards its end, after the final separator with 15 or so asterisks. 

I had not gone, in these two emails, into the historical context of the issues in Palestine. That is, of course, crucial and may be well known to many here--though generally not known within the USA until very recently, with a lot still left unknown. However, it would take too long to go into these historical matters, spanning most of the last century as well as this century to the present time.

Some of the written submittals by 53 countries and three international organizations in the ICJ case regarding, firstly, the legality of Israel's long occupation of Palestinian territories and, secondly, its responsibilities as an occupying power, have gone into this historical context in detail, with parts of this summarized and emphasized in the spoken presentations during the court hearings of 2024 February 19-26. 

Suffice it to say that the moving images that have  been projected onto (and to a good measure imprinted into) the public consciousness in this country over the course of the last 75 years have generally been the photographic negatives of the horrific and worsening  realities on the ground in Palestine over that period. 

This misrepresentation has hardly been confined to the USA, but this is one of the places where it has been worst. This has been aggravated by the general distancing between this country and the rest of the human world. 

Paradoxical as this may sound, this distancing had been a unidirectional one. While decisions made in the USA profoundly affected the lives of people across the planet, including very adversely, people within the USA remained relatively well shielded from being adversely affected by events in other countries. 

Part of that unidirectionality ended abruptly (in a horrific way for several thousands of us in my main place of work and residence) over 22 years ago. It was also changed more gradually but perhaps more profoundly by the large flows of firstly manufacturing and then remote-service industries to what is now called the "Global South", and by the industrial and economic rise of China, especially, along with other countries of that very large and populous group.

Many here will be aware of all that I have written below and may decry my focus on the internal politics of the USA. Having lived and worked here for the past half century, having noted the virtues and failings of its people and its systems and seeing also its very active role in events all over the planet over my lifetime, including what is occuring currrently in Palestine, I might perhaps be excused or at least understood.

***************

***Email of 2024-02-24 Sat.***

We have reached a breaking point in this country and in the global system. Trump was a warning symptom of that breakdown and Biden is part of it.

Those like me in this country who had been forced to choose the lesser evil repeatedly in past elections, have had enough. We cannot and will not vote for active supporters and enablers of genocides.

The world continues to be beset with problems of human origin, locally, nationally, regionally and globally. It is time for those aware of this, within each country's population, to rise up and say, "Enough!".

This country has played an outsize role in world affairs. It is time for its government to either step aside in these matters or else not continue to make these worse.

Let us remember past genocides and other catastrophes of human origin.

Let us be fully and painfully aware of the current, ongoing one and our role in it, including through our votes and the taxes we pay.

Never again. Enough!

****************

****Email of 2024-02-26 Mon****

I read the responses to my earlier enail, for which thanks. Here below are some detailed remarks regarding certain aspects of the political situation within the USA and how this situation is currently being affected, for a change, by events in Palestine.

**The Populist and Anti-Establishment Surge in the USA**

I am acutely aware of the danger to us (especially those of us who are "colored" immigrants) and others, here in the USA, from many of the Republicans and especially from their extreme wing. 

Trump tapped into this extremism, as part of his strategy, during his presidential primary and general election campaigns leading to the general election of 2016 November. 

However, in that general election, one should note that Trump also drew in many Independents (a very large group in this country) as well as a substantial number of Democrats.

These included many lifelong, working class Democrats, such as those in fairly liberal NYC. This was a phenomenon that I observed with alarm and initial puzzlement during the presidential campaign leading to 2016. 

Over time, having seen also how Bernie Sanders had risen up from nowhere in the Democratic primaries, without the huge big-donor funding and without the media and party-establishment support that Hillary Clinton had enjoyed and utilized, and seeing also how Trump had roundly beaten, in the Republican prinaries, the very well funded and strongly supported Republican contenders, I began to better understand at least parts of the phenomenon of so many voters abandoning the "political center". But that is another discussion.

******

**Rebellion**

One should note in passing that while the labor union leaders in NYC, Detroit, Chicago, etc., along with the African American politicians in the South and the urban centers had pushed hard for Hillary Clinton, much of the rank and file of even the unions rebelled, along with a significant fraction of the urban African American working class. African Americans in the South were a major exception. 

**Historical Context**

As we know, the Democrats in the South were the party of Jim Crow and segregation right through the 1960s, but that began to change with Johnson and more so with Nixon, with the black-white flip in the South being completed by Reagan. African Americans in the South have been among the most loyal Democrats ever since, with the majority of the Whites and others being loyal Republicans, joining in this with the old traditional Republican-heartland states. 

The same loyalty towards Democrats has not been that evident among Indian Americans, except perhaps in the West Coast, parts of the Northeast, Chicago, etc. As soon as we gain in income level, and at times even earlier, we tend to migrate into the Republican camp, with exceptions as noted. 
We see this reflected at the highest levels in those like Bobby Jindal, former governor of one of the Carolinas, Nikki Haley, yet another such, and <senior moment> that young, abrasive guy with hair rising high who dropped out of the presidential race.

Vivek Ramaswamy.

One sees this also at the highest levels among the Tories (Conservatives) in Britain, with the current prime minister Rishi Sunak and the former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, being examples. 

******

**Donald Trump**

Trump is a wild card, in a category by himself. He is a New Yorker, and likes to have his name splashed all over the city and his face and antics all over TV, including entertainment and news. 

So I had the most unpleasant fortune of being well acquainted with both his clowning and his nastiness, for a very long time, beginning long before he ran for President and won. He represents some of the worst aspects of  USAn, New Yorker, and perhaps human character, while displaying very few of the positive, redeeming features in any of these.

******

**The Questionable Political Strategy of the Democrats**

Be that as it may, no matter who runs on the Democratic side, unless he/she breaks the usual mold, Trump has a very good chance of being elected again--unless he is assassinated or jailed, both of which cannot be ruled out, with both probably leading to something akin to a civil war in this country. Trump and the Republicans need to be challenged and defeated politically, fair and square. The Democrats have shown no sign of being up to that challenge. 

They have focused instead mainly on demonizing Trump and his allies and relying on fear to motivate voters. What they have not been able to inspire in the general electorate is hope and passion. 

This is not to demean or downplay whatever has been done to reduce the damage caused by Trump and the Republicans during Trump's term in office. This simply represents the reality on the ground in the perceptions, justified or not, among much of the historically Democratic electorate.

******************

**The Gazza Massacres and Palestine**

Recent events have also caused a very crucial segment of voters--the younger, more liberal ones, to become completely disgusted with the establishment in both parties, with this revulsion clearly hurting the Democrats far more than the Republicans. 

Every new Security Council veto of a permanent ceasfire by the USA (with even its closest ally, the UK, typically abstaining, and all the other 13 voting yes), every vote in Congress to send tens of billions of dollars to Israel, every bypass of the Congress by the Biden administration to send more bombs, missiles and bullets to kill yet more tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children, every lack of condemnation and concrete action to stop the systematic bombings of residential buildings, schools, hospitals, refugee camps, UN refugee shelters, mosques and churches, every child or other civilian killed by sniper fire, burned alive or blasted into bits by weaponry from the USA drives yet another nail into the political coffins of Biden and his associates.

Each of these repeated actions also further isolates the USA from the public and even the governments across the world, with India being perhaps the major exception in the "Global South"--not unexpectedly, given the changed situation in India.  

******

**How U.S. Involvement in the Genocide in Palestine is Bringing Down the Democrats in the USA** 

It is not those like me (who see all of this and are revolted to the core) who are the problem. 

What is bringing down Biden (and with him much of the Democratic party) are the Democratic politicians, both in the executive and in Congress, who are carrying out these actions and voting as they have been doing. They have been going against what has been, for a while now, a 2/3 majority of the electorate and an even greater majority of both registered Democrats and of the younger voters. They are cutting their own throats in this regard. 

Why are they doing this is the question that should be asked. 

What is driving these executive actions and these votes in Congress and in the UN? 

Do the government officials and legislators not know that this is making us actively complicit in a relentless genocide, ongoing now for five months, against a trapped, defenceless and increasingly physically and psychologically terminal population? 

Why is the US itself increasingly isolated from even many of its closest allies? 

I humbly submit these simple questions to you.  I request that you seek the answers, including  through queries made to the offices of these politicians, whose staff can be reached by phone, which is best, or else by emails, including via their governmental, campaign or other websites. 

******

**Unacceptable Choices**

One can argue, on solid grounds, that the Republicans and Trump would make matters even worse. But this is like having to choose, in effect, between Hitler and Goebbels. 

******

**US Complicity in the Gazza Genocide Leading to its Global Isolation**

Even the Indian government has finally found it fit to vote with the overwhelming majority in UN General Assembly resolutions calling for a permanent ceasefire in Palestine. 

Out of the 193 member states of the UN, only a handful have persisted in voting with the US against these UNGA resolutions, mostly some Pacific Island states and some of the former members of the Nazi Axis in the Europe--such as Hungary and Austria (which had been absorbed into Germany at the time).

The ICJ provisional ruling declaring that there were plausible grounds for an ongoing genocide in Palestine did not come as a surprise to those of us who had been following the case closely. 

However, even many of us who had been following the case closely were surprised at the near unanimity of the five directives issued, corresponding to the five major charges brought against Israel by South Africa. The vote was 15-2 in favor in three of the five rulings, and 16-1 in the remaining two. 

See below, although you may be familiar with some or all of what I have written.

The US judge who presided over the hearings was a state department official during Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State. She voted, in each of the five counts, with the majority, choosing not to exercise her right to add her personal notes or cautions to each ruling.

The temporary Israeli judge appointed to the bench (along with a temporary South African judge, to hear this case brought by South Africa against Israel) was known to be a very strong hardliner in his judgements in Israel against the Palestinians, and had almost surely been selected by the Israeli government for this reason.

Even he voted yes, agreeing with the majority, on two of the directives.

Only the judge from Uganda voted no, against the majority, on all five counts. The Ugandan government has distanced itself from her judgments. 

**Continuing Disappointment**

What disappointed us bitterly, though not unexpectedly, was the lack of the most crucial things:

1) a directive to bring about an immediate ceasefire;

2) a follow-up security council resolution demanding the same, not watered down or vetoed by the USA;

3) actions (not just words) to stop the ongoing mayhem and suffering;

4) real movement on the ground  towards a truly just and lasting settlement of the issues in Palestine.

Common Sense about the Arya in India

Common Sense about the Arya in India

One only needs to walk through the cities, towns and villages of India, listen to the words spoken, look at the faces, observe the customs and notice how all of these vary considerably even within each local region and how they change even more as we move across the subcontinent. 

This alone makes us understand that we humans of the subcontinent are a very diverse agglomeration or confluence of biological and cultural streams that continue to mingle and flow as they have been doing through the ages, in spite of all the partial barriers constructed over time against the mixing of genes and cultures. 

In particular, it seems highly unlikely that the "Arya" communities and cultures, with their partiality towards light skin and "Caucasoid" features and with their languages linked to those extending from Iran through Kurdistan and Armenia to those of much of Europe, could have been born from the soil of our sun-baked land, as claimed. 

The term "Arya" was also used among the ancient Persians. Even the latter-day Shah of Iran presumed to adopt the title "Aryamehr". 

Of course, languages (and more generally cultures) and genetics should not be confused. Though they often coincide to some degree, they just as often do not. 

So we can have groups with clearly different general physical traits speaking the same general language and sharing the same general culture, including faith, and we can have groups with very similar physical traits speaking very different languages and having very different cultures, including faiths, etc. 

The reasons for this are historical. This can be understood by considering some examples. 

Southern Blacks and Whites in the USA have been separated by barriers that lasted long after slavery was abolished and still persist. However, though they may often look very different and have very different genetics, they speak the same local or regional dialects of English and share the same Christian faiths. 

Of course, many in the US South, in both "White" and "Black" communities, share ancestries through marital and extramarital unions over the centuries of slavery and subsequently, while the dynamics of slavery and segregation have resulted in some cultural differences that still persist. 

In places such as Cuba and Brazil, the mixing of genes and cultures between Africans, Europeans (and, in the case of Brazil, indigenous folk) has proceeded further. 

In Belgium, it might be difficult to distinguish in physical appearance or even in genetics between Flemings and Walloons. Yet the languages they speak at home are quite distinct (Flemish and the local French). And while the languages of the Flemings and the Dutch may not differ by much, the two communities are still separated by religion and an international border.  

Indo-Aryan or Indic is a linguistic grouping, as is Indo-European, and this may or may not coincide with genetic groupings, previously based on physical features and now more on DNA studies. 

That said, one notes that the favored, 'Arya' skin tones and facial features are shared with later entrants from the northwest--from around 1000 AD on, mostly Muslims, as still evidenced in the complexions and features of many of our Indian film stars.

It is unlikely that the 'Arya' could have even existed there (in the sun-drenched subcontinent) for very long without gaining (through natural selection) the pigmentation needed to shield them from the adverse affects of solar radiation--perhaps a few thousand years, at most, despite the sexual selection in place that favors light skinned brides, etc. 

It could not be more than that, in my rough estimate, based on what one sees among the indigenous folk in most other tropical parts of the world, including, for instance, Central America and northern South America. 

These populations are taken to have mostly entered the Americas, beginning tens of thousands of years ago, from northeastern Asia, via Alaska, and so were likely adapted to cold and cloudy climates with weaker sunlight, where ligher, thinner skin allows for enough penetratiin of sunlight to ensure sufficient vitamin D production.

However, they have subsequently adapted, in sunny regions of the Americas, to conditions there, gaining in the ability to produce enough protective skin melanin.  

One notes the persistence of lighter skin and heavier legs (adaptations to less sunny and colder climates) among parts of the population of tropical Indonesia and SE Asia. The likely reason for this is fairly recent migration (again over the past several thousand years at most) of populations from more northern parts of East Asia into these regions. 

Among these populations, there is also a color prejudice, a preference for lighter skin, especially for women, as one notices in the widespread use of parasols by females.

This is a custom also common in southern parts of China and carried over into Chinese and other Asian communities elsewhere, including my "hometown" of Brooklyn, New York.

Like all other humans in the subcontinent, the Arya probably entered it from other regions, relatively late in the prehistory of human habitation of the subcontinent, preceded by others and followed in turn by others, with of course flows back and forth in and out of the subcontinent into adjoining areas as well as distant ones over time. 

As for the Harappan civilization, it always seemed to me unlikely that its population (probably diverse, given its extent in time and space) was directly connected with the one that gave us the Vedas or the later epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. 

Surely, there must have been cultural contacts and influences and surely the genes of the Harappan peoples survive in our current diverse populations along with those of others. 

Beyond these commonsense observations, we have to leave it to the experts in DNA analysis, to those who can find connections between the physical artifacts of the past and, if the Harappan script is ever properly deciphered, to the linguists who can then do their specialized work.

Gautam Jain’s Reverser

 
Gautam Jain’s Reverser

One Gautam Jain, with wars disgusted,
Did once invent a strange device
That drew upon the Earth’s rotation—
Along with lentils, served with rice.

And when that fine machine was started,
It monitored, with ease, the world,
Detecting, through its deep inspection,
Each and every object hurled

At speeds beyond the chosen setting
Gautam Jain had set it at—
Speeds that signaled swift destruction—
Far beyond what ball and bat

Could ever reach to—though, more truly,
Those like me have merely guessed
At what Gautam had created,
Knowing things he knew of best.

‘Momentum’, ‘rate of change’, and ‘jeera’… \1
Were things he spoke of, some invented. 
The few who understood this nodded,
Along with those who just pretended. 

****** 

A wonderful device, of genius—
This thing that Gautam Jain had made—
Ended (so we hoped) our mayhem—
Bringing peace, for which we’d prayed!

It detected man-made fires,
Explosions starting, near and far;
Reversed the speeding objects’ motions,
Quenched the fires—and ended war!

Conflagrations, used for arson,
Blasts gigantic, meant to shatter,
Snagged at targets, were transported
Back to strike at each attacker!

Gautam Jain, through wits and labors,
Did achieve this great success.
He called this thing “The Great Reverser”,
Hoping it would end our mess.

It seemed to us that this invention
Might perhaps bring peace, at last,
And also cure our constant racing—
By slowing all that moved too fast.

****** 

But then, some devious, scheming humans
Found a way to turn it ‘round!
And so we see this dire destruction
That never ceases to astound.

On observing his invention
Turned around, our Gautam Jain
Cried, “Alas! The Earth’s rotation,
Rice, and lentils—all in vain!”

Quite unable, then, to bear this,
Gautam whispered to his wife,
“Though this act might grieve you sorely,
I must surely end my life!”

Gautam’s wife (whose name escapes me)
Cried out loud on hearing this.
“Surely, dear, the Earth’s rotation, 
Rice, plus lentils—could not miss?

“But seeing that some twisted humans
Once again have thwarted peace,
Could the yearly revolution
Be, perhaps, the missing piece?”

******

“Joined with sabzi and with roti, \2,3
This might thwart the evil ones.
Nothing surely beats chapaati! \4
That’s on what my engine runs!”

Sage are women such as her,
Nameless though they're wont to be.
Simple, plain, in thoughts and words, 
They still have sight to deeply see.

Heartened by his wife’s devotion,
And by all her sage advice,
Gautam did a calculation,
And did away with daal and rice. \5

Turning, too, from turns diurnal,
Or even mensal, scorning fear,
He turned to turns of more duration—
Starting with the solar year.

Through the days and nights he labored—
Not just merely “dawn to dusk”.
He slept upon the office flooring,
Beating even Elon Musk!

******
 
Using wits, and using knowledge,
Deep, of chemistry and cooking,
Using physics, with masaala,… \6
Gautam went, for answers looking! 

“Did Gautam then achieve successes?”
You might ask. I do not know.
He well might still be at his labors.
Wish him well! I now must go.

I hear, afar, the planes that thunder
Where the sky is lit with flame.
On the nightly news, they’re saying,
“Gautam Jain’s the one to blame!”

By reversing his “Reverser”,
More of children now are burned.
But then, by being born, those children
Surely, such a fate, have earned.

Bless the ones that seek to slaughter;
Curse the ones that pine for peace.
Gautam Jain and his Reverser 
Are proof enough. I’ve said my piece.

2023 November 26th, Sun. 
Berkeley, California

Notes (translations of words from Hindi-Urdu)
1. jeera: cumin seed
2. sabzi: vegetable
3. roti: bread (usually unleavened, whole-wheat, flat and round)
4. chapaati: subcontinental roti made on a griddle
5. daal: lentil stew
6. masaala: spices

Ancient Hatreds? / Human Nature

 

Ancient Hatreds? / Human Nature

Let us hope that the many differences between humans based on ancestry and other things do not continue to lead to the divisions and conflicts that have led to so much suffering in the past and continue to do so to this day. 

Sentient beings experience pain and pleasure, suffering and happiness. They may experience sorrow, grief, joy and exhilaration. They also experience fear and anger--which when prolonged can turn to chronic anxiety and hatred. This is part of what we all share as humans and more generally as sentient beings. 

Friendship, caring and love cross the boundaries of cultures and ethniticities and even of species. Empathy and respect are what enable us to function as social beings. These things are universal. 

"Ancient hatreds" are things unknown to untutored children, be they of whatever ancestry or culture. But how we treat one another can either lead to new hatreds or revival of long-buried ones or to new alliances and bonds that might even revive or reinforce ancient commonalities. 

All of this seems abstract. True saints are perhaps very rare or nonexistent. 

However, in my experience (living most of my life among complete strangers, and at times--as when hospitalized--at their mercy), there is much in human nature that is good and universal (though sometimes well hidden). 

Let us hope that we turn towards our better natures rather than our other sides, which may be of help when we are in danger but should be turned away from otherwise.