Liberalisation

 Liberalisation is the unfolding of evolving consciousness in a society or polity. It eases people's living and creates a good ambience within society and beyond. It also happens that people fall for illiberal ideologies and undergo collective decline and great distress. 

The charlatans who drive people to illiberalism make people hate the capital, the medium which enables people to venture into serving others. They seek to control and dictate all and sundry and make a virtue of levying. They hate people living an independent dignified life. 

Slavishnes of the folks is the substance of humankind's history. The historical trap is difficult to get rid of. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Fact of Value

It is strangest to see that people remain oblivious to hard-hitting facts, as hard as a limb-shattering blow to self, or very sensitive about very trivial things or occurrences. People see things as they are trained to see them. Ideologies and values are what make people what they are.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Knowledge

 Knowledge is a tricky phenomenon. Generally, we assume that knowledge is good. We endeavour to learn and pay to be taught in search of the good. 

But, often many things we get as pieces of knowledge are destructive and unimaginably harmful for self and others. And, there are absolutist systems of knowledge, which invade our minds and make us puppets. 

Knowledge is unavoidable. Human beings are hyper-knowledge-seeking and possessing species. 

We hold good and bad pieces of knowledge and the balance shapes our being, well or ill, overall. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Justice and Justicism

Justice, I think, needs to be distinguished from a related phenomenon, which can be termed Justicism. Justice I think is an idea and what goes on in its name generally is an ideology. To put it simply, Justice is an idea and Justicism is an ideology. Ideologies are used to control people; holier their garb, holistic is the control.

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Emphatetic Reading

 It is amusing to learn that most people read, listen or see only imagined stuff and their reading, listening and seeing run parallel to and neatly disconnected from what they read, listen and see respectively. Empathetic reading, I think, is a rare intellectual calibre. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

CSR

    To an investor, CSR amounts to just another levy. CSR is the same on the part of any business organisation as it is running a grocery store on the part of a government or as being a vigilante on the part of a citizen. Corporations are at their best when they sense the needs of people and serve them by provisioning quality goods and services. Anything else is a deviation on their part.

    Charity must be an independent social function and should be done by individuals in their personal capacity, and through non-corporate and non-government organisations. Civil organisations should generate the funds by running captive business ventures, self-help groups, cooperative enterprises, and/or seeking donations from individual private persons. However, it is a legitimate function of the government to have the capacity or mechanism to help people in calamitous, accidental, and extraordinary distress.

    A neat division of functions among government, business corporations, and civil organisations would serve society better. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

Friend-shoring and Near-shoring

The West is working on friend-shoring and near-shoring in place of offshoring and outsourcing for the sake of reliable supply chains. It is a strategic move for them for their own security and in order to check the rise of the challenger. Nonetheless, it is another blow to globalisation, the moving of the world towards universal good. It meant fewer conflicts, lower carbon emissions, and greater prosperity for humankind. 

What we can do as global citizens is to avoid the merchandise of rogue nations and raise our voices against them on public fora. Even otherwise, as responsible citizens, we must consume less of the products which we import. The added advantage would be our carbon footprint being smaller. It costs but it would be costlier for a nation to be roguish. We must find and favour democratic and friendly nations for doing business. 

At the same time, we must work hard for quality and cost-effectiveness in whatever we do. We must be unavoidable as the great nations go into closed groups. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Justice

Justice is justice without any adjectivisation; with an adjective, it is a marker of a power struggle.

NKJ

Failed ideas

What is a failed idea? It would be longish to elaborate on but in a sentence, I see its final impact; that is it makes people glorify their sufferance. I see with great bewilderment that many failed ideas get celebrated and emulated.

I find the reason that people are not allowed to learn to be happy and do better happily. They are taught to sacrifice and suffer in order to be better. And, duplicitous people make merry in such a state and the rest have no way other than to suffer.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Asian Century

Asia is a dangerous geography. In fact, India is more threatened by Asian entities than by any other country. The sloganeering of the Asian Century reminds me of the experiment of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Nations of the world are ruthless in imposing their interests and culture on others. The rise of Asia is okay for India only when it is able to have a balancing strength by virtue of its own economic, military, and cultural capabilities. Otherwise, Asia would be a perilous zone for India. The only thing Indians should endeavour for is India's present and future, not for something like the misleading idea of the Asian Century.

 
Niraj Kumar Jha

Logical Thinking

 Logical thinking is not simply an exercise of the mind on part of a person so willing; rather it is an ability gained through effort, knowledge, experience, and a favourable social milieu. It is not so that you ask a person to think logically and he would switch from illogical ideation to logical thinking. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

Reasoning for Beliefs

One must distinguish between persons who reason for their beliefs and those who believe in reasoning. The great believers of modern times reduced history and current phenomena as pieces of evidence in support of their beliefs, and their beliefs are not very different from those age-old beliefs for which even manslaughter was a mere ritual. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Resisting Progress

 We are very soft towards persons of beliefs but very harsh towards persons of reason. We are pleased with persons who say nothing by putting forth umpteen words but get hurt with persons who speak few words but of relevance. We highlight some bad aspects of good and some good aspects of bad. We thus resist progress. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Making or Unmaking of Politics

Values make politics. What people in general value solidify as political institutions. We must consider the implications, effects, and aftereffects of what we value.

 
If you value your bare person irrespective of what you are, and most of your compatriots do the same, you have a robust democracy. Most people instead cherish the positions they hold or others hold, not the persons of either themselves or of others.

 
Niraj Kumar Jha