Articles by Naresh Jotwani
We found 31 results.
(Italiano) Attenzione agli Esperti!
Naresh Jotwani | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Dec 2020
4 Dicembre 2020 – Il mondo–o almeno larga e predominante parte di esso!–è incredibilmente gestita da cosiddetti “esperti”, ogni tanto soprannominati giustamente come “tecnocrati”. I loro ambiti di “competenza” sono molti, e la loro lista sta crescendo sempre più costantemente.
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Beware the Experts!
Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Nov 2020
Opportunities for gaming the system are many. The standard, time-tested techniques of cronyism, mutual back-scratching, feudalism, deception, hyperbole, playing to the gallery … et cetera … run rampant. These techniques are at work incessantly and brazenly, around the world, to further the careers of aggressive and ambitious old-timers, mid-lifers and new entrants.
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***Thought Seed*** – Oct 2020 Issue
Naresh Jotwani and Bhargav Vyas – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Oct 2020
Dear Antonio, Greetings from India!
We have started monthly letters named Thought Seed for interested readers. The central theme of these letters is ‘finding the truth of life deep within,’ wherein we also aim to bridge the difficult gap between theory and practice. We wish to appeal equally to atheists and theists. It is a pleasure having it published in TMS as a Letter to the Editor.
Thought Seed – Sep 2020 Issue
Naresh Jotwani and Bhargav Vyas – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2020
Every culture offers, to those who seek, a right way to deal with difficulties. Indian culture is no different. In an attempt to re-discover our own solutions to problems, we have started a monthly letter we call Thought Seed. We are happy to share it with readers of the TMS Weekly Digest.
→ read full articleWhat Is a Holistic View?
Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Aug 2020
Sages say that craving, aversion and illusion are the root causes of an individual’s problems. These problems occur in every community, without exception, regardless of whether ‘outsiders’ are present or not. But an altogether different category of problems arises when people who intermingle with one another lack a shared holistic view. Conflicts arise over differences in views.
→ read full articleA True Intelligence Assessment, For Once!
Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Aug 2020
So as long as one is articulate, persuasive, photogenic, assertive and well-networked – what one says does not matter. The truth value of a narrative does not count. What counts is only the result: Which narrative ‘looked like it carried the day’? That explains the 24×7 yakety-yak. In such an environment, rational debate is not possible. And what happens if rational debate fails? Conflict, what else?
→ read full articleThe Horrible Costs of a Fake Word
Prof. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Jun 2020
The world has literally ‘lost it’ over the horrible word capitalism. This may seem like an overstatement, but it can be justified easily. Today the global economic system is awash in ‘capital’ worth trillions upon trillions of dollars, but it is not coming to our help. By what twisted economics can this situation be justified? The reality of the word capitalism is ugly but simple. It is GREED – or the worship of Mammon – in a newer disguise.
→ read full articleWar and Peace in the Globalized World (Part II)
Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Apr 2020
The powerful ‘ruling elites’ of one country very often have better ties with the ‘ruling elites’ of another country, than with the average folk of their own country. ‘Birds of a feather fly together’ is the rule. No ‘special one’ wishes to be seen to be close to the average Joe or Jane. Therefore social, business and political ties are far stronger among ‘ruling elites’ across countries, than across the deep ‘economic schism’ in one country.
→ read full articleWar and Peace in the Globalized World (Part I)
Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Feb 2020
Money-on-tap gives them virtually unlimited purchasing power – and purchasing power is power. They buy the most expensive manpower and assets that money can buy, in effect behaving like “Sultans” of all that they survey. Almost anything can be purchased for a price, after all. Thus money-on-tap is the latest innovation to create the illusion of “conquering the world”.
→ read full articleTo Rob or Not to Rob?
Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jan 2020
Consider this simple “parlour game”. Pass a blank slip of paper to every person present in a group. Request each person to answer the following question anonymously on the slip provided. ‘An old, richly bejewelled lady is passing along a dimly-lit and lonely lane at night. A lone robber robbing all her jewellery would certainly not be recognized or caught. Out of a hundred adult citizens of the city, how many do you think will rob the old lady?’
→ read full articleDear NATO Member
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
As you know, wars are fought not by the wordsmiths and their paymasters – but rather by simple-minded folk who must somehow be “driven to war”. So every “civilizational narrative” has two major strands coded within it – “master-speak” and “mass-speak”. The former is centred on “self-interest”, while the latter speaks to “duty and love of country.”… You heard “experts” at the summit talking about “new threats” facing NATO. In the hugely lucrative business of “threats”, eggheads can always be found to write up impressive “threat analyses” to suit any given agenda. Sadly, no political leader dares to question the eggheads.
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Engineering or Technology?
Naresh Jotwani | Medium – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Nov 2019
It comes as a slight surprise that the word ‘technology’ has its root in the Greek word tekhne, which meant ‘art’; after all, today we understand art as being quite distinct from technology. It is no surprise, however, that the word ‘engineering’ is rooted in the word ‘engine,’ which is indirectly rooted in the Latin word for ‘intellect’ or ‘inventiveness’. The English word ‘ingenious’ is close to the Latin near-equivalent ingenium. Here–in a light-hearted way!–I try to bring out the difference between the two as I also make some gentle fun of the indecent modern haste to make money out of technology.
→ read full articleThwarted Intelligence Disorder
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Oct 2019
The deep-down sense of being boxed-in, and the outward display of greed, lust and vanity, form a deadly vicious cycle with no avenue of escape. Desperate antics – akin to rattling and banging the cage – only make matters worse; the only possible prognosis is senility. One is tempted to call this state of mind the “thwarted intelligence disorder” (TID); words such as “demonic” have been used for such conditions in earlier times.
→ read full articleDear Butterflies, Help!
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Aug 2019
In a world marked by cognitive disassociation, is there a rational option? As long as there is reason, there has to be a rational option; and the first step has to be this: Understand clearly the problem. The following may seem to be a triviality, or perhaps a tautology, but it is also a tough dilemma of human nature: The promise of attaining durable peace goes hand in hand with the challenge of having to countenance the horrors of human nature.
→ read full articleApocalypse!
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 May 2019
In the original, secular sense of the word, ‘apocalypse’ means ‘revelation’ – something which was previously unknown becomes known. When Archimedes discovered a certain law of Physics in his bathtub and jumped out shouting ‘Eureka!’ he experienced an ‘apocalypse’. Due to the influence of scriptures, however, it has also come to mean ‘widespread destruction or disaster’, or even ‘end time’ – although this latter meaning has no relationship to the original meaning of the word in Greek.
→ read full articleTaxes or Debt?
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Mar 2019
Economists define ‘the wealth of a society’ as its total stock of useful assets – homes, cars, buildings, roads, factories, cattle, money, gold … et cetera. Let us call this definition D1. It turns out that the original definition of ‘wealth’, a few hundred years ago, was NOT D1. Originally, in Old English, the word ‘wealth’ was related to ‘well-being’, via the word ‘weal’. ‘Wealth’ meant, quite simply, ‘that which brought well-being’. Let us call this simpler definition D2.
→ read full articleResponse to the Bank Chairman
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Feb 2019
The Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International was interviewed on Sophie & Co about the state of the world economy. So-called ‘Masters of the Universe’ regularly come up with self-serving arguments. But any right-thinking ‘amateur’ who is not in their pockets can easily demolish their arguments!
→ read full articleFrom Barter to Debt: A Brief History
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jan 2019
In which the brilliant deductive techniques of Sherlock Holmes are applied to the origins of debt, currency and the debt-linked economy.
→ read full article‘Homo Implacatus’
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
Living Economics – It may be noted that Homo Implacatus–the latter word meaning ‘discontented’–is a more suitable name for the species which has wrongly been named Homo Sapiens. A corollary of the above argument is that excessive economic inequality in human society is wasteful in a biological sense.
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Fly on the Wall
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Nov 2018
‘Wish I could be a fly on the wall when X and Y meet one-on-one’. This is an ardent – and not very uncommon – wish among those who must know ‘what is really going on in the world’. But last night a truly mind-boggling event occurred! Your humble correspondent had his ‘fly on the wall’ wish fulfilled! Naturally, what this particular ‘fly on the wall’ witnessed must be reported forthwith – as being of utmost and paramount significance to the future of mankind. Accordingly, this is your mind-boggled correspondent reporting, much more reliably than CNN:
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Gutless Wonders
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2018
A chief aim of political or business propaganda is to put ‘common people’ in doubt about their own judgement – and thereby to make them dependent on the judgement of ‘the elites’. Throughout history, it has been a cunning political and business strategy to induce – through ceaseless propaganda – an inferiority complex amongst ‘common people’.
→ read full articleWhat Is Freedom?
Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2018
Not many will dispute that ‘freedom’ is one of the more popular words in English language today — in spite of the fact that, as we shall see, this word does not even have a well-defined meaning.
→ read full articleLife at the Top
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2018
While the author has at times felt being “on top of the world”, he cannot claim any personal experience of “life at the top”. However, being a keen witness and a dogged student, the common idea of “top” fascinates him. After all, a crazed race to “the top” inevitably leads to injustice, crime and war. But anyone obsessed with “reaching the top” can provide only a self-serving report of his or her life. Therefore an objective if light-hearted study is attempted here.
→ read full articleSeeking the Root Causes
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2018
Any voluntary action that an individual performs originates as an inner urge. The urge may be “towards” something, or “away from” something; it may also be based on a wrong understanding of reality. These three states of mind can be termed as “craving”, “aversion” and “illusion”, respectively… If the above are generally applicable observations, then they apply even in a conflict situation – to persons engaged in a conflict, to persons who provoke a conflict, and to persons who escape from conflict or hardship.
→ read full articleDeconstructing Power (Part 4)
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2018
28 May 2018 – The exploration of “power” made so far has been general. It is applicable to any human society, irrespective of time and place. We shall focus now on the specifics of the exciting but alarming situation prevalent today.
→ read full articleDeconstructing Power (Part 3)
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2018
With help from court poets and scribes, a “rising power” has traditionally been made to appear “heroic” and “majestic”. But a “disoriented and declining power” is pathetic – although poets and scribes would continue their assigned work, as long as the treasury continues to pay their salaries. Is a declining power more of a threat to humanity than a rising power?
→ read full articleDeconstructing Power (Part 2)
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2018
16 Apr 2018 – We have noted in Part 1 that the psychology of violence is also the psychology of power. Therefore we may benefit hugely from analyzing the psychology of power; that may in turn help in preventing a breakout of violence or war.
→ read full articleDeconstructing Power (Part 1)
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
2 Apr 2018 – Regular use of violence – for “external” or “internal” security – has become a salient characteristic of the modern age. The enormous capability of modern technology has been aiding the process, multiplying manifold the potential of suffering which is caused by the use of violence.
→ read full articleCompassion, Perspicacity and Power
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2018
Coercion implies the absence of compassion, and usually also at least some lack of perspicacity. “Leaders” and their “inner circle” tend to take the position that any feeling or view which is judged to be at variance with “collective goals and values” needs to be suppressed – or even perhaps “rooted out”. Within an individual’s psyche, power generates ambition and rapacity.
→ read full articleIt’s the Rapacity, Stupid!
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Feb 2018
19 Feb 2018 – A greedy person holds on tight to what he or she has, hoards as much as possible, and is totally given over to the aim of “having more and more things”. Rapacity, on the other hand, refers to a tendency to snatch from others, the tendency being closely related to show of power and enjoyment in power. It may be noted that the words “rape” and “rapine” also derive from the same Latin root.
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Identity and Peace
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Feb 2018
Until the birth of the modern nation state, people lived in tribal groups. Commerce as well as skirmishes would have been common between tribes. In those days the tribe played a crucial role in shaping a child’s identity. In the modern world, economically defined ‘class’ also plays a big role in defining a person’s identity. Therefore we may use the word ‘tribe’ with this broader meaning of ‘identity group’ — subsuming both ‘caste’ and ‘class’.
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