{"id":120164,"date":"2018-10-15T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T11:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=120164"},"modified":"2018-10-12T13:58:08","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T12:58:08","slug":"gutless-wonders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/10\/gutless-wonders\/","title":{"rendered":"Gutless Wonders"},"content":{"rendered":"

The English word \u2018gut\u2019 is rich in its range of meanings. In biology, \u2018gut\u2019 means \u2018intestine\u2019 \u2013 as in \u2018gut bacteria\u2019 or \u2018gutting a fish\u2019; this meaning extends to the racquet strings used in sports such as tennis and badminton. In common usage, \u2018guts\u2019 refers to \u2018courage\u2019, as in \u2018having the guts to take on the huge challenge of _______\u2019 (fill in your favourite).<\/em><\/p>\n

A \u2018gut reaction\u2019 is an instinctive reaction \u2013 as in \u2018my gut reaction was not to get involved\u2019. Someone largely devoid of \u2018gut reactions\u2019 is said to be insensitive, sluggish, or even zombie-like. On the other hand, highly sensitive persons may even exhibit physiological symptoms caused by their strong \u2018gut reactions\u2019. The phrase \u2018gut-wrenching\u2019 refers to an experience which evokes intense \u2018gut reaction\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

There is no doubt therefore that \u2018gut\u2019 is an interesting word; indeed, so interesting that we shall throw light on geopolitics \u2013 no less! \u2013 using this word!<\/em><\/p>\n

Fasten your seat-belts!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A clearly sensed \u2018gut reaction\u2019 is an individual\u2019s immediate and innate test of truth. This reaction is instinctive; it does not go through a tortuous and tortured round of intellectual argumentation and rationalization. In fact, what emerges after a tortured round of argumentation and rationalization often goes against instinctive judgement.<\/p>\n

A chief aim of political or business propaganda is to put \u2018common people\u2019 in doubt about their own judgement \u2013 and thereby to make them dependent on the judgement of \u2018the elites\u2019. Throughout history, it has been a cunning political and business strategy to induce \u2013 through ceaseless propaganda \u2013 an inferiority complex amongst \u2018common people\u2019.<\/p>\n

Without such propaganda, how would \u2018the elites\u2019 convince common people to risk their lives in bloody wars? To accept their poverty as an essential element of \u2018imperial greatness\u2019? Or to believe that \u2018the elites\u2019 will work to ensure their wellbeing?<\/p>\n

In a democracy, a good leader senses what common people \u2013 his or her support base \u2013 need and desire. No doubt the leader also shapes peoples\u2019 aspirations \u2013 but he or she cannot get to that stage without first acknowledging their needs and desires. Such interactions among people are an integral part of even an imperfectly functioning democracy.<\/p>\n

People\u2019s needs and desires are shaped by the multitude of their \u2018gut reactions\u2019 to events of everyday life \u2013 \u2018on Main Street\u2019, \u2018in the village square\u2019 or \u2018in the bazaar<\/em>\u2019. To be successful, a wannabe leader \u2013 honest or otherwise \u2013 must have his ear to the ground.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Around the world, powerful modern technologies of finance and mass communication are breaking the vital links of functioning democracies. \u2018Modern leaders\u2019 rely more on the easily managed \u2018virtuality\u2019 of media technologies than on the reality of people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

In an industrialized society, this fact remains hidden as long as its industrial economy is strong. But when the society loses its industrial strength, its real economy stagnates. Self-proclaimed leaders then turn against the people and feather their own nests \u2013 saying, in effect: If there isn\u2019t enough to go around, let me at least grab my fat share!<\/em><\/p>\n

With the advent of mass media \u2013 that is, instruments of mass propaganda \u2013 it has become easier to make common people lose confidence in their own \u2018gut reactions\u2019, and thereby to make them disoriented. Day after day, year after year, suppose a person is told that: (a) his or her difficulties are justified by \u2018a greater cause\u2019, and (b) he or she is \u2018not as good as the elites\u2019. Would the person not lose confidence in his or her own judgement?<\/p>\n

This happens by conscious design and manipulation \u2013 because disoriented populations are easier to exploit as lackeys, serfs, debt-slaves or cannon fodder.<\/p>\n

A sound desideratum of \u2018education\u2019 is that an educated person should be able to interpret events correctly and choose the course which leads to his or her durable wellbeing. Indeed, this criterion defines a healthy, functioning individual.<\/p>\n

\u2018The elites\u2019 would prefer to nip such tendencies in the bud. Their business and political model relies on simple people remaining ignorant. Therefore simple people \u2013 who wish only to get on with their simple lives \u2013 must today learn the vile tricks of their exploiters; or else even their proverbial pitchforks will prove useless.<\/p>\n

No political philosophy should ignore the simple people\u2019s concerns and modest needs. These people are acutely tuned in to events around them \u2013 in towns and villages \u2013 as they struggle for a modicum of well-being amidst hardship and the arrogance of power.<\/p>\n

Well-functioning societies provide channels of communication for the knowledge of such \u2018ground realities\u2019 to be factored into political decisions. The channels consist of community leaders, farmers, traders, union leaders, party workers, religious groups … and so on.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, when policymakers rely on slick analyses divorced from reality<\/em>, the resulting policies are \u2018castles in the air\u2019 \u2013 that is, \u2018gutless\u2019 policies in the sense of citizens authentic \u2018gut reactions\u2019 not being taken into account.<\/p>\n

Policy divorced from reality is based on false assumptions, empty verbiage and wishful bombast; but it is driven by fierce personal ambition. No test of truth is built into analyses. The only important factor is: Who has whose ear?<\/em> In such conditions, policymaking is no more than a futile \u2018game of thrones\u2019 played out in \u2018the corridors of power\u2019.<\/p>\n

People engaged in such forms of unworkable policy can be called \u2018gutless wonders\u2019 \u2013 they are divorced from reality, and are living in wonderland. In such policymaking processes, it is immaterial whether incompetence is at work, or malevolence, or a mix thereof. The same problems are created, whether the perpetrators are \u2018evil\u2019 or merely stupid.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

When fear and greed rule markets and societies, delusion runs rampant. \u2018Think tanks\u2019 provide paid lobbying services rather than sound scholarship \u2013 but in a \u2018dumbed-down\u2019 society, who can tell the difference? Huge bureaucracies serve only themselves.<\/p>\n

\u2018International community\u2019 is today code for an extremely narrow view of how world affairs should be managed. The view champions \u2018freedom\u2019 \u2013 but the gutless wonders pushing the view are not free-standing individuals. Mostly they are pampered nerds, unable to tolerate the slightest difference of opinion or the slightest view of human suffering. They are puffed up by immense bureaucratic power and billions of dollars worth of fiat currency.<\/p>\n

Gutless wonders devise elaborate and expensive schemes for \u2018global welfare\u2019 \u2013 while ensuring in the process only their own welfare. After disguising cleverly their own fears and greed, they present themselves as being \u2018professional\u2019, free from fear and greed. Many of the \u2018academic degrees\u2019 popular today provide mainly the camouflage needed for a person to function as an efficient-sounding and \u2018politically correct\u2019 gutless wonder.<\/p>\n

Gutless wonders today seem to be straddling the world \u2013 not with valiant armies, but with fiat currencies, financial and legal skulduggery, bribes, propaganda and cunning. Their only apparent goal in life is ever more power and wealth.<\/p>\n

In actual fact this never-ending grab for power and wealth indicates morbidity, a very deep-seated insecurity. As a result, shameless moral and logical contortions are used towards their aims \u2013 \u2018whatever it takes\u2019, in a famous phrase.<\/p>\n

\u2018Globalism\u2019 is propagated by such gutless, scheming cowards. Invariably, these cowards benefit from having \u2018friends and relatives in high places\u2019. But, without batting an eyelid, they would also sell their aging grandmothers if the price is right. Untold human misery created in faraway lands does not ever deserve an entry in their cooked-up account books.<\/p>\n

Gutless wonders work from behind the thick walls of bureaucracies and think tanks, and live in heavily-guarded communities. All the time that they hatch their frenzied schemes, they are protected by cronies and by paid politicians, academics, lawyers, and accountants.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Nationalism\u2019 is the common meme being projected as obstructing \u2018the noble onward march of globalisation\u2019. The message being propagated is that \u2018nationalism\u2019 is an \u2018evil\u2019 \u2013 a sign of \u2018narrow minds\u2019 \u2013 which hinders \u2018mankind\u2019s noble onward march\u2019. However, this \u2018onward march\u2019 means mainly the narrow self-interest of the global gutless wonders.<\/p>\n

You will never hear the following from globalist gutless wonders.<\/p>\n

A \u2018nation\u2019 is not merely a \u2018narrow identity label\u2019. Belonging to a cohesive community is an essential part of human nurture and culture \u2013 and a basic human right of a child and an adolescent. The idea of \u2018nationhood\u2019 can be pilloried only by ignoring the priceless care and nurture which is provided in families, neighbourhoods and communities.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nationalism\u2019 is a force for good if it is defined by people who care for their own \u2013 without bearing any ill will towards others<\/em>. Nationalism does not have to be defined by hatred. It can and should be accompanied by mutual respect and non-interference.<\/p>\n

\u2018Globalism\u2019 is today devoid of compassion. It is defined instead by global legal rights to exploit, to buy and sell, to pass hidden costs to the weak, to destroy ecosystems, to avoid paying taxes \u2013 and to loudly enforce a monopoly on morality and ethics. An apt phrase applicable to this \u2018modern\u2019 mindset would be \u2018The Ugly Globalist\u2019, or we may call it the newest version of \u2018exceptionalism\u2019.<\/p>\n

All over the world, fair-minded human beings \u2013 whether white, black, brown, pink, or yellow \u2013 need to understand clearly what they are up against. Obfuscation is the deadliest weapon of the gutless wonders \u2013 who paint themselves as the best and the brightest, the purest of the pure; so bright and pure that they can tell all others how to behave.<\/p>\n

What is absent in them is humility attained through a true understanding of human reality. They do not seem to understand that arrogance closes the door to truth and understanding, and that wisdom flows from true comprehension of suffering.<\/p>\n

Therefore, when something goes wrong, their wail goes: Mummy, look! These bad and uncivilized people are not allowing us to teach them and to cheat them! Didn\u2019t you tell us that was their manifest destiny?<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

A spirit of \u2018healthy nationalism\u2019 is distinguished by care for one\u2019s fellow nationals, without any ill will towards other nations<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In this sense, \u2018nationalism\u2019 matters because human relations matter, traditions matter, self-respect matters. These priceless human values are not to be sacrificed at the altars of fake ideologies, power and wealth — that is to say, \u2018tools of trade of the globalists\u2019.<\/p>\n

Is multilateralism possible in this world without mutually respectful<\/em> \u2018nationalism\u2019 all around? There are some two hundred \u2018countries\u2019 in the world; almost all of them are made up of several different \u2018intramural nations\u2019. Therefore the innate spirit of \u2018nationalism\u2019 cannot be legislated out of existence. Indeed, a healthy society does not need much written legislation \u2013 whereas badly written legislation only makes things worse.<\/p>\n

What needs to be articulated clearly is that, in a multilateral world with hundreds of nationalities, each nation must free itself of hatred towards others. Is it possible to aim towards such \u2018healthy and mutually respectful nationalism\u2019, free from hatred?<\/p>\n

We should certainly hope so \u2013 because the alternative is grim!<\/p>\n

In fact, the biggest threat to healthy and mutually respectful nationalism is the \u2018divide-and-conquer\u2019 mindset of the globalist gutless wonders!<\/p>\n

If a rich diversity of views is to be respected amongst individuals, and also within a society, then why should diversity not be cherished globally? Why must \u2018modernity\u2019 or \u2018progress\u2019 be defined as creeping homogenization across the world?<\/p>\n

No human compassion underlies this \u2018creepy\u2019 tactic. Only one explanation of this creeping homogenization makes economic sense: That it helps rapacious agents of globalisation to do their work of serial economic depredation.<\/p>\n

The gutless wonders \u2013 also known as think-tank nerds \u2013 seem to be saying:<\/p>\n

Hey, you! Why don\u2019t you behave in this … er … moral and progressive manner, so that it becomes easier for us to … er … s***w you? If you don\u2019t behave in this … er … moral and progressive manner, then the \u2018international community\u2019 will have to step in and do something about it. But of course the choice is entirely yours! \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gutless wonders malign \u2018nationalism\u2019. Compassion for one\u2019s neighbours is maligned as \u2018narrow-mindedness\u2019, while sham compassion forms the sham basis for \u2018globalization\u2019. The strategy seems to be to mess up the prospective victims\u2019 traditions, culture, thoughts, feelings and communities \u2013 so as to then vanquish them with greater ease.<\/p>\n

As against this, healthy nationalism can be founded on this basis: \u2018Your children\u2019s happiness is as important as my children\u2019s happiness. Therefore let us work together for a happier world, in which children\u2019s smiles do not become a rarity.\u2019<\/p>\n

Gutless wonders who say this is not possible are \u2018grinding their axes\u2019 \u2013 with a gleam of world domination in their eyes. Clearly, those who go to great lengths to insulate themselves from human suffering cannot be relied upon to lessen human suffering. Their actions \u2013 begotten of insecurity and greed \u2013 will only add to human suffering.<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Dr. Naresh Jotwani is a semi-retired academic living in India and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>. Apart from part-time engagements in engineering education and consulting, he engages in an in-depth, personal exploration of how Gautam Buddha\u2019s profound discoveries and teachings can be applied to the acute problems of modern life.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A chief aim of political or business propaganda is to put \u2018common people\u2019 in doubt about their own judgement \u2013 and thereby to make them dependent on the judgement of \u2018the elites\u2019. Throughout history, it has been a cunning political and business strategy to induce \u2013 through ceaseless propaganda \u2013 an inferiority complex amongst \u2018common people\u2019. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":120166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}