Ardh Satya - Be angry, be very angry!

Exactly 30 years back there was a landmark of a film that stormed the then status quo. It’s called ‘Ardh Satya’(Half Truth) directed by the awesome Govind Nihalani and written by noted playwright Vijay Tendulkar(I'd met him briefly in New York in 2003, without really knowing who he was, to interview him for a TV segment I was producing for a network). I had seen this film in bits and pieces before but today I watched it, as in really watched it, with a more analytical mind. I was and am dumbfounded. 2 reasons. One, the film has a raw gravity that tugs at you while unveiling the nature of human frailties. And two, the film can be seen today and yet seem every bit relevant to today’s society. The ‘system’ we live in right now in bloody 2013. Seriously, what the fuck is going on?! We are still grappling with the same issues(corruption, degradation of women, the disgusting political fabric, shady law enforcement, futile activism) that were being dealt with in the 1970s and 1980s. What does this really say about us? About our system? About our evolution as humans or a civilization? Something is seriously, freaking seriously wrong about the way we are moving forward. Because if we don’t have a paradigm shift soon, you can bet that in the next 30 years, we are still going to be the same situation or maybe even worse. The grey area of morality seems to become bigger and bigger every day with the concept of right or wrong seriously in jeopardy. Personally, we have met corrupt and rowdy MLAs, politically subservient police and many desperately misguided souls trying to wield power over the majority at any cost. It’s time we used our brains because we have the choice to take the baton and lead the next-in-line in whatever little way we can towards a more progressive future. And don't you fucking say that films shouldn't have a message. If you want to understand the context of what I mean, just go watch this. It really makes me angry!

Why, Mr. Kamal Hassan?

First of all, I never intended to write this. I know that in a few days our angst will subside and we will continue to live on with this issue comfortably tucked in the deep recesses of our memories, until one day, the same will come back and bite our collective asses in a much cruder form. So, with that in mind, and today’s impending Court decision on Vishwaroopam’s atrocious ban by the Tamil Nadu government, I decided to write it, in the form of questions for Mr. Kamal Hassan. Yes sir, you. In fact, 20 questions to be precise.

1. Why did you remind us that we pretend to live in a democracy?
2. Why do you have to be an artistic rebel in a country where socio-political art has been long dead?
3. Why did you have to show us that our society's tails are curled up tightly between our ass-cracks?
4. Why did you point out the wimps within us, who sit by as our toothless government does NOTHING, fucking nothing, as ‘cultural terrorists’ wreck havoc upon us?
5. Why did you give yourself up over the last 50 years for cinema that doesn't let you do what you want to do?
6. Why did you have to become the bait of our failed political system?
7. Why did you unravel the vestigial nature of our Censor Board?
8. Why did you make us realize us that we deserve the governments we elect, and the cinema we are ‘approved’ to make?
9. Why did you make our artists realize that their country is no longer a haven for their angst or expression?
10. Why did you remind us that our governments still continue to be held hostage by vote bank politics?
11. Why are you thinking ahead of your time when, according to society, you should be towing the line, following conventions like sheep in a herd?
12. Why are you trying to show your peers – in vain – that being an artist means having the balls to stick with their artistic conviction?
13. Why have you made us realize that it now means nothing to be an artist in a country that once consecrated art in every form?
14. Why have you reminded us, that tomorrow if we want to take a shit, we need to wait for approval from the thought-police of our society?
15. Why did you have to prove to us again that this country can no longer be called secular?
16. Why are you representing all that is seemingly progressive when the truth is so far removed from it?
17. Why have you given us and our artists another ugly battle to fight?
18. Why did you have to open up the hypocrisy of ‘shining, incredible’ India?
19. Why did you reveal more than the tip of the iceberg floating right under the surface of our fucked-up excuse of a country?
20. Why did you wake us up to the reality that anytime is a time for a revolution to happen?

A thought on rape and Arundhati Roy's take on the issue

It seems that in the after-math of the rape incident and the furor over it, we are slowly starting to see misogynistic patterns emerge in India...as if this is opening up a pandora's box of misogynistic assholes. This is not a one-off incident as many seem to think of it. The rape only opened up a can of worms that is seemingly more and more harder to swallow. Though the incident has thrown light on the under-belly of the issue, it only reminds one of the ghastly truth, that we are surrounded by highly conservative and traditionally patriarchal values that provide the actual reasons for rape...that women who have been conditioned over centuries of servitude are skeptical about confronting their sons and men about how they should be treating women in general. Case in point, 'literate' mothers with sons would rather reprimand other liberal women than try to teach their sons a thing or two about respecting women. That's how deeply rooted this problem is.

The above interview of Arundhati Roy offers an alternative, incisive analysis of the social-class implications of our society. I'm amazed how almost always she comes up with a holistic and bird's-eye-view point of an issue. But my point is, now is the time when we have to fight harder. No actually, now is when the fight has actually begun. And I don't mean it for women...but for our society too, if we want a dare-i-say 'progressive' society.

Herbert Brun

When I was in West Virginia at the Summer School for designing a Society, the teachers there mentioned Herbert Brun. Though I did come across a few of his books, I really never had the opportunity to read any of his books until recently I came across one of his books called "My words and where I want them" and went through a few pages...they seemed interesting. Small paragraphs which are numbered fill the small book.
I would like to share a few with you.
1. My words and where I want them.
2. I consider words innocent until proven guilty. Once they are proven guilty, however, I consider their meaning to be irredeemable. Thus words form the limits of personal freedom. While I may be free to express my thoughts in a free society, the words at my disposal may not be free at all. Ignorance of this fact is what turns the thoughts of free people into thoughts of slaves.
76. While we do not find it possible often to share our opinions we have to share the world of their consequences.
for more..please read about Herbert Brun.

A POSITIVE PEOPLE'S NETWORK

What does being Positive mean to you??
If you were to say something positive to a fellow human being, what would it be??
Do you think staying positive makes a difference? If YES, why?? and If NO why??

These are some of the questions we intend to ask anyone we see...anywhere..
give it a shot, ask people what they think about being positive and take down a few answers and post it to us...
We are in the process of starting a network of people who will come together and spread all the positivity they can in this largely chaotic and negative world where a majority of us still struggle for basic things like food and shelter...and where more than a normal majority struggle just to stay positive and Happy!
join us in this venture of making this world and universe a positive place to live on!!

Lead by example!!

This is a very simple video of how you can be the change and do something about a situation instead of complaining and doing nothing about it. Anyone can be our teacher...so what are we waiting for??

Documentary clip on Summer School for Designing a Society

This is the initial 3 minutes of the documentary I did on the summer school I attended at Gesundheit for the School for Designing a Society...if you need a copy of this movie please contact Rob Scott

Composing Utopia with words

Articipatory Music and other weird things by Jessica Corey-Butler

Last weekend Articipatory Music happened at the Olympia Community Free School during “A giant party for a better world,” the Love, Imagine, Network, Kindness (LINK) Symposium, an extension of “A World Beyond Capitalism,” The Third Annual International Multiracial Alliance Building Peace Conference. An activist folk music collective called Riotfolk performed and a Secret Café fund raiser was held, benefiting a residential permaculture project. And eight people created compositions, but not made out of notes and played on flutes and guitars.

Huh?

Articipatory Music was an idea originally born when it’s facilitator (and creator) Michael Gaiuranos attended a summer session with the School for Designing a Society, held on Patch Adam’s Gesundheit! Institute in West Virginia.

Initially, Gaiuranos thought he was going there to compose music with the experimental musicians associated with cybernetics.

The second time he attended the school, he recalls, “I knew I was aiming for something else.” He credits the school for “encouraging me to do weird things.”

As such, he feels his extrapolation of one exercise he had learned where participants composed responses, one inane and one an elaborate ideal, and then negotiated within larger groups.

“That was the really really really interesting part,” Gaiuranos remembers, adding, “How do you negotiate your Utopia?”

would you like to read more and more....?

Designing Freedom - Stafford Beer

This is a part of the collection of articles under the title READINGS THAT MATTER TO ME which was suggested by the School for Designing a Society.
This excerpt is from the article Designing Freedom by Stafford Beer
1. The Real Threat to “All We Hold Most Dear”
The little house where I have come to live alone for a few weeks sits on the edge of a steep hill in a quiet village on the western coast of Chile. Huge majestic waves roll into the bay and crash magnificently over the rocks, sparkling white against the green sea under a winter sun. It is for me a time of peace, a time to clear the head, a time to treasure.
For after all, such times are rare events for today’s civilized man. We spend our days boxed in
our houses, swarming in and out of office blocks like tribes of ants, crammed into trains, canned in aeroplanes, locked solid in traffic jams on the freeway. Our unbiblical concern for what we shall eat, what we shall drink, and what we shall put on is amplified and made obsessional by the pressure to consume—way, way beyond the natural need. All this is demanded by the way we have arranged our economy. And the institutions we have built to operate that economy, to safeguard ourselves, protect our homes, care for and educate our families, have all grown into large and powerful pieces of social machinery which suddenly seem not so much protective as actually threatening.
Mankind has always been in battle with his environment. But until quite recently in history his
battles were on a reasonable scale, a human scale.
For more on Designing Freedom click here.

1st Event on IDEALIST.ORG

Accessible Horizon Films, now part of the Idealist Groups is hosting an event at Johnson Park Rd, Johnson Dr, Piscataway NJ , at the junction of Johnson Park Rd and Rose Dr, Highland Park, New Jersey, United States, on Saturday, August 25th, 2007.

This event will bring together like minded individuals who care about the Earth and the existing society. This is the first time Accessible Horizon Films is hosting an event...and welcomes anyone who can provide creative, caring, loving, non-violent solutions to the current problems in this world to achieve Peace in the Planet ! Anyone who is interested in meeting people and who are concerned about the current society and the world are invited to join!!

This event is for anyone interested in bringing a Positive change in this world!

Become a member of the Idealist.org and connect with thousands of Idealists who want to make this world a better place!