What will we eat?

I attended social psychology class - Which asked a question - "we think killing humans is wrong but we eat animals. Are you discriminating against animals?" 

[Got me thinking  isnt that question discriminating against plants? They care for animals ok but plants are alive too. Do plants deserve rights as well?  Do plants have emotions, Do they feel? 
I feel very sad when I see a tree being cut, but I dont feel all that bad when I eat chicken that afternoon.  So... when I saw a course on coursera - What plant knows? I want to know what plant knows.]

https://secure.einterview.org/lifestyle/

The questions in the interview are the ones I ask myself many times.The interview  provokes introspection which is very good, but the questions are pointed, trying to push their thinking in a certain way - which is not good. Some how puts ideas in our head and may promote biased self introspection? I wonder. Are there flaws in their thinking?

Two arguments came to my mind.
1) Death is part of life. Nature produces in excess so that the weak are weeded out and the fittest survive. Evolution happened because infant mortality in nature is very very high. Is it really wrong to kill animals.  

2) Where does the line of "compassion"  start? When do species start qualifying for compassion? 
Animals are alive, people are alive, plants are alive, like someone else said on the thread insects fungii and bacteria are also alive. Does small pox virus not have a right to live? and polio?  where to draw the line?  
Some Buddhist monks do not kill mosquitoes who bite them. Jain people dont eat potatoes and ginger. Each person draws his own line, mine is humans/pets/wild animals are this side of the line and farm animals on the other side.

There is a saying Cow cant be friends with grass...  
If we dont want to eat anything then we would have to have chlorophyll in our skin and make our own food, once we start doing that there wont be any need for us to move or get around so we will grow roots and turn into plants and new life forms which will eat us will evolve :-) :-)

but still it is a moral dilemma ,I feel if we give back as much as we take from nature.. may be thats the solution. 
[from discussion forums on coursera ]

Chasing dream

First time in my life, I got caught in a chasing dream.

Strange chasing dream, I think it was triggered off by something I saw on TV. My friend some muslim/conservative punjabi type with a veil on her head was being forced to get married to somebody she didnt like or may be it was somebody really horrible. So I help her run away. Some men are chasing us. We are going higher and higher on a building.( Duh!) We hide under a water tank or on  a sajja or something. They almost miss us, but last minute they see us. Friend got caught. I jumped to the next house. ( why are they still chasing me? Wasnt it my friend they wanted?)  and again I start climbing. The men also start climbing, upto second floor and then up the tank, It was really scary, jumping off walls at that height and catching hold of things with finger tips. gives me the creepies even now. In almost every other chasing dream, at this point, I escape, The lion/ tiger/elephant/snake/knife man/psycho/gorilla  is caught, Or I just am too fast or something like that. But this time they caught me. :-( I dont like it at all. 

It wasnt as bad getting caught,  I was in the wedding later on, as if the whole chase was a childish thing. But at the start of the dream it wasnt.. it was some how crucial for her to escape..
like life isnt it? Once we are given a deal, somehow we start thinking the deal is okay...(which is not really a bad thing? )

Related.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance 

social psychology on coursera

"I am a human being, It could be me."
All those experiments which show that in unusual circumstances( It is necessary to remember that it is unusual circumstances) people behave in ways which make us uncomfortable, or ridiculous or  make us feel downright horrified!!
Should remember, I am also a human being, That could be me.
Helps to remember that all people are being pulled by mental processes and patterns and so much pressure, most of us very very unfortunately cant help being what we are. Doesnot mean we have to accept it and say things like "Boys will be boys" NEVER!!  but remembering this makes me be less judgemental about all this.

 Social psychology and behavioural economics( basically the same thing) can be used to increase self awareness and see others/ourselves in better light.

I realised Social psychology is being used by charities in UK to increase donations. Text book techniques

They first start of  with "Door in the face technique"
- They say would you like to donate 15£ for so and so charity? I say no, then they say, can u please donate 3£?  because I have said no first I tend to agree and say yes.
- Once I m in they use "foot in the door technique."  you are already donating 3£, can u please just donate another 2£  for so and so cause.
Low balling - Once they get you to say yes, they will read out the small print. It is very embarrassing for us to say no later.

But people see it soon enough, techniques grow old very soon, like the petrol bunk cheatings.
If you are skilled you will be pioneer. like "Catch me if you can"  He worked because society was innocent. Then people catch up, someone finds a new way, few copy, all copy and it fails.
seduction is like that too,
Awareness, Awareness Awareness.
Awareness and attitude spreads. People used to say it is natural for men to beat their wives , to rape, just like today we say it is natural for people to be greedy, to be messy, to be take bribes.
I hope self awareness spreads by sprituality and also by social psycology. I m terribly impressed by social psycology. love it.

Milgram experiment

Sachin no, he only told me to do it, I didnt do it.
This takes on a whole new meaning now.
When 4 year old Joy came home one day, denying any wrong doing. I didnt do it, I didnt do it, That Sachin no, he only told me to do. :-D we found it very comical. We saw it as a blame game. Bugger has thrown a stone and broken a tube light!!! and now he is blaming it on Sachin! This was our catch phrase for blame game.. that Sachin no.. he only did it.  Its true kids do a lot of blame game, the dog tore the page, bird took he biscuit.. but now I wonder about Sachin.
What if Sachin did tell Joy? What if  Joy being a lil boy obeyed the Authority figure!
Have a look at this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

Reading about this is one thing, Watching the actual footage of the experiment,especially the 1960's footage!. Watching decent innocent people torturing themselves but still going ahead and doing it. It was very very disturbing.

How much are we obeying, How many times it happens that  I did it, but actually u did because Sachin told?? much much more than we realise.

stereotypes

Mumbai Gang rape and Udbhav Thakery makes a statement,  non maharastrians are responsible for all this. I thought Shiv Sena is at it again. At the time it was not even sure who the suspects were.Bigots! Bastards!

But just one day previously Me made a statement - Karwar is really nice and safe people are so decent, but lot of bihari/UP labourers are coming in for work.....Hope they dont spoil it... Udbhav is an idiot but  I m allright :P

Ingroup/outgroup bias, sterotypes, prejudices... each of us a typical case study for social psychology.

Atheists on FB

 ...There are people  like Richard Dawkings and some Dumb followers logically attacking religion and faith on facebook! Duh!?Accept it, people are not logical.  to think we give so much prominence to logic and its mostly useless in dealing with people.

Religion gives people a sense of belonging and community, Singing in choir is making old people healthier.
Religion gives people comfort.
Prayer gives people hope. God gives people a sense of well being. Sense of more control over events than they actually have.
I met this Chinese girl bought up as atheist wanting to convert to a religion after a breakup. The guy hooked up with a bar girl and this girl had to be taken to hospital for nervous breakdown. She thinks religion will help her cope better with such circumstances. She will take a log to float on , when flooded by emotions.
I also suspect people also like some structure and rigidity which comes with religion. Sometimes people like being told what to do, some rules.

Dry logic gives people heart burns :-p

Telling someone they are fool - is that the best way to convert people to your way of thinking? :-}

Sometimes very clever scientists fail to grasp basics of human interaction . As if I m any good, I do all this analysis, but I am exactly like RD in these things, I tell people logically - hey u are being stupid. they get angry and then I tell them -come on I was being objective :-)

Also , These atheist groups, with their own fanaticism and ideology are exactly like religions, They are divining people and encouraging herding tendencies. I think opposite of diving force of religion is something unifying. Instead of saying u are different, u should find something similar and say we are all same.

insight

They think that someone wearing a saree with the whole mid-riff showing is decent and ok, but jeans! u are totally covered from head to toe and its indecent! Crazy!
Indians are so stupid, totally illogical!! or They are hypocrites!

Finally realised it not about that at all, its not about exposure or decency or any such thing. Its the same old "us and them" saree is "us", so good! jeans is "them" so bad"

Its not Indian/western phenomenon, Its world wide..Like I said before Burqa is almost exactly like nuns habit, but in france burqa is banned but nuns habit is ok(I think)

Nobody thinks of all this logically, Anything which is not in their "us" bucket causes bad feelings in them. (and in us :-p)  Ashte.

We love to see familiar things. Familiar is comforting.We all hate change, it causes us a lot of discomfort.  Amma without bindi :-) Begum begum :-) as if I care about bindi, I just like my mothers familiar face with the red dot, in the same place in the same size. She changed bindi brand and I din like it.
 Love to try new food but if I mom makes even a small change to her recipe!! I m in flames :-D Why green chillies in cabbage palya, I want RED CHILLIE!!! X-( :-)
Those stupid principals which ban jeans in their colleges are probably also doing the same thing. Off course there are other factors ...

America

The only country in the world to use nuclear weapons, to use chemical weapons(effects of which are still being seen after 40 years), support rogue regimes in Africa/South america just for the benefit of some greedy businesses. No no, not all in the past, In the last 10 years has attacked and destroyed 2 countries completely with out any provocation. Has the largest stock pile of weapons even tho has no enemies and largest producer of weapons.
That country is supposedly qualified to intervene in Syria? £$%^ you USA. 

I have always idealised GandhiJi. He was the only person ever who lead people into non violence.
Was it just conformity and group dynamics and a powerful person using the mindless mob all over again. Was it still manipulation? Was Gandhi another pied piper after all?
Like JK says was Indian independence another attempt at prison reform rather than being free from prison. was the only person who was free - Gandhi?

we are usually run by default programs by our patterns etc. Ok once u get awareness and get over the default program, what do we do? How do we behave?  

Daddy's girls

There are two kinds of daddys girls
One that gets pampered by daddy by being dependent on daddy, Daddy please help me! You are so strong.
and the opposite, the one that is too independent to try and impress daddy. See daddy I m so strong just like you.

Its funny how opposite personalities develop in the girls when their favourite person/Idol  is dad. How does a baby chose one of the strategies( err I dono what else to call it?) Whether its the dads personality or how mum behaves with dad or hardcoded?

I m obviously the second one :-P

Oh and BTW daddy's girls( my kind)  are way cooler than mamma's boys! mamma's boys( of any kind )  are sooo blah! :D 

self justification anger

The anger used by self to justifying some actions.

example not coming to mind., but I find myself fuelling up the angry so I can do something. In my mind, This action is ok for an angry wronged person to do.  but that action is not ok for a not angry person to do. ( cant a person be wronged and non angry? duh!)
May be this is common in those people who think they are genuine,straightforward and truthful, The anger is not required for people who think of themselves as willy, smooth operators. It is just a strategy to get some results and there are no qualms about it.

[ I say "who think of themselves as" because, I "am" not straightforward but I "think I m" straightforward. BTW This is just an example I m actually straightforward :P ]

yes! one example

I was repeatedly getting emails/calls from this website , they wanted to help me write a book. I told them repeatedly that I am not interested but they kept calling.
I wanted to tell them shod off in a crude way so that they dont bother me again.
I felt awkward and embarrassed to write that email - qualms.
I found myself working up to be angry, these money minded bastards etc etc... I have right to be angry with them. ok now I m angry.
I told  them  to - whatever and more :-)

Now, I dont need this justification anger!! Do I really need to counter those embarrassment and guilty "qualms"? Anger is worse?
May be I was this angry young woman because I was not smart young woman!

Trauma

[ Actually written at different times, but this is a sort of repetition of the left brain blog.
May be the thoughts keep brewing and repeating themselves unless I actually publish them. I guess thats the point of this blog in the first place, to make space for new thoughts. May be that involves reading old blogs.. which I actually do. I m the biggest fan of my own blog ;-)  ]

There is no gain without pain
success is 1 % inspiration 99% perspiration
and such...

Hardwork, dedication, sacrifice, struggle, fight - key words to success for ordinary men.

Is it so?
Or is this the myth of the day?
Is this the monster which is eating us all up today?

It is as if we are lazy by nature and we need to really use our will power and push ourselves, drive ourselves, force ourselves towards being useful or successful.
Is that really so?
can we for just a minute stop and consider.. may be if we need to do so much pushing and shoving, what we want to achieve is not the right thing at all. May be we need all this force and violence to make ourselves do things only because we dont want to do it in the first place?
may be need to trust ourselves when we dont want to do something, there may be a reason for that?
There may be something better , a better way to do which is not violent on ourselves...?
on others and on nature?
We are always involved in taming and conquering and controlling and making things bend to our will, nature, others and finally ourselves. dominant, aggressive,
Is that really the way? may be we are doing it all the other way? all wrong? instead of moulding ourselves to what is,  we are trying to mould everything to fit us.. and it keeps ripping here and there...everywhere

Is there Trauma in making ourselves do things? in pushing ? in using and abusing will?
if we use will to again hide this trauma? Will we finally break?


But sometimes strong will is needed. Margret Thacher died recently, such divided opinions of her.. She closed all mines... 1000s were  jobless, 100s of towns useless but it had to be done. They were a major drain on the country. Someone had to do it. She did it with her enormous will power... She was successful. Yes success today is exactly like that...This is the way we know. It involved lot of Trauma.
When she died, people celebrated, protested in her funeral, said horrible things even tho its a taboo to say bad things about dead people...things from 30 years ago, Trauma stays...
But IT HAD TO BE DONE!!!!!!!!
So then, I wonder if there was a better gentler way?
I give my due to hardwork and perspiration and will power.. not doing at all and shying away is not the way at all... just considering is there an alternate way..? There must be?

May be all this Trauma I talk about, is not involved in what we are doing but  is self created and totally unnecessary? ( Anthony DeMello, JK type argument)
Sometimes may be the only difference between ploughing thru some work and cruising thru is just letting go of control,  about letting go of how exactly perfectly we want to do and  letting go of judgement that we are not doing well enough  and resistance - letting go of feelings like 'this work is shit'  and letting go og measurement of how well we are doing, better than others, faster than last time etc... if we drop all that and just do ( Bhagavad Geeta - Karm kar....) There will be absolutely no trauma.
It can be done by getting into the Zone. by shutting up the ego or left brain.  Its happened to me occasionally  but I m not able to voluntarily replicate the results in other tasks.. Cooking used to be such an effort... but sometimes it just happens I go into kitchen and then bam its done ! :)

But would Margret have found a more loving solution if she were in the Zone? Who is to say?

cycles

Sometimes you start seeing something which u didnt see before,
Like for example that the really cute advertisement. Everyone is drooling about it and u can see clearly that they are trying to manipulate you.
That action movie that u used to like so much is just a formula...
That news.. is very selective
That parents are not perfect

You start getting uneasy, and irritated about this new knowledge.
Some of us start thinking - I was better off being ignorant atleast I was happy. (This attitude really irritates me :D ) U cant go back to not knowing! Its like taking the Red pill!!

Some of us start thinking, I m supposed to not get irritated with things, why Am I getting more grumpy? Am I progressing or Regressing. Am I getting (God! forbid) Cynical?
( Is it cynical BTW? It is cynical, if it is others and just smart, if it is me? :D  :) )

Ok the point is not that.
 We resist all change, so this change of perspective is really  just a change and that is what makes us uncomfortable.
First step is to see it, that we judge and get irritated or resigned ( cynical :P) but that ok, because there is second step.
Second step is understanding, sooner or later we see more, we dont just see the symptom but we see the cause also. That is when we get not irritated .
Just suppressing the irritating feelings and covering it up with "I am not supposed to feel this way" is not the way to go.  Its ok to be irritated about something u think is wrong.
At a later point of time either we will understand better or realise that we were wrong after all..
or may be we realise that it was  just us, not accepting a change . ( Conductors wont have this problem, they accept only change :P but dont give back any :P)

Sometimes I feel Am I being stupid? because I feel alone, no one else seems to find anything wrong or see the problem. but many times it turns out - I was just ahead of times after all. :->
Self trust is important.
I told you so.. comes to mind :D but that too shall pass  ;-)

[bragging aside, some things I see ahead of time which others dont seem to see, but I have to admit many many things which are so clear and in the face for others, I dont see at all....its a matter of perspective  ]

morning gyan

People ( includes me of-course) should learn to say "this is enough for me!"
If we pay attention then we will know when it is enough.

context - saw a balcony facing the park and thought- I should have a house like that, then I thought -  so expensive, then I thought - rents have gone so high , then I thought what if someone rented out a house for how much money they wanted instead of the going price? Instead of thinking what is the most I can make out of it (Capitalism), if someone decided - yeah I will give my house for rent for this much? how would it be?
Thoughts were like - Only one person would get good rates, it would be unfair! ( ridiculous, atleast one person will get better rate?!why be a crab)
I can imagine a very principled person doing this - not necessarily a rich person, but middle class person with very simple needs may do it. Or someone who does not care, the property is just there... (I have seen lot of properties just locked up rather than rented at very low prices)
Other than that, Would anybody be monitory secure enough to do that?  I think it would need a very deep sense of security internally to feel ok about this and to not feel like a fool :-) its not greedy,its more about not being a fool? Atleast with me it is.

was thinking capitalism is nt really working, socialism has failed. Bankers are taking millions of dollars of bonus and salary, Mining scamers, real estate goons, politicians, lobbies.  Marketing /sales people rat racers...
Gyan says we as a civilization need to learn to know when it is enough!

yes I did it!

the resistance, voice of doubt-all old friends :-)

http://deepscoursera.weebly.com/introduction-to-art-course.html

Im not good enough

I couldnt complete my first week assignment for my art class
Whatever I tried to do was not good enough
it blotted, it spread, it was childish :( collage was silly.fake not genuine, I didnt have the right magazines.
I m not creative enough!!?!

Arrgh! Inspite of knowing that left brain can be such an asshole, I m not able to control it! :(
See what it does to me :(
I looked at a few water colors from artists, there is blotitng and spreading, lot of it! thats why it looks nice!  and how will u learn without making mistakes? and where will u go if u keep criticising everything you do?

I have a great idea for the next assignment
now I am getting thoughts like it is what children would do, its like craft! Its a copy of some idea you have seen etc X-(
There are people out there who would tell you exactly same thing, but first person who needs to be shut up is right inside me :( 

More madness or is it?

Genetic testing for diseases which u dont have now, but which you may get in future, makes me really uneasy.  I really really dont like it at all. ( Gattaca anyone? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/? )
On the face of it, it looks very logical. You genes suggest that you may get  a fatal disease in the future, can u just sit back and let it happen? There is a 80% probability that u will get cancer!  ( I trust only one probability ,There is 100% probability that u will die! :D ) wont u take any action? Yup you will! but its Wrong wrong wrong wrong!
Angelina Jolie has taken drastic measures because her gene testing showed her that she may get Breast cancer- 80% chance. She is being branded as brave? Is she? Or is she a coward and pessimistic? She may probably get cancer in 20 years and Medical science may discover cures by then? and there was a possibility that she may not get cancer at all? She is not giving nature a chance? isn't it Scare mongering?

What about the spirit of humanity which can overcome all odds? What was the probability of Wright brothers flying? 0%?
What about winning against all odds? if u take aways all odds? what then?
Brave? really?? I dono!!
 I shouldnt  be judgemental about this, but we being sheep and all.. I may line up tomorrow at a clinic to get my genes tested if I dont rant and rave about it!

This kind of medicine is  like blind men feeling the elephant and with that view fixing things with that kind of view. medicine especially is becoming more and more like that. Life itself has become like that.  We are always fixing things. Its so wrong but I m not able to exactly pinpoint what is wrong? Or is it just me?

There is also a sinister angle to this, that the gene testing is very expensive and the companies which did the testing and surgeries on her are behind the promotion of this news. She is on news everyday! (What is and What isn't covered in the news is another story all-together.)

Hmm!This is similar to  the dilemma about cats/children may be much more severe.
I was complaining to my maid that parents these days are too careful. I used to climb trees, my dad used to swim in the river, These days kids are not allowed even out of the house. She said.. My uncles daughter fell down from a tree in the village and is paralysed.
As there are too many street dogs in Bangalore, Cats have very low survival rate. The solution is too keep the cats indoors, make them house cats, dont let them out. Lot of cats in developed countries live like this. I had two cats... what do I do? Keep them inside? too cruel? leave them out? they will get killed Dogs/Vehicles.. Dont keep cats at all?

There is no right answer - most of the time we follow the trend, what ever the society feels right, thats what we do. We are not only afraid for our kids, we are afraid of our guilt and other peoples judgement. Logic says we should probably err on the side of caution -
remember the parents who wiped every possible surface with Dettol to keep their children safe from germs and those kids got sick more often cause they didnt build immunity? We can err on the side of caution but we are blind men and our caution may be stupidity. but Does that mean u jump in front of trains?

I dono the answer to this.

left brain - are we mad -prequel I think.

one part of me asks why aren't people like me - why are people calling themselves scientific but not open to new things
other part of me says people are just fine just the way they are, just the way that is best for them. why are u being bothered?
I can constantly feel this part of me and that.
Trying to compare - me with others, trying to feel good by saying ah u(meaning me :-P) are better than them in this way,that way.
when it feels someone is actually better then it finds some aspect of them that is not desirable, she is very rich, but not happy or not intelligent, or too goal oriented or boring or what ever.
sometimes it pretends to be noble, by fake praising people who it has actually judged as poor.
judging people - it is almost automatic. sometimes I am ashamed, but its doing its job. beard, bad clothes, uneducated, on benefit, too many kids - too religious, too young and has kids :D teenage mum! uff!
haha see now Its judging itself ;-) ;-)
I think left brain [for lack of better word, may be ego is more appropriate, this is one process in our head.  I m sure left brain does a lot more than this, roka toki, it does language maths etc etc]
oh u didnt do this, oh there is so much to do, It is fussy
seeking perfection - if u cant do it perfectly just dont do it
impatient - u are not doing it right, even tho u are doing for first time, it expects u to do right
competitive - are u better than everyone else? how are u faring? even when u think u are not competitive , it is - i m better than few people and it is enough.
seekign approval - appoving and disapproving and thinking of others. everyone will think u are stupid u are embarrassing urself, how can u not know even this much what will others think etc.
seeking regularity goals and organisation
keeping time, keeping up rate
being cautious
seeking dominance

The whole of the world right now, is run by this part of the brain, it is ruling the world, we live our lives by clock, by goals, by plans, by objectives, by being better than others, my measuring our success, against others against ourselves. even spirituality becomes like this ( religion was always like this, I think religion in most parts was designed deliberately to keep people from finding spirituality)  discipline rules enforcement - all are signs of this part of the brain operating.
 Is there an alternative more enjoyable way of living?
will be really turn into bums if we let go of all this, or is that fear, a survival technique of this part of brain? ploy to dominate?
will everything disintegrate into chaos if we dont have rules?
if there is love and passion, do we need discipline?  love doesnot balance us. passion may make very disbalanced people out of us.
do we not trust us at all?
what is hedonism and where do addictive tendencies come from?
addiction is a side effect of this part of the brain - the gaming especially is.

If I decided to write 1 blog a week, instead of  blogging as I please, would I blog at all?
If we started eating only when we were hungry instead of by clock, if we slept only when we were sleepy? Initially we would sleep a lot, eat a lot.. but would we finally start listening to the body and start eating and sleeping optimally?   I think so...but I m too attached and in the control of left brain to let go and try it...

left/right brain example

There are two speed matching games in lumosity
1) squares/circles/chinese character
I m not fast and I make mistakes and I get more hassled by mistakes and make some more.
2) Faces matching.
 I m much faster than these two, I dont make mistakes.. and if ever I do.. its not a chain of mistakes..

Shouldnt faces be harder, considering differentiating a square from a circle is trivial and many orders of magnitude less complex than recognizing faces??
(quoting from Drawing from the right side of the brain )I think faces is too complex for left brain to take on and it gives it to the right(pun intended) brain to do the job
I tried to get into the zone, sometimes it works and I get as high scores on Squares as on Faces.. but sometimes I m just not able to get into the "zone". then I doubt my choice, I double check, I feel bad when mistake happens, and after mistake I slow down and cringe at every choice I make! The Zone is non critical and is a breeze.

Genius may be not developing more brain capacity but using the right tools for right activity?
Not only genius, even happiness may be using the right part of the brain for the right activity.

Regular "science" and education is a long way from getting into all these aspects.