Past Present & Future

thinking outside the box

yeah thats pretty fucking difficult. and given the fact that society is so damn eager to brainwash us all its no bloody wonder.

first of all lets take a look at this situation we find ourselves in. boxed in by the nation-state. and to a lot of people that is the normal unit of organization - so they think a lot of people think -okay- whatever i want to do or not do - they sort of invest a certain amount of expectation in their nation-state - i.e. they get tied up with it. now you tend to see this sort of thing happening more in certain countries..you can sort of see why as well. ok the USA takes itself as a nation-state very seriously - and as a result its quite difficult for its citizens and denizens to not be influenced by that rhetoric of national greatness and in terms of success and progress measured nationally.

india is another one ( don’t worry - there are a lot others ..you aren’t alone ;-)) - an up- and- coming potentially incredibly powerful in conventional international relations paradigm. so its not surprising when you meet Indians ( esp. the nri types..) that often any talk of ideas or progress tends to be very much bound up with the nation - and a nationalistic mindset which may soon parallel that of the US.

and you may say - so whats wrong with that. nothing necessarily - except you can see that situation possibly resulting in just a boring and unpleasant re-run of mistakes already made - yeah a constant going back to square one.

we need a paradigm shift. being obsessed with aspirations of national greatness is not the point. the point isnt shall we opt out of UN and other structures ( which may not be working) aimed at some sort of dialogue and collaboration. the point is again - i repeat - always collaboration - not necessarily within the box - i.e. unit of nation-state..but at any level.. but certainly not competition - within or without the box.

there you go. sorry to have to repeat this all but if you look and listen carefully to most inane messages - they are constantly repeated. if i want people to start thinking about the boxes we inhabit and need to come out of, then i better start repeating too.