Dark forest sunshine

Sometimes, we look straight at something, but do not see it.

I look at the clouds of smoky fear spewed at me from different media and their unwitting messengers, the common people. The fog lifts up on occasion, only to engulf me suddenly, thicker than before, when I blink unbelievingly at the welcome first sight of blue sky.

I look at how better stuff used to sell itself, whereas now, it is entirely about selling, the stuff itself is a minor detail, and better or not is no longer a concern.

I look at the mad rush of corporations, and sadly, the people who run them, to make money for the shareholders by any means whatsoever.

I look at the gargantuan investment of time, money and ingenuity in protecting ideas compared to the investment in imagining and building newer and better things.

I look at technology company growth plans riding on providing enhancements to existing products, further squeezing the enslaved customer, trapped either by long term commitments, exorbitant cost of switching, subscription plans guised as flexible options and other forms of bondage.

I look at how the corporation shedding thousands of individuals is applauded as cost cutting by shareholders, while an individual leaving a company for a better opportunity is mostly treated as shameful and disloyal.

I look at the flood of information being mostly noise that the internet has facilitated, as opposed to the selective few, far more reliable and credible information sources of the pre-internet days, ascertained by the high barrier to wide communication.

I look at the easy willingness to acknowledge the existence of a supreme creator by the same people that scoff at almost all other original explanations of natural phenomena as mythology, pointing indignantly to science as evidence only for the latter argument.

I also look at the eagerness to accept and propel the stringent requirements of faith, admiration, respect, fear and self-sacrifice to the supreme being, where several lives are laid on minor differences on the supreme identity and the interpretation of these requirements. I look at how such matters of faith can turn normal good fun loving people into suicidal maniacs willing to lay their lives down for a cause that is by now too complex to appease by milder means.

I look at how personal egos and corporate agendas are fulfilled by flimsily justified wars, numerous lives being sacrificed in the name of great nations.

I look at how much more choice we have today in everything, though most of the time, we rarely have a choice that gives us exactly what we want.

I look at layers upon layers of complex technology emerging from the technosphere, while all the simplest of things are still so hard to do with the most sophisticated of technologies, despite paying oodles of money to procure the technology.

I look at how training, help and documentation have become so much more automated, and yet it is so much harder to get our most common problems solved today than it used to be.

I look at how the noble choice of moving product support overseas to lower costs has somehow led to a lowering in quality of the support received by customers.

I look at how in the land, whose chief attraction is the freedom of the individual, almost every choice is hotly debated, be it sexual orientation, choice to decide whether one is ready for the huge responsibility of bringing up a child, choice to switch mobile phones at will.

I look at how much more offensive it is considered to describe, even for the sake of argument, a class based on race or religion in public than it is to use expletives. I also sadly note how lands that promote such sensitive consideration for others’ racial sentiments have led to mass prejudice and skepticism against specific sects as a direct consequence of their actions.

I look at how it is so hard to publicly express honest viewpoints praising competitors, even when the praises are genuine.

I look at how it is so hard to distinguish factual information from analysis, interpretation and even pure misinformation.

I look at all these kinds of trees, and I begin to see the outlines of a dark and dense forest. This blog is a humble attempt to bring in some sunshine, one tiny ray at a time, till the entire forest is bright and merry.