Straight Talk

An article in student magazine of LSU by a worldly wise student, talks about the lack of necessity of higher education for everybody. For someone from the Indian middle class background, this seems strange because higher education is the only path to decent living there. But here in America, you can be in a higher income bracket without a four-year college degree because the market pays good money for scarce skills.

And since I am in a jovial mood, I will unleash another joke that I read recently:

A young guy goes up to the ancient greek uber-philosopher Socarates and asks him if he should marry. Socrates replies: By all means marry, if you get a good wife you will live happily ever after. Else you will become a great philosopher.

On Barack Obama

Barrack Obama's campaign appeared to suffer a big setback when apparently racist remarks of his pastor came out in the open recently. For a black person to get elected in America, he would need a broad support from all the communities and not just the whites since it is reported that the black population in US is around 20%. So the anti-white sentiments expressed by any one close to him, has the potential to alienate the general white population.

However Obama reacted to this in a very brave and spectacular way by delivering a rousing speech in Philadelphia. The speech is certainly eloquent and is a must-read for someone interested in the US politics and this election for it has the potential to enter into the history books.
Here is the full transcript.

Obama's campaign is certainly historic and path breaking and he seems to be someone who deserves to get this opportunity. There are many who are sceptical of his candidacy and say that ultimately US would vote along established lines. But I would like to still hope audaciously. And also hope that if he becomes the president, he will be a positive change.

But even if he does not get elected, the candidacy has certainly opened a new way for a more inclusive politics in US.

Bill Cosby Is a Very Funny Fellow, Right!

It was indeed an interesting and entertaining hour when Bill Cosby came to my school to promote his new book, Come on People!. The book is an attempt to extort the black community to give up on their passive acceptance of their present pitiable conditions and work towards improving themselves. Cosby is provocative inspite of using lot of good natured humour.

Cosby, who has a doctorate in education, repeatedly stressed the importance of education and it resonated with my view that education is the biggest transformative tool available to any underpreviliged section of the society.

During the Q&A session, he was asked a couple of questions about him not showing the positive stories and efforts coming from within the society. These were asked by people who clarified that they were actually working on these problems at the grassroots level. There was a touch of desperation and hopelesness in their voices. But Cosby was not moved and he defended his position. He was clear that unless the black population take on these issues by their horn, nothing significant would occur. I felt that while the questioners were probably working hard on their own but it was important for the greater message ( a kind of shock therapy) to be delivered by someone like Cosby who has the public image to get the attention that this issue deserves.

Neoteny

Its a term that I came across recently in a conversation. It means the tendency of delayed maturity in the offspring of species and is an evolutionary tool which shapes the way a species evolves. The offsprings might perceive an evolutionary advantage in retaining certain characteristics of their adolescence for a longer time and this behavior is selected and propagated down the species.
In humans, this has been used to explain the absence of body hair resembling young primates. And significantly, female characteristics are also explained as a neoteny for the female features resemble that of children.
Pretty cool thoughts but what struck me was that in the modern world, especially here in US, there is also a selection for neoteny in behavior especially vis-a-vis the old world. There seems to be a predominance of playful behavior which resembles the way children behave. While in the old world, people tend to be more respected when they are serious and playfulness and fooling around is looked down upon.
But ofcourse, as they say all work and no play makes jack a dull boy. So play on and select this behavior and I am being dead serious here.