Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Many people, include Indians, often compare how our country is doing with China. But China is five times richer, so not all comparisons are fair. However, as Pranay Kotasthane writes , there are also many areas where a comparison between the two is fair, and sadly, India does much worse than China.   One , agricultural output: “Although India has a third more land under cultivation than  China , it harvests only a third as much produce by value.” Two , medical colleges: “India has the highest number of medical colleges globally, yet China produces 3.5 times the doctors India produces yearly .” (I had gone into the reasons behind this in an earlier blog ). Three , vaccines: “India is the world’s largest vaccine maker. Yet China exported five times the number of COVID-19 vaccines India could export. ” Four , school teacher salaries: “Indian teachers in government schools are much better paid than in China, yet China beats India in student learning outcomes.” ...

Godwin’s Law is a very famous adage of the Internet. It asserts that : “If an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler.” When it comes to using such (or similar) terms about politicians, most people in democracies go overboard. People tend to forget what the blogger Regie said : “There’s a difference between an abrasive leader who makes you uncomfortable …and a despot.” Critics would do well to remember that line the next time they criticize a politician they dislike. And what if a real despot was doing it for the best of reasons, says Regie: “The American president who could’ve actually been likened to Hitler (before Hitler) in some of his methods was …wait for it …Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln broke more constitutional law than any other president in U.S history. He imprisoned political opponents without due process. He suspended habeas corpus. He was personally responsible f...

Anyone who’s seen both the US and Western Europe knows that they are very different places, an ocean apart literally and figuratively. Andrew Sullivan, a Brit journalist who turned American points out the many, many differences . The first difference is the past v/s future looking tendency: “(America) is often simply of an escape from the past into a country addicted to the future… Most nations, especially the England I knew, are defined by history, saturated in its remnants, places where one is never far from the echoes of those who have come before.” That mindset extends into the individual level as well: “(In America) Where you had come from was nowhere near as interesting as where you were going… (as opposed to) the way Europeans defined themselves by what they were rather than what they could become.” This mindset may also explain why America is a melting pot: “I wanted no group identity. I wanted — and I was utterly unconflicted and unembarrassed about this — assimila...

Forget Donald Trump’s policy controversies, though some of them violate even American law! Instead, look at the frequency with which he lies. Why then doesn’t he become the boy who cried wolf, someone (most) people stop believing altogether? Maria Konnikova has this to say : “It doesn’t matter how implausible the statements are; throw out enough of them, and people will inevitably absorb some .” Then there are the “lies” he keeps repeating, which as Goebbels knew, eventually become the truth. But wait, it gets even worse: “Repetition of any kind— even to refute the statement in question—only serves to solidify it.” Then there’s human psychology at play in emotive and polarizing topics: “If false information comports with preexisting beliefs—something that is often true in partisan arguments—attempts to refute it can actually   backfire, planting it   even more firmly   in a person’s mind.” Scott Adams, author of Dilbert, wonders though if there is a metho...

Pope Francis is ruffling feathers within the church. For instance, can you believe he said this in an interview? “Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense.” Or that politics: “ has its own field of action, which is not that of religion. Political institutions are secular by definition and operate in independent spheres.” Imagine the implication on laws on homosexuality or abortions in the West! And then the Pope criticized capitalism: “The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose…(the absolute autonomy of the marketplace) reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. ” That criticism reminded me of this 1999 article by Harvey Cox , a professor of divinity at Harvard University, who compared religion (Christianity in particular) with capitalism. This line sums up his...