Koi hai?

Kya iss nirjeev digital panno ki neemjaan duniya mein meri aawaaz kisi tak pahuch rahi hai? Ya main bass ek anant shunya mein cheekh raha hun, jahan se khudki sada bhi wapis nahi aati...

Koi hai? 

Who am I - Case against self hate

Before I begin, I would like to tell you, the reader, that this is a very specific situation that I want to write about because I have experienced it too many times and I believe, very strongly, I daresay, I am not alone.

Imagine you are sitting with your friends, one of whom is in a particularly snarky mood. He targets you for one of those acidic zingers that can dissolve even the strongest defenses of self confidence. You feel upset, but after about 6-8 hours, or possibly longer (depending on how long you can survive the company of repeated jokes and nervous laughters) you feel that there was something you could have said... Something that would have been the perfect response to that remark. "If only I had thought of it at the time and uttered it at that moment, the day would have turned out so much better".

And indeed, there is a strong chance that, for many victims of a witty remark, a timely response can not only save the day, but also save their self confidence. However, with this blog, I'm trying to explore another angle to this emotion of "feeling less" due to a lack of spontaneous witty comebacks. This is the premise from which I want to explore the idea of self confidence, self hatred and what we can do, how we can see that these thoughts aren't really worth their residence in your head.

Human body is macroscopic, just like a table, a hat, a rabbit and a deck of cards with 52 jokers - whether or not the disappointment attached to the purchase of such a deck is macroscopic or not, is none of our concern, at the time. 

The body may be macroscopic but the thoughts are as fluid and as microscopic as your brain wants them to be - or rather, as microscopic as you tell your brain to magnify. A thought, the thought behind that thought, the incident which triggered the preceding thought, the background/childhood that encouraged one to interpret the incident in a way that allows that triggering preceding thought to find its way into the brain - EVERYTHING can be magnified as large as possible, when, ultimately there's nothing but a set of probabilities left. And aren't we all a bunch of probabilities?

Maybe I am getting ahead of myself here. We will hold off the statistics afficianados from jizzing their pants just a little longer.

In the situation that we mentioned in the beginning, our brain forces us to see only two options - the loser way of staying silent, the winner way of being outspoken. However, that's rarely the case, isn't it? Human interaction, especially in a social setting (3 or more people) is one of the most complex things that we indulge in. Therefore, to conserve our energy, our brain just shows us the two possibilities so that we can quickly label ourselves 'loser' and move on. However, with a little bit of awareness we can see that a world of probabilities surrounding that small event - you could hurt them irreparably with your words which could result in a most dramatic fight or you could have cried which would give the highest pleasure to the friendly bully or you could have assaulted them which might have provided you with short term relief but with dire consequences and many many other possibilities that we fail to entertain because our brain is in a hurry to label us "loser."

At the age of 80 looking back at your life or at the age of 27 looking forward to the life to be lived - in both scenarios probability plays a crucial role. In many ways, human memory is like an element in the quantum state - unless you document your life strictly, it doesn't matter what you actually did when you were 35 at the age of 80. Just like the wave function breaks down at the moment of observation, so does the power of probabilities in the life we have LIVED, i.e. looking back at the age of 80. Without that, actual events don't matter as long as you are who you want to be in your head. And THAT is the power of probabilities that I want to utilise, in order to fight this urge of my brain to label me a loser.

When I think of a witty response to a snarky comment after 8 hours, I can either look at it as the "me thinking of this response now isn't the real me, and the real me is the me I show to the outside world" and continue feeling down about not being as spontaneous as the others, or...

Or

I can observe, clearly,  that it's all me. The one with the response, the one without the response, the one who planned a task better, the one who didn't, the one who slept at 10pm, the one who didn't... Our choices define who we are, and those choices aren't restricted to how we act in groups, or in front of anyone. If I can act the way I want to towards myself, even if it is something that I'm uncomfortable doing in public, there's no reason to call myself a loser and sit with it thinking that's an absolute. In fact, I can look at the dormant me (i.e. who thought of the response, who planned better, who slept on time) as much a "ME" as is the silent, unplanned and insomniac "ME". Currently, the latter has kinetic energy and the former has potential energy... Sooner or later, in life, as in the entire universe, this energy will transform from kinetic to potential and vice versa. So the aim is not to develop a new skill from scratch... The aim is to convert the potential energy of RIGHT thoughts into the kinetic energy of RIGHT actions in order to lead the life I think I want to live, right now.

The longer hours you've been awake (potential energy), the better is the relaxation extracted from your sleep (kinetic energy)

The higher and longer the pendulum (potential energy), the larger is it's arc (kinetic energy)

Potential energy is as important as kinetic energy.

Coming back to the statistics afficianados who are, weirdly enough, relying on my blog to provide them with the right kind of pleasure (I really need to start charging for this, don't you think?), Life is nothing more than a game of chance - you live, you die, you laugh, you cry, you make it big, you crash hard, you miss out on your career or family or self actualization .. there will always be things that you miss out on, but the things that we truly want are within us, waiting to be unleashed... "Unleash the potential" they say, because it's all there. It just needs a push, a bit of unleashing. Throw that leash away, brother/sister!

The more times you think up a better comeback, the higher the chances of you timing the responses well. 

Maybe an illustration might make it clearer

I have always been extremely scared of public speaking. But it has also always intrigued me, to the point that I absolutely HATED myself, considered myself worthless because I am unable to speak effectively in public or in a charismatic way that would attract the attention of my audience and give larger meaning to my words. However, the moment I close my eyes and force myself to give a speech (even if it is in my head), I get one step closer to my aim. 

And consequently, I've started seeing dreams as a useful tool in bringing me one step closer to becoming a better speaker. This has reduced my anxiety around public speaking significantly.

There is power in visualisation - both good and bad. All we are trying to do here is use that power of visualization to harness the right kind of energy which helps us move forward in life - towards our goals.

The problem is, when I DO NOT see the dreams (continuing the example) as a step towards improving, I end up feeling worthless, which makes me feel like my efforts have no meaning, which makes me incredibly complacent and lazy. 

This changed for the better since I started looking at my choices as probabilities, the recessive probabilities as sources of potential energy and that potential energy as my guide towards the next step in life.

Therefore, to answer the question in the title - Who am I? I am the sum total of all the probabilities, all the choices that I have made and I have WANTED TO MAKE, but didn't.. the latter part is equally important from the individual's perspective.

It has worked for me, I hope it works for you too. And if it does, you know whom to thank.

2021 - The Challenging Year of Choices

Happy New Year

I say this not as a platitudinous phrase but as a balm on the wounds 2021 has left us with. From the surge of the global health pandemic and response of the global governments to the sheer swiftness with which the months passed under the veil of "work from home", this year was truly the year of challenges and choices.

Some were less fortunate than others to be able to make a positive choice based on their situation, while others forced their will upon the situations they were in in the hopes of a better tomorrow, a better version of themselves.

From fitness to musical prowess to crypto revolution to serious vows in solving climate change, this year saw it all and nowhere was it truer than Instagram.

Reels were used, not just as a tool for sharing humorous content, but also for breaking down the most tenacious issues like the idea of self, quantum computing, responses to climate change by various governments and such. 

For the initiated, this year posed all the challenges they could muster the courage to overcome. For the uninitiated, this year forced them to look at the bright side of life, despite its tragic trajectory. In both cases, it was left on the individual to find mirth in their misery. This year forced us all to own up to our mistakes and afforded us the respect of being treated as individuals who are solely responsible for facing the consequences of their choices.

I too faced similar challenges, some that I could overcome while others, I wasn't ready to face. I got transferred from Audit to Due Diligence - a department I have wanted to work with since I started working with EY; I accepted the idea of marriage and started actively planning my future without fear and with nothing but love and willpower guiding me in the process; I picked up those books that I had shelved and completed them, extracting every bit of juice that I could and applying it in life. There were many more achievements like completing the Kheerganga trek, driving about 1000km in 2 days, driving on the tough road to Mt Abu from Jodhpur and tougher roads in the inner city of Jodhpur, learning to communicate with office seniors with reduced nervousness and fear and finally, actively planning not only my retirement and taxes but also my prospects of leaving the country. 

However, there were times when gloom was all that I could see, and those times seem to be perennial. As they say, the more things change the more they remain the same, so is true about my mental health, it seems. No matter how much I break out of my limits, there are areas of my life where I've barely put in any effort. Results don't come without effort. There have been significant areas where I needed to work but I didn't put in as much effort as I should have - stock market, physical health, reading (could have done much better), discipline, writing, music and friendships.

When you constantly doubt yourself, it's very exhausting to manage your relationships with others - friends, relatives, acquaintances... It's all the same, it's all too damn tiring. 

One of the greatest learnings of this year for me was that everyone needs to be an entertainer if they want to be great. You wanna be a brilliant CEO? Put on a show, you wanna be a star employee who is considered for cream work? Put on a show, you want people in your community to help you and consider you when they need help? Put on a show, you want to bring change - big or small - in your society, office, college, family, friend circle, city? Put on a show, you want your dreams to have value? PUT. ON. A. SHOW.

A life lived with one's ambitions and with zero consideration for larger problems of the world does not bring peace or satisfaction to me. I have still not zeroed in on my passion, but one thing is certain - my passion will not drive me if it is not aligned with solving a larger problem of people. You need to put on a show because you need someone - other than you to notice what you're doing. Whether what you're doing is worth something or not, isn't always dependent on validation from the world - but a proof of concept has to be presented to at least see if you're moving in the right direction. An enthusiastic crypto trader may not need approval from a government employee who prefers FD over everything else, but it would still be a much better idea to post his ideas on a relevant subreddit or speak to senior people operating in the crypto market to at least test whether his/her path will lead to the destination they are aiming for or what are the risks they need to consider while walking along that path.

The second great learning of this year was the power of discipline. Whether you're an Instagram influencer travelling from Rome to Romania, or an athlete aiming to represent their country in the Olympics, or perhaps an aspiring entrepreneur who is searching for that one idea that can change their entire life - discipline and the courage to stick to that discipline is one common thing among all of them. Drive to succeed and discipline go hand in hand, which is why optimism goes a long long way in encouraging one to achieve their goal. Just an initial push is needed, after which, the drive pushed discipline and discipline drives you to strive further, strengthening your resolve evermore.

Having seen the positive effects of these two so closely over 2021, I hope to apply them in my life and push my limits in the following fields:

1) Reading - Indian Philosophy, Science and Economics

2) Personal Finance

3) Employability

4) Writing - blogs, poems, prose

5) Maintaining relationships

6) Exercising and eating healthy

7) Meditation

Good Bye, 2021... Thank you for being tough with me, giving me such valuable lessons. I hope I can apply these learnings in 2022, the results of which should act as a balm to the wounds you've left behind.

Am I going insane?

"Sometimes I feel like all the walls are crashing in on me"

More like, all the time, at every waking moment I feel like every breath I take is weighing heavy on my need to not exist. Every day I try to see something good about the world, something good in me - some fire that can spark some desire to exist - and every day I am reminded of just how unworthy I am of this word & how unworthy this world is of me.

Life goes on. This is not a comeback story.

I am but one unit in this cosmic dance of our species, and we've barely hit the dance floor. I don't think my being happy or sad, angry or calm, sober or intoxicated matters to anyone, including me. All these emotions that I don't give importance to are mere symptoms which I need to fight through to work on things I don't want to work on. I don't learn from my mistakes because I'm so busy worrying whether I'll ever reach a point where I don't make a mistake, or where I don't repeat a mistake.

All my wrong steps are repeated because I am not living this life, I'm barely going through life the way a corpse floats downstream a river. Lifeless, anxious for a while - I'm sure that will change soon and I will learn to live, (sorry I mean) float through life without ever worrying about how it can affect me, make me happy or sad.

We've been taught from a very young age that selflessness is a high form of virtue. I guess, looking back, I would say it is a very good virtue for someone who once was very selfish. Because if you've only known selflessness, then you can never respect your needs, preferences or emotions the way you would of others (specific others, but definitely those few others). And in that case, it is not a virtue at all. It is a curse which cannot be lifted. It is almost identical to Medusa's gaze. Just that it turns your mind into stone, instead of your body.

Life goes on. This is not a comeback story.

The example of a duck looking calm at the surface but tirelessly flapping it's webbed feet or palmate is quite common. This example tries to motivate people into working hard and seeming calm while doing it.

What this example completely disregards is that no human being was ever built to run around in an office carrying printed sheets and staplers. What this example unwittingly confuses for hard work is the natural state of mind for a bird that knows no other way. For a being with as much consciousness as humans, we need a lot more than our primal instincts to guide us to a satisfactory existence. What we need... Is excel sheets.

A plan for the future - yours, your immediate circle, your clan, society and the world at large. Nothing can give you a greater sense of belongingness than sharing the pains of another person, another group, a society, an animal... An entire world? When you share their pain, you look for medication for that pain. But when will that pain affect you? When pain itself has an effect on you that tends to make you move, that makes you change your course of action. If you have always been selfless, your pain means nothing to you... Since you believe that pain is meant for enduring, and your sacrifices are the only thing giving you validation, you tend to lose faith in your existence. And when that happens... Well, that's when you stop caring about yourself completely. 

The old adage if you can't love yourself, you can't love others, should be tweaked a little bit. My version would be - if you can't care about your pain, how can you empathize with the pain of the world. If you can't empathize with the pain of the world, how can you ever experience a sense of belongingness. If you can never experience a sense of belongingness, where will you find your purpose? And that's where humans are different from flapping birds -> we need purpose to take action.

Everything is connected to everything else. And once you lose faith in the link your existence offers to that "everything", then you lose "everything" in the process. 

Life goes on. This is not a comeback story.

Over time people will get bored of your sorrow. More importantly, you will get bored of your sorrow, but because it's the only thing you see - sun rays or rainy days, starry skies or cloudy nights, committing sin or in repentance - the only constant, you will have to live with it. And with sorrow, comes shame. And with the combination of that, comes anger... Self-hatred, a lot of energy spent towards a pile of nothing (remember you lost everything just 1 Paragraph ago). You lose sight of your purpose. As I have lost sight of mine, with this article and with days... All days fly by in a daze

What did I start this article with? Are things supposed to be dark all the time, the way universe intended it to be - or the light that my phone's screen is piercing through my eyes is the natural order of things for the living? If my eyes can only see when there is light, my brain can only function when the neural network is firing electronic message within itself... If my entire existence is based on motion of atoms... Then why is it that the intangible part of me wants everything to stop. All motion to end, but for the downstream of the river... The river of..

 Life? 

Am I going blind? Is my brain unwilling to see what my body is forcing it to see with every emotional signal, with every bout of anxiety rage or ecstasy?

Am I plundering my own youth by not diving deep into the river of, not life, but time? Am I so drowsy by my yearning for the end, that I am unable to see the begining - as if I've trained my mind to believe that all things that happen to me, happen from the middle (exactly like how dreams work)? Is this the very reason why I am going insane?

Is my yearning for the end fueled by my constant fear of the beginning - forcing me to live and die in the middle? 

The fact that I've written all this and I can still fall asleep, is it a comeback story afterall? Or is it another day of not getting what I want... The end? Maybe some day in the distant future, I will live with hope,

But till then

Life goes on. This is not a comeback story.

And that is why I want to die

Life has always been a very delicate thing. Effervescent, Approximate, Tiring and as per some experts, not even real. Death, in direct contrast is perpetual, peaceful and no expert can possibly say that the deaths of Pharoahs who died thousands of years ago is not real. 

So naturally death attracted me. Death, the wonderful state of infinite tranquility where nothing will matter, neither the pain of banging my feet with the corner of a leg of a table, nor the heartache of a lover gone away, nor the pressures of earning money and leading a successful life as per the societal standards nothing! Death is peace.

Every significant action or a major event of our lives is performed as a base for what's coming next. Academic excellence precedes getting a job at a big company which precedes having a good deal of money which precedes sophisticated investment plans and extravagant expenditures from where two possibilities emerge - you may want to earn limitlessly and selfishly or you may want to earn to give back to the society.

Now, at no point we stop and wonder why we're doing what we're doing. 

Taking my own example, I am pursuing Chartered Accountancy in India. The end result of this course would be a CA who will either approve financial statements or work under some boss at a low level in the scalar chain of a giant organisation or high level in the scalar chain of a small organisation. However, you'll find very few people who are in the profession for anything more than money. In fact, in any profession, any walk of life, all our efforts are put in making more money, either for our own gains or for others. Why Money?

Money is the basis for getting every commodity for which you don't have to directly put any effort. 

For instance, your mother cooks dinner for you at home for free but the same product (well, similar utility) in a restaurant will require you to pay them some pieces of paper in return of which they will cook for you, serve you and most importantly expect a tip from you (hehe).

You're basically using money to avert efforts. 

But doesn't it sound a bit redundant and kind of illogical that people put in highest levels of efforts in earning money, an item whose ONLY use is to REDUCE your efforts? It's a funny world we live in. 

Maybe we are so madly in love with the idea of not having to work again that we work our asses off for years and years in the hopes of achieving it. 

So by all this, what I am really trying to say about Life is that it's based on something which is not only valuable only as much as the people value it, it's also a series of events which just happen - few people pay attention to the Why. 

And that is why Death is such an attractive prospective. Think about it, many people don't commit suicide even though they want to for a long long time because of what their absence will do to their family, friends and other people they know. The funny thing is, once dead nothing will matter to you. The Departed don't come back to share the pain or agony of others, don't have any guilt of their own.. The dead are just plain fucking dead.

Now isn't that wonderful? No physical pain, mental torture, human flaws and limitations...

Moreover, in the larger scheme of things, one person has no value. Not just philosophically, we see all around us that individual freedom, choice, opinion has no value in society and governance. Since life trumps any kind of work (a person committing suicide because of work pressure is seen as someone stupid because "he could just leave it, why end your life for it?!"), it makes death that much more special.. Because it directly.. Well, ends life. 

Death > Life > Work

So we have large citadels, palaces, parliaments, sports centres, bars, clubs, temples EVERYTHING.. That we humans did. That we created out of the stones and other material found on Earth. Imagine if all humans are Dead.

In fact, imagine a rather clichéd situation where a heat wave + magnetic wave breaks from the sun and hits the Earth with so huge a force that it can shake it from the inside and blast it out!

Will any of this matter?

Imagine a few 100 survive and go to some other planet using a space shuttle or whatever humans may have created by then. And let's even go so far as to assume that they find a habitable planet. What next? The purpose of LIFE is continuance.. Keeping the dice rolling, constantly reproducing so that the race survives. But what is the interest behind such survival?

And that's precisely why, I have always wanted to die more than live.

Yes, we have the most complex bodies ever; Yes, we have the most gifted brains ever; Yes, we are special and awesome and just the best of the best.. But what's the point of it all? 

We have so many evils in us and most of it is just laughable.. MOST. 

Take lying for instance. We are probably the only species which indulges in manipulation and misrepresentation of facts in order to deceive another member of our own species. Lying takes place when a dominant, high moraled individual's opinion matters to the suppressed, low moraled individual so much that the latter needs to showcase something other than the fact.

Take formal parties where we are expected to sit and stand and dance and drink in a certain way so as to not end up being a laughing stock. What's the ultimate goal of it all?

Most people spend their lives in petty nonsensical things like family politics, hypocrisy, making someone look bad among a billion other things which just goes to show our true status in the scale of evolution - and I can assure you, we are the only species who can be so fucking flawed and yet consider ourselves superior to each and every other species there is..

So now you know why I wanted to die.. 

Because life is a lot of pain with zero worthy returns.

In the language of finance, the NPV of the project is -ve when age and experiences are discounted by the rate of evolution.. 

It's All the Same - Act Now

As time goes by, nothing much has changed in our lives

The human mind adjusts as our surroundings take a dive

We let our frustrations and feelings pour

And let our fingers type out an extempore

We wish for the darkness to pass

We hope for our mental peace to last

But who wants to stay in one state of peace

When we're constantly hunting for things to grieve

Who wants to pray in a state of chaos

In a made-up spiritual trip, counting our loss

But when were times any better or different

This pandemic has just paused our hate to accumulate

Rise up, rise up to the occasion now

Fire up, it's time to stage your show now

For times will change and the lines will cross

And everything will remain as it never was

Justice - Bleak Idealism or a Right worth fighting for?

It slithers from one broken tree branch to the other. The sound of dry leaves breaking under its smooth skin is so faint that it cannot mar the happy delusion of the creature trying to suck out some left out nectar out of a dead flower. The journey of a hopeful bud had to end as the last meal of a creature, unaware of its imminent demise. Whether the snake gets to devour the insect, the insect gets to suck the flower’s nectar, or the flower gets to be plucked by a beautiful dame, one thing is clear – none of this is or can be motivated by the idea of justice. 

Justice is not something that we inherited from nature. It is something that was developed by humans alone, because our consciousness dictates that a civilization without justice will dig its own grave. Further, if your tribe includes only 40-50 people, it is imperative to maintain justice lest there will be no future of that tribe. However, as the size of the tribe increases, so does the pretence of justice. Moreover, the fear of evolution coming to a standstill is also diluted when the count of tribesmen in a civilization increase. If tribe A is not given justice and therefore, ends up perishing, tribe B has no problem with it because they can ensure the evolution of civilization.

However, the reason why justice even came to be is to counter ‘Might is Right’ philosophy. It does not make sense in any way to question whether the weak should get justice or not.  Justice is a concept which was devised only for the weak and the voiceless. If everyone could ‘fight’ for justice, justice as a societal concept would hold no meaning. Then, justice would be a personal issue. It is part of the ‘social contract’ because peace is the only way forward and justice can be ensured only through peace. Implementing justice requires power for which we have police and the government.

Going with the assumption that justice is NOT an inherited concept for humanity but a devised concept to ensure survival and evolution, it is embarrassing that most of us indulge in victim blaming. Once a criminal is nabbed, everyone wants quick fix solution of death – but swift justice can never ever give voice to the voiceless. It just reaffirms the belief that justice is only for the powerful. The only way to get justice is by a vulgar display of power. “These criminals deserve this”

The only thing that this does is dehumanize a group of people. Once, as a society, we agree that ‘Mr. A’ deserves to be killed, we deem him and people like him less than others as humans. A divide like that will just increase the number of categories which aren’t ‘equal’. When America was dealing with school shootings there was a strong voice in PMRC which demonized heavy metal music. Now, once that is accepted as a norm ‘Kids who listen to heavy metal music shoot school children’ it becomes so easy to keep at bay, the idea of Justice for the artists because they are not musicians anymore, they are ‘harbinger of destruction’.

I do not believe that revenge as a personal emotion is a bad thing. The need for revenge is our primal instinct and it cannot be suppressed for an extended period. However, once revenge becomes a collective emotion instead of a personal emotion against the dehumanized, that’s a sure-shot way to anarchy.  

I’m writing this article to show my dissent against the encounter of Vikas Dubey. It should not have happened. The politicians and civilians trying to mask this as some great victory of the police forget that police are there to implement the law. Law is there to ensure justice. And justice through law can come only and ONLY by strength. If you’re weak, you will kill; if you’re strong, you will nab the criminals and break the nexus of crime. Norway is a brilliant example of this. Now, I’m not naïve enough to compare Norway and India. Both are VASTLY different countries, culture and most importantly, have very different populations. But we could learn from Norway’s outlook on crime and criminals. Their jails aren’t the bleak houses of suffering and anguish that so many of our jails are. The idea is not to punish the criminal, it is show them that they can lead a life as rational members of society capable of performing their civic duties, without indulging in crime.

When a criminal is murdered as a criminal, the voice of people who support crime, who support violence gets even stronger. The voice of dissent against the murder of a criminal will always be more violent than the voice of dissent against the murder of a policeman not because the life of the former more important than the latter, but precisely BECAUSE the support for the former, the criminal, ONLY comes from violence, whereas the support for latter, the policemen, comes from a trust in law, order, justice, government and all the tenets of the social contract a peace-loving society must adhere to. Since the support for the policeman does not come from violence, the dissent against their murder will also not take a violent shape.

When we laud the murder of any human being – criminal or otherwise, we’re killing the idea of justice for the weak, justice for the poor. That kind of justice is dependent on the powerful supporting the weak in seeking revenge. That kind of justice will only encourage those who support criminals like Vikas Dubey to create more haters of policeman. I wish I could make this as clear to you, my dear reader, as it is in my mind – I DO NOT support violence, I DO NOT support crime and I BELIEVE that justice through the legal system is the only kind of justice that is worth anything. A criminal justice is an insult to a society that calls itself inclusive, secular, open-minded, peace loving and progressive. 

I want to touch upon one more topic before I close this article. If you’ve stuck around this long, thank you for being tolerant of my opinions mentioned above. A lot of times when people use the word ‘racism’, they end up making some error in using the word in the right sense. Some may link racism to ethnicity, others to religion, even other to language and so on and so forth. And every time someone makes that mistake, they are attacked for not understanding the problem of racism, for diluting it by using the word ‘racism’ frivolously. There may be some things that I’ve said above that might be factually incorrect – maybe Norwegian jails aren’t as great as I make them out to be (my source is a documentary on black metal where noted black metal musicians recorded their albums from a jail cell, successfully), maybe the things that I spoke about tribes is not really the genesis of justice and so on. But as with the ‘frivolous’ use of the word ‘Racism’, I leave you with the following two questions:

1. Are the linguistic technicalities more important than the dissent against discrimination?

2. Are the examples and analogies around the concept of Justice more important than the conversation itself?

Thank You.