Capitalistic vision Vs "Too big to fail" policy

The following is a powerful visionary statement of the CEO Arthur Jenson to the mad television anchor Mr. Beale in the movie 'Network' (yr 1976 - great movie to watch!).

(In a loud dramatic voice!) "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, Yen, Rubles, Pounds, and Shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

(Soft voice) Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

(Loud again) You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state — Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality — one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused"

- From the movie Network (1976)


Is this capitalistic vision doomed by the current worldwide economic crisis? We are certainly bitten by the "Too big to fail" policy. "Governments" had to bail out big banks and corporations all over the world.

The notion of separation of State and Business (Wall Street) is not working, is it?! Ayn Rand's school of thought subscribed to by such stalwarts as Alan Greenspan that "unregulated market will take care of itself" has caused this "moral hazard" where in tax payers ended up paying for the mistakes of big businesses.

When religion was mixed with the State, it caused havoc in the earlier centuries. Separation of State and Religion policy eliminated the influence of religious leaders in the Government. Right now, there is a revolving door arrangement between Wall Street and Washington. Ex-Wall Street CEOs go into policy making to work as part of the government and retired politicians work for Wall Street as lobbyists for businesses. This arrangement has badly hurt the people all over the world but benefited Wall Street and the politicians handsomely.

Where do we go from here? Is this a passing phase? Is closing the revolving door possible? Is Government oversight a permanent requirement for big businesses? As of now, it looks like that grand capitalistic vision of establishing one big corporation for the entire world will never work. There is too much at stake for such a company to fail. As long as sovereign nations exist to protect the citizens within the physical boundaries of a country, the global vision will be limited and strictly regulated. Currency values, exports, imports, tariffs, subsidies will be determined by the government policies rather than by the business interests.

In short, politics will trump economics always. Although economics is global all politics is local!
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Physical frontiers of nature

Do you know that we can explain everything in the known world with only 12 particles and 4 forces!?

Six kinds of quarks (up, down, charm, strange, top, bottom) and six kinds of leptons (Electron, Mu, Tau, Electron neutrino, Mu neutrino, Tau neutrino) interact with each other through four forces, namely: gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces.

Physicists are trying to find a single, fundamental entity to these particles and unify the forces for many years with no solid result beyond this standard model of elementary particles. String theory with all the extra dimensions still remains inadequate.

For now we understand and can explain the world through the 12 fundamental particles and 4 kind of forces.

Deepavali surprise!

The benefit of being disorganized is that you are constantly surprising yourself!

Well. Back in 2007 during the India trip I bought a couple of dhotis for me. Of course it is not practical to wear a dhoti during winter months. Besides the opportunities to wear it outdoor is slim to none. But it serves as a nice at home dress in addition to pjs during summer months. I left one of those dhotis unopened behind my dresser and totally forgot about it until this morning. It is a tradition to celebrate Diwali with new dress. I had a shirt that I had picked up earlier for formal use. But didn't bother with buying new pants since I had one too many of them. But hooray... it was a great surprise to spot a new dhoti on Deepavali morning!

Happy Deepavali greetings to all.

LCROSS ready for impact on the south pole of moon

Oct 9th is the impact. Learn more from the live NASA feed.

On the Journey of Self Invention

Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson divides life into eight developmental stages.

Stages of Life	Conflicts	Choices
Infancy	Basic Trust Vs Basic Mistrust	Hope or Withdrawal
Early Childhood	Autonomy Vs Shame, Doubt	Will or Compulsion
Play Age	Initiative Vs Guilt	Purpose or Inhibition
School Age	Industry Vs Inferiority	Competence or Inertia
Adolescence	Identity Vs Identity Confusion	Fidelity or Repudiation
Young Adulthood	Intimacy Vs Isolation	Love or Exclusivity
Adulthood	Generativity Vs Stagnation	Care or Rejectivity
Old Age	Integrity Vs Despair	Wisdom or Disdain

Erikson believed that we do not proceed to the next stage until each stages crisis has been satisfactorily resolved. Dr. Roger Gould states that in order to overcome the adaptational warp of the early life, one has to continually re-examine the defenses and assumptions. Feelings are memories of past behavior. When you sort them out and see what's current and what's left over, you can begin to use your thinking process to change your behavior. Withdrawal can be turned to hope, compulsion to will, inhibition to purpose and inertia to competence through exercise of memory and understanding. Becoming the kind of person you want to be is the ultimate act of free will !

-derived from the book "On Becoming a Leader" by Warren Bennis