Socrates Departs From Orissa

Before studying philosophy, it is useful to inquire into the nature of the philosophers themselves: Who the fuck were these guys? Socrates becomes very interesting to know about, because he was executed by Athenian Democracy, for "impiety, and corrupting the minds of the youth." Yet, he was just a simple "street corner philosopher," always dressed in rags, always barefoot. He was given to the practice of "collaring" people on the streets and asking them questions, so that he could point out their errors.

Another kind of philosopher is Amartya Sen. I saw him at the bar in the Habitat Centre in Nude Elly once, drinking red wine with Arjun Sengupta of the Planning Commission. Sometime later, some men began entering a private room behind the bar, and I saw former Prime Minister LK Gujaral among them. Amartya Sen and Arjun Sengupta then rose and joined the secret conclave of big wigs.

Another time, I attended a public lecture by Amartya Sen in the same Habitat Centre. He was accompanied by Ted Turner of CNN and some other heavy-duty goras. Chairing the session was Gopal Gandhi, Governor of West Bengal. After the speech, I asked the people accompanying me what they understood - and both replied, "Nothing." I tried to ask a question, but Gopal Gandhi ignored me. Note the mandatory Gandhi.

Amartya Sen is unreadable as well. His Rationality and Freedom even contains numberless pages of advanced mathematics. If mathematics were the key to reality, Pythagoras would be the greatest Greek philosopher - but he was an asshole, and that's another story.

Adam Smith is eminently readable, and his prose is lucid and elegant. The Wealth of Nations was a "bestseller" of its time, and Smith is reported to have earned a "genteel fortune" from the book. Smith's life makes interesting reading too, for he spent years and years alone in his little Scottish village, taking lonely walks by the sea, thinking. Philosophers think. And thinking is done alone. Scientific knowledge is produced by men tinkering in laboratories, alone. Only Pierre and Marie Curie thought together, perhaps.

Thinking and writing - the "production of knowledge" - is a lonely enterprise. In the Science of Economics, the great men have all been lonely thinkers. The media circus and the television talking-heads ignored them all - focusing on the "politicians." Yet, in Ancient Athens there were politicians too, but Socrates was someone else, a street corner philosopher whose dialogues taught Plato much.

Mises writes that even in the USSA philosophical discussions in high-society "salons" never happen. In Europe, it was always the philosophers who carried the day, not the politicians, he writes. 

I am such a philosopher - of reality, of Freedom. I once saw a film on Hayek titled "Philosopher of Freedom." 

I am also adopting for myself a new name, by which all my future writings will appear, and that is Baba Pagal Nath Charsi.

I am leaving Orissa in a few hours, and by the evening expect to be in Pondicherry, where Aurobindo - who started off as a "terrorist" - took refuge and spent the rest of his life in metaphysical speculations. I have some lectures scheduled in the Roshni Nilaya School of Social Work, Mangalore, a Christian institution where I have taught many times before, and I guess I will make my way across to the West Coast again.

One final word for the people of Orissa: Drink coconut water. It is a healthy morning drink, better than tea or coffee, which are sugary. The coconut guys are struggling to sell their stuff, on cycles. Pepsi and Coke are selling in trucks! I suggest a major company be set up to market green coconuts - worldwide - to take on Pepsi and Coke. The ad-line can go: 

No fish ever fucked in this water!

Ha ha.

Baba Pagal Nath Charsi signing off.

The Haunted, Frightened Tree Of Complete Ignorance

Vaclav Klaus regaled me with the story of how some World Bank - IMF "economists" phoned him when he assumed office as President of the Czech Republic, seeking an appointment so that they could offer him "advice." He told them he knew more Economics than them, and did not need their advice. Fuck off from Prague, dudes, he told them. Return to Washington DC or wherever the fuck you came from.

Sonia Gandhi has a National Advisory Council (NAC). She needs advice. Why does she need advice? Because she is Ignorant. According to Shekhar Gupta of the Indian Express, these "darbari jholawallahs" of the NAC are "IAS dropouts and retirees." These guys have dreamt up a new scheme for promoting "rural livelihood." But markets are in crowded cities and towns - not in the vacant countryside. As Adam Smith said in the very first chapter of the Wealth of Nations, "the extent of the division of labour is limited by the size of the market." The Principle of the Division of Labour, by which we all specialise, is what Ludwig von Mises called the "principle of cosmic change and becoming." Each of us chooses to "become" someone - singer, dancer, actor, writer, whatever. We do not all sit in villages and spin yarn for our own use. We are NOT "self-sufficient." We specialise - and this requires physical marketplaces in physical cities and towns.

While Sonia Gandhi and her darbari baboons dream of a rural utopia, it is worth noting that all our cities and towns are disasters, including Nude Elly. These socialists built three cities in the past 60 years - while the Bris built 80 "hill-stations" in 50 years - and all three are State Capitals: Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, and Bhubaneshwar, where I am now located. 

I travelled around Bhubaneshwar a fair bit by auto-rickshaw yesterday, and the broad roads lined with trees are all for The State, just like Nude Elly. I asked the driver to take me to the Central Commercial District - and there was none. At least the Brits built Connaught Place, grandly designed. 

In Bhubaneshwar, the streets where shops are located are all disasters - and this affects the poorest of the poor, who eke out their "livelihoods" on the streets, since they cannot afford proper shops. They sell bananas, coconuts, pakoras and what not - this is the division of labour. And you cannot sell coconuts where there is no market - which is the vacant village.

Population causes Prosperity - in cities and towns, and their markets.

While Sonia Gandhi and her darbari baboons dream of rural schemes by which huge amounts of fraudulent money will be spent by younger IAS baboons, the fact remains that poor people from villages are continuously coming to these ghastly cities and towns - and getting fucked. See the jhugggis of Nude Elly, the slums of Bombay and Calcutta, and from my train window I saw the poor of Bhubaneshwar too, trying to survive in huts by the railway track. All around is ABUNDANT UNOWNED LAND.

There is the metaphysical - and there is the physical: cities and towns are our Fixed Capital. City and Town Roads are Social Capital: they are "public thoroughfares" and hence "collective property." They are NOT investing in these because they know not what Capital is, the life blood of Capitalism. Rather, they are "consuming capital" - which is the highway to "de-civilisation." The Professor of Economics at the IAS Academy in Mussoorie is a Marxist - as I reported on the Barkha Dutt Show many years ago.

There is "authority" - and sometimes there comes about the total absence of authority, because of Ignorance. The Delhi Development "Authority" is NOT an acknowledged "authority" on anything: just check out the disaster called Vasant Kunj, built and designed by a bunch of assholes. Similarly, the National Highway "Authority" of India is NOT an "authority" on highways - which would be Gabriel Roth. Our National Highways are all "notional highways." The Traffic Police know nothing of the science and technology of traffic management. Everything about The State is marked by complete and total Ignorance. From top to bottom. And they want to teach your children!

The Science of Economics is the most important science for humanity to know and understand. I am proud to be an Independent Authority in this science.

And as for our The Corrupt & Ignorant State Devoid of all Authority - I have only pure contempt. You look at human society with the "evil eye" - the buri nazar. You desire not that each Indian youngster "becomes" what he or she wants to become. You desire only that they become your servants - that is, "government servants." So you want to employ "the masses" in your "work schemes." You are inventing work in villages - and stealing all the money through your "political and bureaucratic organisation" - while, simultaneously, you are hurting all livelihoods in cities and towns. In Bombay, girls can't dance free. In Nude Elly only The State can open booze shops. In Bhubaneshwar I saw many "musical bands" who had set up their counters on a roadside. One said "Brass Band." And one actually said "ROCK BAND." There are no bars in the city where live music is played. What is "knowledge"? And how much of it comes from schools, and books?

If the CONgress is so ignorant, the Opposition is even worse. The BJP's slogan remains the metaphysical - a God, and his Temple. As if any God can be found in temples. I smoked a chillum with a sadhu in Gangotri. He told me the people worshipping at the temple there were fools, and God is found in solitude, in peace, and in the Holy Smoke. Instead of the metaphysical Lord Ram the BJP has given us Narendra Modi at the top and Dara Singh at the bottom. They are as evil and ignorant as the CONgress; maybe worse. And then we have the Commies - the most Ignorant people ever born. Democracy is also metaphysical. The "power of the vote" is no power; and most people don't vote. So there must be someway outta here. And that lies in Liberty.

I conclude this post with two quotes Peter Bauer ended his essay on "The Disregard of Reality" with - an elegant essay penned on the disaster mainstream Economics has become, written towards the end of a long and productive life championing Liberty for the poor of the Third World. The first is from Pascal, and it goes:

"Let us labour at trying to think clearly: herein lies the source of moral conduct."

And the second is from George Orwell, a socialist hero who did see the horrors of statism:

"We have sunk to such a depth that the restatement of the obvious has become the first duty of intelligent men."

Amartya Sen... And His Evil Metaphysics

Amartya Sen, the only Indian "economist" to win the Nobel prize, received this award for his "contributions to the economics of welfare." This is an entirely metaphysical discipline, resting, as it does, on a mythical "social welfare function" that supposedly inhabits the minds of the wise, caring and benevolent personnel of The State. He has thus championed the "right to work" programmes of the mammoth MGNREGA, and his protege, Jean Dreze the "sociologist" - another metaphysical discipline - sits on the National Advisory Council with soniaji and they are now coming up with more and more nonsensical ideas, from cheap rice to what not. Mint has an editorial today on "another flawed rural scheme" - designed to "promote rural livelihood." This is the metaphysical social welfare function at work.

Reality suggest something else is at work - a Predatory State. I am living on Station Road, Bhubaneshwar; there is no road to my hotel, and the establishment does not possess a license to serve alcohol. There are very few such shops on this road, and last evening I had to walk more than a mile - through slush and filth - to obtain some beer, which has been heavily overtaxed. Poor people cannot afford this healthy drink - and their traditional toddy is banned. There goes an important "rural livelihood."

The same is true for ganja. There is a hole-in-the-wall shop just outside the station where I bought a tola of fuck-all smoke. If the stuff is being sold, then why not sell it openly? Liberate the people. Let them enjoy quality. Let us think like Amsterdam. Cannabliss Indica - and not the Tata Indica.

Amartya Sen does not believe in Liberty. His two anti-market and pro-State books are Development as Freedom and Rationality and Freedom. In the former he has argued that people cannot be free without "development" - which is something the chaps with the "social welfare function" embedded in their brains must bring about. In the latter, he has argued, quite unabashedly, that poor people cannot be free because they are NOT "rational." Hence they need his "education." I reviewed this book - most unfavourably - for the New York Sun, and you can find it online here. The review was titled "Why Amartya Sen Is An Enemy Of The Poor: Freedom Matters More Than Education."

Talking about education, I met some young students of electrical engineering on the train to Sambalpur. When I asked about their career prospects, they said their hopes lay in State employment - that is, working for the Orissa State Electricity Department. I advised them against it, saying they would be not only corrupted, they would also never learn anything about modern "technology." I advised them to work for private firms, preferably cutting-edge foreign firms. To drive my point home, I have the example of the State Railway we were riding. It did the 350km journey from Puri to Sambalpur in 7 hours, averaging 70 km an hour. A modern bus on a modern highway could have done the distance in less than three hours, I told them. So if you work for the State Railway, you will never "learn" anything about technology; all you will learn is corruption.

They are corrupting the minds of the youth with their metaphysics. They are corrupting all whom they employ. And there is surely no "social welfare function" in the mind of the Railway Minister, is there?

Amartya Sen comes from a generation that claims to have "fought for freedom." Utter nonsense! These guys merely wanted State Power - to unleash their own horrors on the poor people.

We need to fight for freedom again. This must begin with a freeing of our minds from their metaphysical delusions and seeing reality as what it is - a Predatory State writ large.

The Gandus... And Their Metaphysics

Orissa is a truly beautiful state, abundant in fertile land, forests and hills, a country that ought to be peopled by a population enjoying life in pretty towns - but the place is an urban disaster. Juggernaut Puri was an almighty mess, and my excursion to Sambalpur revealed the futility of Nehru's Big Dams and our The State's "steel policy." For Sambalpur is the shittiest town I have ever seen - and I quit it as fast as I could.

It struck me that mainstream Economics is entirely "metaphysical" - in the sense that "economic development" is expected from a metaphysical entity like The State. We need a good chief minister to develop Orissa or Bihar, the mainstream editors always write. Nitish Kumar and Naveen Patnaik are media favourites as was chacha manmohan singh. But the fact is that Economics is NOT a Metaphysical Science; rather, it is a Science based on the "laws of thought" that guide human action in exchanges in markets. The laws of demand and supply are not the product of metaphysical "market forces"; rather, they are laws of thought determined by human self-interest. All humans are self-interested, and public choice theory has adequately proved that State actors - politicians, bureaucrats and even voters - are self-interested as well. We cannot replace capitalist self-interest with the planner's "intellectual-moral" values, as Gunnar Myrdal imagined, and he was a victim of the metaphysical delusion that the Science of Economics, especially in the area of "development," has something to do with The State. All this is the Economics of Delusion. Peter Bauer, the only dissenting development economist, therefore penned an important essay titled "The Disregard of Reality." These planners sitting in Nude Elly do not know anything about conditions in Orissa, and the complete urban mess here. And it points to the fact that their "political and bureaucratic organisations" are pure evil. They must be replaced by business organisations, which are benign.

Everything about The State is metaphysical. The Big Dam in Hirakud produces metaphysical electricity, for the power failed in Puri, in Sambalpur, just 10 km from the dam, and even in Bhubaneshwar this morning. In the same way, State Money is "metaphysical" - for the paper note is just a "money substitute" as the promise printed on it, and signed by the RBI Governor, indicates. The whole of "macroeconomics" is metaphysical, being the "knowledge" employed by The State to develop and grow the "national economy." In reality, there is no national economy. All this is bull - for each ordinary person is busy trying to rnind his own, private economy, to accumulate Capital for himself. In this, our The State is not helping at all - rather, it is the hindrance, the rukawat. It is always The Predator.

For example, an extremely fat fire department official landed up in my hotel this morning to inspect the fire-prevention system - and The State has not built a road to the hotel wide enough to accommodate a fire tender! It is a metaphysical notion that The State is looking after all of us, just like a God. CONgressmen like chacha manmohan are no different from the pandas at the Jagannath Temple, who charge for a darshan. Chacha is a panda of sonia. All is metaphysical. Their development economics is metaphysical; the "planning" taught in "Indian Economics" is metaphysical as well; the "macroeconomics" is metaphysical - and I have already shown how "microeconomics" is metaphysical as well. There are no "market forces" out there, like the Rain God or the Wind God. It is all in the Mind of the acting man.

The Science of Economics is the most important science for human survival - that too, in the urban, concrete-and-bitumen jungle, interacting peacefully with strangers. The point about strangers must be emphasised, for we open shops to sell to strangers, and not to our relatives and friends. Market Economics has nothing to do with "society" or "community." Ultimately, this Science must be called Catallactics - the Science of Exchange - because mainstream Economics is complete bullshit. It is a Science of Individualism, and not Collectivism. It proves that political and bureaucratic organisations are evil. It proves that "corporates" who curry favour with The State are evil as well. It proves that Interventionism is evil. It proves that all must be let free - laissez faire - and a "natural order" will prevail.

In Orissa, what is not metaphysical is State Interference. Like the Fire Department. The Police Department. The Forest Department. The Excise Department. The Customs Department. The IAS has destroyed this ancient civilisation with their corrupt and senseless urban administration, licking the boots of socialist politicians who look towards Nude Elly in this non-federation, in this Centralised State. The entire place is a DISASTER writ large. And all the "knowledge" on which it is based is "metaphysical." There is a complete "disregard for reality."

And you want The State to teach your children? You willingly pay chacha manmohan the "education tax."

Yes, what is tangible and real about The State is the Danda - the MISUSE OF FORCE. Every force, every power, is being misused. These are gandus - fucking you in the ass, and all their knowledge is metaphysical, like that of the pandas. Keynes was a gandu too, and in his diary he once recorded how he fucked a pretty liftboy in the ass, and how "it was nice." His metaphysical money is now fucking the whole world in the ass. And Hayek has recorded a speech Keynes delivered in which he made the bold assertion that he was an "amoralist"; further, Keynes added, "it is too late to change, and I will forever remain an amoralist." Both chacha manmohan and amartya sen studied under joan robinson, who was Keynes' #2. This is how the gandus took over the planet, with their ass-fucking metaphysics.

Anyway, I am fucking off from here soon. Stay tuned.

I will leave you with a quote from Mises to mull over:

"The desire for an increase of wealth can be satisfied through exchange, which is the only method possible in a capitalist economy, or by violence and petition as in a militarist society, where the strong acquire by force, the weak by petitioning." 

It is all metaphysics dude, employed by these fucking gandus. 

The Chakra... And Our Civilisation

In Juggernaut Puri, everything revolves around the chakra - the wheel. The road servicing this area is named Chakratirtha Road - which means "the pilgrimage of the wheel." The skylight in my room in a quaint, old hotel is shaped like the chakra. And I bought a souvenir of carved stone of this chakra. There are 16 spokes around the hub - and the base is held up by 10 elephants. Which means the ancients understood that the power of the spoked wheel was greater than that of 10 elephants. There are other figures holding up the chakra that I bought - and these include strange monstrous creatures as well as pretty dancing girls. I think dancing girls must have been big in our ancient civilisation - for the first hall in the Sun Temple of Konarak is the Hall of the Dancing Girls. But no music and dance on the streets of Puri - or should I say "non-streets."

It rained a bit last morning - and the whole town flooded up. Funny how excavations of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro reveal elaborate storm-water drainage systems - that too, in a desert, where it could not have rained much. Today, our civilisation lacks storm water drainage - it floods up in Nude Elly, where it rains twice a year, at most; and it floods up in Mumbai, too, where the monsoon hits with predictable certainty. So what could be different about Juggernaut Puri.

Read a strange article by the "RTI activist" Aruna Roy trying to define "civil society." I think it might be better if we first tried to define "civilisation" - a word based on civitas, which means "city." If our cities have collapsed, so has our civilisation. And as for "civil society" - it is a meaningless socialist concept. The market order is based on individualism - and it is what Hayek called a cosmos, just like all the individual stars in the night sky, a perfect "order without design." Indeed, one of Hayek's most important books is titled Individualism and Economic Order. 

Aruna Roy is part of our "political society." All her "activism" has resulted in more jobs for the baboos - and there are now "Information Commissioners" everywhere, with their offices and big bungalows, their peons and chaprasis, and their dowdy Ambassador cars. Similarly, Kiran Bedi is "political society" - and Anna Hazare rules a little village, not a city, and it is reported he whips all those who drink alcohol in his "political domain." A real "civilian" would be the owner of the village pub, a "publican." We have none of these.

None of these "civil society activists" have anything to with "civilisation" - which means an amorphous collection of individuals peacefully co-existing in a city, serving customers, surviving thereby, and enjoying life. The emphasis is on "enjoying life" - and the essential reading on civilisation is Plato's Symposium, a word that means "drinking party." Plato tells the tale of one such drinking party that Socrates attended - and, sure enough, there were "flute girls" in attendance. Do read Symposium sometime. It will tell you what is civilisation, or, what was civilisation. We don't possess it anymore - at least not in India.

The Kiran Bedi - Anna Hazare nonsense will also create another government office. They will entrench "political society." We must focus on the root word "civilisation."

And we must also focus on the chakra - the wheel. Our people need wheels - and roads. I had to go out in an auto-rickshaw into town in the morning drizzle - and I got wet. What kind of silly vehicle is this - so open to the elements, and so uncomfortable? Is this "civilisation"? This silly vehicle hogs the non-streets of all our cities because it is "licensed" by The State - and Rahul Bajaj is an MP, a member of "political society."

Last evening, over some whiskies followed by (excellent) Royal Challenge beer, I tried smoking some of the bullshit grass my taxi driver brought me. And I thought of the guy who invented the chakra, the spoked wheel. It struck me that this unsung hero must have had some good chillums to smoke while pondering over the problem. If you remember your Sherlock Holmes, you will recall that for Holmes, a major mystery was always a "three pipe problem." To design the chakra must have taken three or four good chillums, I thought. After all, the chillum was invented long before the wheel, and ganja has been smoked in India from long before the temple of Juggernaut Puri was built. 

Enough of this bullshit grass, and this bullshit town. I am off today, by train, to Sambalpur, in the west, in the jungle, where the ganja is famous, and where Nehru built the Hirakud Dam. That was Nehru - the Dam Builder, unhappy to just sit by and "watch the river flow." Nehru's The State has persisted in blocking everything our free society could be. It was Nehru who established the "license-permit raj." This was his damned Dam Vision.

There are these dams everywhere, and even in Canacona, South Goa, I found a Big Dam (serving no ostensible purpose). 

I hate dams. I like free flowing rivers. I am a Freedom Man - that's how lucky I am.

The Sun No Longer Shines On Konarak

Took a taxi ride to see the Konarak Sun Temple, 40 km from Puri. Within a couple of kilometres we were out of city limits - and the slums.

Then, we passed some "residential localities" of the middle class - but no markets there, and poor inner roads. No space for the automobile. Or servants. 

And then, the JUNGLE started. All jungle between Puri and Konarak. Forest Department warning signs about deer crossing. Casaurina trees, cashews too - but all jungle.

Finally, reached a sort of roadside town - quite a shambles - with a statue of Biju Patnaik pointing in the general direction of The Sea. But there is no promenade for tourists. A municipal functionary operating a roadblock took 10 rupees tax from me.

A few minutes later, we were near the famous temple - and a cop had to be bribed to drive inside. Another 10 bucks for a ticket - and I made the fortunate decision to hire the services of a guide. 

The Sun Temple in Konarak is built on 24 "spoked wheels" - each with a massive "hub." That is, two hub-and-spoked wheels for every month, representing the phases of the moon. They worked as "sundials" too, my guide told me, and you could tell the time by them.

The temple is elaborately carved - but not too well maintained. Scaffolding all over the place, and many "new stones" that are out of place and ill-designed, obviously by our The State. What is interesting is the representation of the "stages of life" - with animals cavorting for the children, sexual enjoyment for the adults, and metaphysical speculation for the aged. Metaphysics has been the bane of Indian philosophy.

One interesting mural showed a day in the life of a noblewoman - she wakes up and stretches, bathes, helped by servants, and then rides out on a horse to hunt! 

No hunting allowed any more  in Orissa - a heavily forested State of the Federation. Why not deer ranching in the private sector? Barun Mitra is going gung-ho about tiger farming; but I think we should begin with deer. And ganja farming, of course.

I enjoyed a venison steak at the Ikea showroom in the outskirts of Frankfurt-am-Main. The photo accompanying this post is of deer hunters in the USSA.

I must mention what the noble-woman did after the hunt - well, she enjoyed her man. The Good Life! In three or four different positions.

My guide smoked ganja - and we shared a couple of chillums in the unkempt temple gardens. Some other chaps joined us - sellers of precious stones, which seems to be a big "street business" here. This is also "knowledge" not taught in school. The gemstone sellers commented how ganja was a "good nasha" - and how alcohol was killing the people. My guide scored some ganja for me - which did the trick this morning, somewhat.

But the Sun is not shining on this Tourist Destination. The crowd at the Sun Temple was immense! That too, on a Monday evening. All along the road, people have opened dhaba-type shacks. I even found a Cafe Coffee Day - and enjoyed a cappucino. I thought of Goa, where, all along the NH 17, you find establishments calling themselves "Bar & Rest" - the Goans are too susegaad to use the full word "Restaurant"! - but here on this jungle highway there are no bar & rest signs. No Freedom. No road. No wheels. Abundant Space.

I thought a Great Idea would be to rig up a private consortium that would build a sea-side train ride between Puri and Konarak - and develop commercial property all along. The crowd of Bengali tourists would love it. Maybe some would buy Property here for their retirement. This would be real "development" - coming from The Market, an Institution of Free Society that socialists like Biju Patnaik could never comprehend. And they never looked towards The Sea; they only looked towards Nude Elly - for "planned development funds": all the "funny money" of the RBI. Funny money that loses value even as I write.

You might as well burn your Macroeconomics textbook too.

It rained on the return journey - and all was cool. Not violent rain like the Goan monsoon, but a gentle drizzle, with blowing gusts of cool wind. It was nice driving through The Jungle, but when we reached The City all was a mess. Can't enjoy the weather in The City. 

Saw a guy with a t-shirt saying "My idea of a Balanced Diet is a Beer in Each Hand" - but I find the beer here prohibitively priced. For the price of one beer I bought a 180ml bottle of Seagram's Royal Stag IMFL whisky. It costs much less in Nude Elly. It costs even less in Goa. So the poor drink chullu. Smoke bidis. And horrible ganja. And their savings are eroded by Inflationism.

What the fuck!

You might as well burn your Microeconomics textbook too.

It is the Science of Economics you need to know - as developed in the Tradition of the Austrian School.

So stay tuned to this blog, where I will elaborate key principles each day.

To The Youth

In Puri, I noticed so much "real knowledge" ordinary Oriyas possess, that they never learnt at any school. Like the guy who gave me a great massage. The guys who do the cooking - and this includes some experimental "continental" stuff especially for the wandering gora. I bought some magnificent hand-painted postcards of Lord Juggernaut - as seen in the photo alongside. They are fabulous sculptors, too - in wood, metal and stone. They are an artistic and creative people - and on the radio in the tea-shack I heard great Oriya music. 

In this post, my central message to the youth is:

Stay away from State Education. 

There is a big world out there - and lots of real knowledge to obtain. To help you start off right, here is a short lesson for you all, things I have privately studied over many decades, and which I think it my duty to share with you all.

Let us begin with the understanding that Labour is suffering; it is disutility. The fun only begins when you start spending what you have earned with your labour. Our people work hard; they "labour" - but the little "fun" they have, they only get the worst ganja, the worst alcohol (some desi sharaab sells here) and the worst tobacco - bidis. This is a public health disaster - and it brings to mind the deep errors involved in the "labour theory of value" that the Property-hating Communists teach. What is happiness; what is anand? Value is "subjective." Utopia means Utopianism - each to his own, and to each his own: Property.

And then comes Liberty. Capitalist enterprise is the "service of your fellow man"? The camel guy on the beach answered, with the usual "wisdom" of our common people, "The service of man is the service of God." But that doesn't answer the question: What is the service of your fellow man?

The woman selling tea is serving her fellow men and women - and tirelessly so. The profit she earns is entirely honourable - shubh laabh. At the end of the day she packs up her cutlery and utensils, loads them on her head and walks home - and that is her Capital. Capitalism is poonjiwadi. Each operates with his own Capital. All are "private economies" run by subjectively valuing independent minds. This is what you see the ordinary, uneducated people doing all the time in any Indian city or town. They are going about buying and selling - and trying to "accumulate capital." 

So I told the camel guy, "God is very rich here; so many big temples; he doesn't think about you poor people and your suffering; so just serve your fellow man; serve him faithfully and honestly; and you will be Free."

Our country's problems are caused entirely by a faulty Economics - and its only cure can be the mass understanding of basic economic laws and principles that are correct and scientifically valid. One principle I have already enunciated - labour is NOT value. The second is that Inflationism erodes the Capital of all poor people. "Macroeconomics" is nonsense. And so is "Microeconomics" - but that's another story.

The "educators" of our The State have got everything totally wrong - they view Profit as Loss; and they view Loss as Profit.

They see the "population" as a Loss - but cows don't create wealth. The milkman does. Densely crowded cities and towns are richer than vacant countrysides. Our children are our wealth. They see them as a liability. 

And they view their "budget deficits" as "economic stimuli" - this is how they see Widespread Loss as Profit.

The "educators" and, hence, the "policy-makers," are thus blind to certain things that matter for economic success:

• they are blind to Markets

• since markets occur in cities and towns, they are blind to Urban Issues

• they are blind to Transportation - and all tradeables must be transported, which is why they say "every great city sits like a giant spider on its transportation network": and "all roads led to Rome."

Both their Theory and their History are wrong.

All they are doing is Misusing Force to take away Liberty and Property.

This is nothing but Arbitrary, Tyrannical Government.

It is FOOLISH to go to them for Education.

After all, they think you are the "population problem."

Indeed, in 1997, on the 50th Anniversary of Independence, the Parliament of India passed a "unanimous resolution" asserting that population was India's biggest problem. That is, in this Democracy, the "representatives of the people" think - in unanimous terms, that too - that their constituents are a Problem; and their children, too.

Sanjay Gandhi forcibly sterilised lakhs of poor people.

They are doing "rozgaar yojana" (in the villages) but they are stopping poor people from trading freely (in the cities).

They are destroying every city and town with overcrowding - thereby making an urban home even more difficult for the poor. And there is SO MUCH free land all around.

Whatever else you do, do NOT go to their institutions for Education.

Especially in Economics, Political Science, History and Law.

Do not study "Indian Economics." Burn all these books.

Do not study their "Civics." Burn all these books.

And stay tuned to this blog, which will try and guide your minds in the right direction as long as it is able, with a Daily Post.

Boom Shankar!

Holy Smoke In Juggernaut Puri - and other tales

Last evening, my hotel receptionist, knowing well my craze for ganja, dropped me off at a nearby Shiva temple where devotees supposedly gather at sundown and big chillums are smoked. The small temple had a sign outside saying Sabka Malik Ek - The Lord Is One - and it featured the symbols of four faiths - Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, and, of course, our "Om." But the great party didn't happen. A lone priest showed up late and performed some prayers and lit some incense. He offered to "score" some grass for me - but this, too, was terrible stuff. Imagine that, the holy priest of a Shiva Temple that respects all faiths smokes ganja laced with chemicals!

The sun rises very early on the East Coast. I was bathed and ready, out on the beach for a cuppa by 0530. Then, I trekked it to the market area - but everything was closed. Spotted a rickshaw-wallah - the 3-wheeled cycle type - who looked like a major stoner, wispy beard, matted hair, lean frame - and, sure enough, he confessed to smoking 10 chillums a day. We rode off down the main thoroughfare - no footpath - and it struck me that Juggernaut Puri ought to get itself a tramway. These days, underground railways are coming up in two land-locked cities, Nude Elly and Bangalore, and both are under State-ownership. But cities like Puri can get tramways from private players, preferably foreigners, who know something about these things. Our guys know nothing. This City of the Juggernaut needs The Wheel - and all these three-wheeled beasties must go the way of the dodo.

On the ride, it became apparent that this is a completely uncared for city. Passed the BNR Hotel - and how grand it still is. It came with The Wheel - the private Bombay-Nagpur Railway (BNR).

The wheels in this town are all obsolete - mainly three-wheelers, of the motorised sort. Many financed by banks. How does Kathmandu have Toyota taxis (and a tramway)? Import! Import second-hand cars from the East. Get rid of these beasties. Dump them in the sea.

The rickshaw-wallah and I had a couple of chillums - bought not from a government shop, but a private entrepreneur. Little pudias for 5 rupees each. No kick at all - but no chemicals, at least. Then the guy offered me a "trip" for 25 rupees - and they mix some hard opiate into the ganja and smoke it! I refused.

I began the post with the tale of the holy priest at the Shiva Temple smoking chemical-laced ganja. I end it with this tale of the rickshaw-wallah who gets no kick out of the stuff being sold - and so heads for opiates.

Why can't we get GOOD SMOKE?

This is VERY BIG BUSINESS.

Big ganja-charas companies ought to be floated on the Stock Exchange.

Only Brand Names can guarantee quality.

Legalise it!

Don't criticise it!

I'll advertise it!

Lessons From The Juggernaut

Man Friday took me to the shop selling ganja just opposite the Juggernaut Temple. The chariot was under construction; hundreds of carpenters working. It is the worship of The Wheel - and wheels were denied Indians during the Nehru-Indira Gandhi years. Even now, inefficient wheels rule. After all, our king rides a donkey - the Ambassador. The Sun Temple at Konarak is also about The Wheel - as the photo alongside shows.

Transportation is of key importance to trade - which is why coastal regions have always prospered. In India, transport sucks. Productivity is measured in Time. Poor transportation reduces the productivity of us all. Shubh Yatra should go with Shubh Laabh - and that requires The Wheel.

Of course, now we have wings - but I just read that IATA has placed our The State in the "Hall of Shame" for overtaxing civil aviation. I could easily have flown down here - but the taxes were more than the fare. These morons are anti-progress. And they are running Air-India! And Air India is taking passengers away from legitimate commercial airlines - "unfair competition."

Spent a lazy evening on the beach. No shacks here selling cold beer and interestingly named cocktails. Only little tea shops. Tiny little ones. I pointed out that so much sweet tea is being consumed by our people - and tea is something new, something the British introduced. They introduced tobacco too, and coffee. All these are legit - but the ganja of the ancients is illegal.

Baba Ramdev talks about "black money" - and the ganja-charas trade today must be all about Black Money. If it was legit, customers would be legally served and a bonafide industry would emerge. I found a kiosk in Bhubaneswar where the guy sells ready-made joints. These should be machine made - in big factories. 

Legalise it!!!

Don't criticise it!

I'll advertise it!

But the woman running the tea stall on the beach managed to get me a beer. 

What I would like to ask is the question "Why?" Why do people accept these restrictions on trade, on peaceful exchange, on ways to keep the customer happy without hurting anyone. Why are we so servile?

And why does The State suppress and oppress us so?

Why are there so many laws, rules and regulations?

What is the point of voting for an MP who goes to Delhi to pass more laws - while there is no one to run The City?

And all the villagers are moving to cities.

And our The State is pursuing "rural development."

The System is Wrong.