My thoughts on John Perkins' book: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man; Are politicians to blame for all problems in democracies?; Thoughts about authoritarianism dangers in socialism

Last updated on 3rd Oct. 2019

Warning: This is a sensitive and looooong post. Readers who don't like reading such sensitive stuff may please skip reading the rest of this post.

In the past few days, I have been reading, in fits & bursts, the book: Confessions of an
Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. I downloaded a PDF version of it from here: https://archive.org/details/ConfessionsOfAnEconomicHitman_257/.

Given below are some thoughts of mine on the book, and also about some related matters. Parts of this post are somewhat disjointed. Readers will have to please bear with that.

I read/browsed up to PDF page 150 (book page 129). The book PDF runs into 272 (PDF) pages.

I think what the book covers is old stuff but still interesting to read. Perkins quits his EHM (Economic Hit Man) work in 1981 as per the Table of Contents. The last parts of the book do cover later years (the book seems to have been published in 2004) but Perkins, I guess, would be giving an outsider's view of those matters.

An interesting extract:
PDF Page: 39, Book printed page: 18
Claudine described how throughout most of history, empires were built largely through military force or the threat of it. But with the end of World War II, the emergence of the Soviet Union, and the specter of nuclear holocaust, the military solution became just too risky.
--- end extract -------

I think the above is a good capsule level capture of the reality of state/empire power which comes from military power. This is what is an inescapable lesson from any truthful reading of history. Nukes change the game. But if the powers directly involved don't both have nuclear bombs and good mechanisms of delivering them, then some level of military invasion is still possible. E.g. Russian invasion of Crimea and later annexation/incorporation of Crimea. [I think it is annexation from Ukraine, NATO & USA point of view and incorporation on request from Crimean people from Russian point of view.]

1981 is just too far back. The world has changed enormously since then, especially after 2007-08 USA & at-least-partly global financial crisis.

That USA and Soviet Union were engaged in all sorts of nasty stuff after World War II to extend their sphere of influence is well known. That the West, which had big money and scientific & technological expertise, got some developing countries into debt traps and made them beholden to them, is also well known.

That the West, as well as the Soviet Union, was willing in those days to do really nasty stuff to keep countries within their sphere of influence, including outright invasions, is also well known.

The big event after 1981 was the collapse of the Soviet Union in end 1991. The socialist (central planning) way of material development got discarded in most places (but not all places) in the world, including India.

The West then became very powerful with USA being the sole superpower, but in the 1990s and 2000s I think many developing countries including China and India started doing well in the capitalist economy they had adopted (China says it is communist but its market model in that period and even now seems to be capitalist).

China grew and grew financially. India also grew but nowhere close to China's growth.

And then we had the biggest financial reckoning I have seen in my entire lifetime so far: the 2007-08 Financial Crisis that crippled Wall Street, and needed huge US government support to get bailed out.

Now it is the West, whose economies are viewed as vulnerable by some analysts due to huge debts and unfunded liabilities, which are in a worrying state! That has been an absolutely astonishing event for me, as in the 1980s when I was a young adult (I was born in 1962) and visited and stayed in the West for long periods, the West was the super-stable base financially for the whole world, and countries like India and China, and other countries in Asia which did not have big oil reserves, were expected to be major problem countries from development perspective.

Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain went through horrendous pain after the 2007-08 financial crisis. Some people were committing suicide as they could not see a way to live decently!

And the problem is that if USA, UK and France land into economic turmoil if a second 2007-08 like financial crisis comes, then they may go berserk! They have awesome military power and if they go berserk then the entire world is going to be in trouble! That's the terrifying thing! Note that the rise of Hitler in 1930s Germany was with either significant level of support or perhaps even majority support of the German people as life for them had become so miserable that Hitler seemed to be a genius-saviour for them! This is what happens when the populace get desperate! Terrifying lesson of history!

It is China now that has trapped some developing countries in debt-traps. And China is rapidly building up its military power, and is not hesitant to flex its military muscles to dominate other countries in the South China sea. USA is the only country that is willing to challenge China in the South China Sea.

China is said to hold huge amount of USA treasury bonds. Some analysts say that the interest USA pays for those bonds is a huge amount! Trump says that China is doing army build-up using money China obtained from trade with USA!

After Trump came to power, military power became crucial to decide some international tensions. So now countries with big military power will be able to protect their financial interests. Those that do not have sufficient military power will get pushed around by bigger military powers. This is how the world was before World War I - which I think is referred to as Great Powers scenario/situation. So we are going back to Great Powers kind-of situation.

I think India in 2019 is doing OK given the huge population issues it has. In the 1980s when I was a young adult, the future for India was said to be very grim. And India's financial crisis of 1991 seemed to be the initial stage of India becoming an economic basket case country! But the liberalization that PM Narasimha Rao and FM (Finance Minister) Manmohan Singh brought in, along with help from IMF and/or WB, turned the tide, and around three decades later, India's finances are much, much better than in 1991. And there has been significant improvement in key indices about development among the Indian public at large.

Given below is an extract from my post, Dr. Manmohan Singh on the days, 25 years ago, when India was pulled back from economic disaster and put on path to economic recovery, http://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2016/07/dr-manmohan-singh-on-days-25-years-ago.html, July 2016

A few indicators of great interest to me:

* Indian economy has grown 6.3 times its 1991 size. 1990-91 GDP size was $326.76 billion. In 2015-16 it was $2,075.85 billion (over 2 trillion dollars).

* No. 1 export item in 1990-91 was textiles ($4.34 billion). In 2015-16 it was Software services ($74.15 billion)

* % below poverty line in 1993-94 was 45.43%. In 2011-12 it was 21.9%.

* Literacy rate in 1991 census was 52.21%. In 2011 census, it was 74.04%

* Under one-year infant mortality (per 1,000 live births) was 80 in 1991. It was 40 in 2013.

--- end blog post extract ---

But, of course, India still has ***huge*** challenges.

However, India is NOT LIKE Venezuela today. That was what India was expected to become in 1980s and in 1991 when the crisis struck! I can still recall the despair I felt when India had to send its gold to London as security for IMF and/or WB loan in 1990. What a pitiable state we were in then!

Venezuela today demonstrates what can happen in today's times if a country like India goes bankrupt or is mismanaged in a big way.

Another point: Initially when I moved to Puttaparthi (in Andhra Pradesh state of India) in Oct. 2002, I had a somewhat naive view about rural India. Today in 2019, I am quite knowledgeable about the realities of rural India, which I think apply to rural places in countries/regions like Ecuador and Java (in Indonesia) and even Bhutan. [Ecuador and Java are mentioned in Perkins' book; In what I have read so far, Bhutan is not mentioned. That's an addition from my side.]

The scenery may be picturesque and the natives may seem to be living an idyllic life close to nature which is what their ancestors may have been doing for centuries and millennia. Well, the ***brutal reality*** is that such lives are hard lives. I think that the new generations (children of these rural folks including Bhutanese, I have read) want the goodies of life that they see on TV and on Internet. They don't want to lead the lives that their parents led. I see that so clearly in Puttaparthi.

For that, they need well paid jobs, and not be farm labour or washerman etc. which is poorly paid typically (though in some cases, it is decently paid). And well paid jobs comes mainly from industry or services. And for that one needs development. That is the reality.

So top political leaders of India - Prime Minister and Chief Ministers - have to deliver on development along with welfare schemes for those poor who do not get well paid jobs. Otherwise they do not get re-elected.

Some alternative political and economic systems are terrifying. Redistribution of wealth by force using the barrel of a gun is a big thing for them. That did not work in China under Mao - China suffered enormously. It seems to me that China got rescued by its adoption of Capitalism though it calls itself a communist country.

Scandinavian democratic socialism is a shining possibility that has worked for Scandinavia at least. But India's socialism model and central planning model from independence till 1980s led to 1991 financial crisis when India was brought down to its knees and had to beg help from IMF and/or WB.

I think democracy is the best thing for India, in these circumstances. If there is too much inequality that the people cannot bear, then left-leaning governments will be brought to power. If there is paralysis in policy making, economic recession or poor growth along with mega corruption allegation-scandals then a middle course or right-wing business-friendly government gets in to power.
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On a personal note: I found what Perkins wrote about his early years in New Hampshire (NH) to be very interesting though sad. I loved my stay in Nashua, New Hampshire. But we (I and my colleagues from Bombay based software company) were put up in a very nice condominium - Royal Crest Estates Apartments, https://www.royalcrestnashua.com/ - by our customer, Wang Labs., Lowell, Massachusetts. So we led the good and comfy life there, in the 1980s. His account is of a couple or so decades earlier and shows the good and bad side of NH townie life. I tried to connect with locals outside of my condominium in a limited way. A good colleague at Wang Labs - X who I desperately looked for on the Internet in the past few years to re-connect but could not locate - took me and a pal to his home which was not in a rich part. I mean the home was pretty middle class or even lower middle class by NH standards, I think. His young (teenage) son had come in to his home then but did not interact much with us, if I recall correctly. If I recall correctly, X said that his son was having some problems with his studies and X told him that if he does not study well (this is in 1987/88 I think), he will have to be a petrol pump station attendant! I share this just to show the truth of life that I saw. It is similar in India when parents scare children that if they do not focus on their studies and do well, they will have to do similar menial jobs. I think most parents in such situations with children who are not doing well in their studies, are similar not only in USA and India, but perhaps across the world. I do wish and pray that X and his family, including his son are doing well financially and otherwise. Further, I respect the principle of dignity of labour. I respect those who do an honest job as a petrol pump station attendant and wish them well.

I also recall giving a lift to a few young white lads as I was driving alone from up north in NH back to Nashua (or the other way round). The lads were surprised by a brown guy stopping his car and giving them a lift (they had held up their hands/thumb signing for a lift). They seemed to be somewhat silent or reserved when they were in my car, but still thanked me when I dropped them off.

I am able to recall these exposures to NH town (and village) life where I did see some rough edges among the youngsters there. I repeat that my condominium life was a comfy life  - a protected, gated community kind of life. The shopping centres and malls nearby were also safe and protected areas.
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About the gold sent to London: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Indian_economic_crisis tells us that 67 tons of gold were airlifted to London with 47 tons going to Bank of England and 20 tons to Union Bank of Switzerland in May 1991, as collateral security for IMF's emergency loan of $2.2 billion.

Later, in 2009, India bought 200 tons of gold from IMF (showing how India had turned the corner from the dark days of 1991): Full circle: India buys 200 tons gold from IMF, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Full-circle-India-buys-200-tons-gold-from-IMF/articleshow/5194338.cms, 4th Nov. 2009

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Are Politicians to blame for all problems in democracies?

My view is that successful political leaders, including military leaders who become political leaders of their country through revolution/coups (e.g. Stalin, Mao for the former and Zia ul Haq, Musharraf of Pakistan and similar general(s) in Bangladesh for the latter), essentially work as majority community leaders. The big problems are encountered (and sometimes created) by the community and usually solved by the community and lower-level leaders in the communities, including business and religious leaders. The credit for successful solutions for such big problems goes up to the top leaders and the criticism for failure too, privately, goes up to the top leaders.

Then it is a marketing type spin game to boost the credit part and suppress the criticism part. I think this is true for democracies, military dictatorships, theocracies (religious monarchies) or just plain monarchies.

India's rise after 1991 crisis, came from entrepreneurship in export field as well as domestic field. The software development (tech) sector played a big role in boosting India's exports with me being one of the chaps among the multitude who contributed to that. I have shared earlier in this post, the figures showing contribution of software exports to India's GDP (note that I have not included domestic software work which has also been substantial). As far as I know, neither Dr. Manmohan Singh nor Shri Narendra Modi did anything directly in this software industry work or other big entrepreneurial work in India. I mean they were not software techies or software managers or investors/owners of Indian software companies.

But India's rise after near-financial-collapse in 1991 is attributed by political analysts, far more to political leaders' liberalization work and support for entrepreneurship, than to the entrepreneurs and knowledge and other workers who actually did the hard work of producing goods & services that brought India back to good financial health!

Such is life! Such has been reality of credit-taking as well as criticism-facing by top leaders of countries/kingdoms! We have to operate within that reality.

It is in more detached writings and speeches, especially after there is a time gap of half a century or more, that one gets to see more accurate descriptions of the contributions & contributors as well as of problems and problem-creators, of countries and kingdoms. For example, when one talks about how USA South got rich in the late 18th century and 19th century, one does not talk much about political leaders of that time, even though they may have taken important decisions impacting life in USA South. One talks about cotton and slavery and industrial revolution bringing in machines like the cotton gin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_the_United_States#The_new_nation.

To take it to slightly more recent times, China's rise is nowadays traced to China embracing Capitalism's free-market and opening up to foreign trade & investment in 1979, https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33534.html. The political leader who pushed this through was Deng Xiaoping, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deng_Xiaoping. Deng was not an economist! He would have been advised on these matters by economists. It was the need of the hour. Perhaps Deng was pushed to do it by the situation. I think China's economy was in really bad shape in the Mao years with lots of suffering for the Chinese people.

But today, four decades after 1979, analysis credits free-market reforms and opening up to foreign trade & investment, as the things that brought absolutely awesome economic growth to China, making it a great power today in 2019. The political leader Deng Xiaoping who pushed in those reforms, has faded into the background, in such analysis. I think such analysis ideally should also highlight some great Chinese entrepreneurs, and the workers/staff of their enterprises, who flourished in this environment and made big contributions to China's growth. But one does not hear much about names of such big entrepreneurs in China, excepting a few like Jack Ma, perhaps as the environment is such that big entrepreneurs fear political leaders.

When one talks about current affairs, the focus is on the political leaders who essentially get top advisors to advise them what to do, in matters of economic policy and even strategic defense policy. So the news coverage and comments focus on the political leaders. The advisors stay in the background usually.

To conclude, I think political leaders are like tips of the iceberg. That's what one sees on the surface. But what propels them to that position (whether it is Modi or Trump or Boris Johnson), is significant amount of support or even majority support from the people of the region/country (the bigger body of the iceberg below the water surface), including from top advisors in various fields. These leaders have to work within the bounds of their support base as if they go against it in a significant way, they will lose that support and be out of office.

I think political leaders are a product of the times and of significant sized community views or even, at times, the majority views of the people of their country/region in those times.
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The history of USA interfering with socialist countries in Latin America (Central America and South America) is horrible. They have gone to almost any extent to oppose socialist countries in Latin America (close to them and so perhaps a big threat that it may cross over into USA). I have not read up much about it though, as I do not know enough about Latin America and cannot relate to it much, as I have not even visited there, let alone lived there. But there is no doubt that some great idealistic socialist leaders of Latin America were brutally finished off, either literally or figuratively, by USA, over the decades since World War II.

Getting to more broader topics, politics in democracies is a terrible field. However, there is some level of accountability, and most importantly, there is possibility of peaceful transfer of power to somebody else after a term.

I think throughout most of human history, most of which had monarchies/dictatorships, there has been terrible levels of inequality between those in power and those who are subservient to those in power. Even killing of peasants and workers by those in power, was no big deal. This is the terrifying truth of human existence over history.

It seems to me that role of big money in monarchies and dictatorships has been, and continues to be, as big if not bigger than in democracies. I think this also has been a big factor over centuries of human history.

Both democracy and socialism are relatively new forms of government in human societies. Socialism has a lot of theoretical promise, but barring Scandinavian countries, most of what the world has seen of socialism has involved authoritarianism including in (former) USSR, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam etc. [North Korea is just too different a country and so I am not including it as a current or former socialist country.] The common man in such authoritarian systems ((former) USSR, China, Cuba ...) cannot dare to question high government officials let alone be critical of them. If he/she does that, they will just disappear. In China, ****even today****, it is absolutely terrifying how some top figures (like the former Interpol boss), just disappear, and when they make an appearance, it is to confess to some corruption crime and then they disappear again.

What Chinese communists did to Tibetan Buddhists, is, I think, one of the ***great*** religious crimes against humanity of the 20th century. I read a report in a book about (the 14th) Dalai Lama by an American author, which report could be exaggerated but I do think that's in the realm of the plausible given the horrors of China then, that to break the faith of Tibetan lay people in Buddhists monks and nuns, they forced monks and nuns to have sex in public in Tibet! Killings, of course, was nothing for the Chinese communists. But they also wanted to destroy the Buddhist faith of the lay people. [Ref: The Dalai Lama - A biography by Patricia Cronin Marcello, page 84. The related text is as follows: 'Fighting at the (Lithang) monastery lasted for sixty-four days before it was bombed on June 1 (1956), killing 800 monks and many lay citizens. [Para-break] After the shelling stopped, survivors were tortured and killed. Monks and nuns were forced to break their vows of celibacy by having sexual intercourse with one another in public, at gunpoint. The Dalai Lama heard the news and he cried. He asked the Chinese, "How are Tibetans supposed to trust the Chinese if this is how you behave"' The Marcello authored book gives the reference for these statements as "Tenzin Gyatso, Freedom in Exile p. 110". Note that Tenzin Gyatso is the name of the (14th) Dalai Lama and the book seems to be an autobiography of his.]

As China is India's northern neighbour and a major risen (or re-emerged) world power now, I invested a lot of time to read up on Chinese 20th century and part of 19th century history. I blogged about some of my readings using large extracts from wikipedia. Here's one such very loooooooong post, just in case readers want to have a quick look: China's 'century of humiliation' [1839 to 1949] and some related topics; Some info. on Mao Zedong's life, http://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2018/01/chinas-century-of-humiliation-1839-to.html, 29th Jan. 2018. It is a terrible, terrible history with horrific amount of killing and brutality. It is after reading such history that I understood why the Chinese are so tough and brutal. Only the tough and brutal could survive in China of these periods (and perhaps earlier too)! As simple as that!

I also invested time to listen to a key speech of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and blogged about it here: 19th Communist Party of China Congress: Chinese President Xi Jinping keynote speech and more; My comments, http://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2017/10/19th-communist-party-of-china-congress.html, 25th Oct. 2017

An extract (slightly edited) from my post giving my thoughts:

Ravi: Some thoughts of mine about this 19th CPC Congress event and China in general, are given below:

First of all, I think that the Chinese people and the Communist Party of China have to be congratulated on the extraordinary success they have achieved over the past few decades in lifting hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens out of poverty into the middle class or even rich class. [From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_China, "According to the World Bank, more than 500 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty as China’s poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 6.5 percent in 2012, as measured by the percentage of people living on the equivalent of US$1.90 or less per day in 2011 purchasing price parity terms."]

I started doing some limited amount of reading about China in Indian mainstream media and also international mainstream media, mainly after Hu Jintao became the top leader of China (from 2002/2003 to 2012/2013). Xi Jinping succeeded him as the top leader in 2012/2013. I think both Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping have created an impression of stability and level-headed leadership of China in this period. I think they need to be congratulated on having created such an impression. Stability of top leadership is a vital factor in long-term growth of a country.

The keynote speech of Chinese President Xi Jinping in this CPC Congress event is a very comprehensive one.

It claims that China will be peaceful and not seek hegemony (dominance over others) over any other country, while asserting its right to protect itself with a powerful military. Words wise, I think China not seeking hegemony over others and being peaceful is very welcome. It remains to be seen whether this will be followed scrupulously in practice.

The speech seems to reflect the pervasive power of the Communist Party of China, the only political party in China, I guess, with 89 million members, over almost all aspects of life of the Chinese people who number 1.4 billion. That is an extraordinary level of control that one single party's top bosses have over a huge number of people! As of today, I think there is no other political party in the world that can come close to having this sort of control over such a huge number of people.

The focus of the party seems to be mainly on the material aspects of Chinese life though it does make mention of cultural and moral aspects. I think there was a small mention of religion "with Chinese characteristics" in Xi Jinping's speech indicating that practice of such religion(s) will be tolerated. But clearly, religious life and God (I don't think the word, God, was even mentioned) were unimportant in the view of this Congress. This is one big difference between China on one hand, and the USA and India on the other, with faith in God and practice of many religions and sects being a vital part of the life of the majority of the people of the latter countries (USA and India).

Corruption and inequalities in wealth and income (and/or access to health, education and housing services) including a rural/urban economic power divide are important problems in China that Xi Jinping's speech talked about, including what was done to solve these problems in the past, and what will be done in future. These problems of China are faced by India too, perhaps in significantly bigger way. I think the USA too faces these problems though the corruption in USA is more of a legally sanctioned influence peddling (lobbying) via money or other kind of contributions mechanism than illegal (money) bribes. China and India both have the odd scenario of having some mega-rich billionaires and many millionaires while there are significant portions of the populace (much more significant portion in the case of India) who are below the poverty line (earning less than 1 to 2 US Dollars equivalent a day)! The economic growth of the past few decades in both India and China has been unbalanced and that seems to be a serious social cohesion and peace concern for both countries.

The emphasis of CPC seems to be on the collective and not on the individual. Barring the names of Mao Zedong and Deng Xioping, Xi Jinping's speech may not have made reference, or at least significant reference, to any other Chinese person's name, I think. That is strikingly different from speeches I have heard from USA presidents or Indian prime ministers. Instead, Xi Jinping's speech made numerous reference to ideologies/thoughts/doctrine and even Mao Zedong and Deng Xioping's names were taken in the context of the thoughts/theory/doctrine attributed/named after them. Perhaps for the Communist Party of China, it is the doctrine/thoughts that are important and the individual life achievements of the persons are insignificant in comparison.

The word 'democracy' (and also people's rule or something like that) was used often in Xi Jinping's keynote speech. It is good to see this support at speech level for democracy. However, there was a marked absence of criticism or dissent about Xi Jinping's keynote speech either in the hall where it was delivered or in the Chinese English language reports that I read. Tolerance of dissent and freedom of speech are vital aspects of a democracy. I think China has some ways to go on this democracy front.

Some articles from international (non-Chinese) media have indicated a serious concern about huge concentration of power in Xi Jinping, significantly more than what his two predecessors - Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin - had. They have also written about a personality cult growing around Xi Jinping in China with state propaganda focusing on promoting him mainly.

I have to say that in USA and India democracies, one reads about a core group of leaders even though the top person (President/Prime Minister) is certainly far more famous. So one reads about the Secretary of State/Foreign minister, Treasury Secy/Finance minister etc. in the cases of USA and India. In the case of China, one reads mainly about the President Xi Jinping and to a much smaller extent, the Premier Li Keqiang, but not much about other core leaders of the Chinese government! I think the concentration of power in only one man is not such a good thing from a stability and top governance expertise spread across few leaders, point of view.

And when one combines that high concentration of power in one man with intolerance to public dissidence and criticism, there is a danger that major policies which are well intentioned, but which are not giving good results and instead are creating major problems, do not get highlighted early enough as serious problems that need to be urgently corrected. That would then lead to more suffering for the people of the country and delay in resolving the root problems of that suffering.

Overall though, this 19th Communist Party of China Congress is quite impressive as a major event highlighting successes of the past five years, problems that have to be tackled, the plan for tackling the problems in future, as well as a grand vision for the future. I wish the Communist Party of China and Chinese President Xi Jinping and his team, all the very best in their efforts to improve the lives of 1.4 billion Chinese people.
=== end extract from my blog post ===

If I were living in China, I would not have dared to post the above stuff! It would be just too risky. If I were living in China, I would not have become a blogger/social media writer as I would have to self-censor myself to a very high extent. Here's a related post of mine: Internet freedom in India has allowed me to learn globally and to express myself as a social media writer globally since 2011; In China that could not have happened, http://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2017/12/internet-freedom-in-india-has-allowed.html, 5th Dec. 2017

I think Scandinavia has shown the world what can be achieved through a nice combination of democracy and socialism. Here's a related post of mine: Success of Danish welfare state, http://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2017/05/success-of-danish-welfare-state.html, 29th May 2017.

The question is how much of Scandinavian systems can be adopted by countries like India and China. Will they work? Or will it get horribly distorted and land us into policy paralysis and into the direction of Venezuela instead of Denmark?
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I would like to firstly say that I personally have benefited greatly in the spiritual path from darshan (audience), sambhashan (discourses) and teachings in general of my beloved & revered Gurudev, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and am deeply grateful to him. I have also benefited greatly from companionship and friendship of many Sathya Sai devotees.

But the reality of the world in general is that it is a ruthless world out there. For a while, as I came under the influence of Sathya Sai's divine powers (I have experienced some of his divine/paranormal powers ***directly***), I thought there would be a great miracle in the world before he left his physical form and that there would a wonderful new age of Sathya (truth), Dharma (ethical life), Shanti (peace), Prema (love) & Ahimsa (non-violence) ***in the world at large***.

Within a few weeks and months of his Mahasamadhi (bodily passing away) in end April 2011, those beliefs/thoughts of mine came crashing down to some horrific infighting & succession struggle in Sathya Sai movement realities that unfolded in Puttaparthi itself. Absolutely horrible stuff! I am so glad that no significant-level physical violence took place in the post-Mahasamadhi power struggle phase. And I think the government has to be thanked for that as they came down heavily on the powers in the Puttaparthi ashram system and threatened to take over the trust if they do not fix up their act.

We also had a horrific and traumatic split in the Sathya Sai movement worldwide, engineered by some former leaders of the movement! It took around 5 years (from mid 2011 to mid 2016) for the system to stabilize somewhat, and come to terms with the reality of two major groups of Sathya Sai devotees - the old/official one based in Puttaparthi (Andhra Pradesh state), and the splinter group with a base elsewhere in another state of India.

Elsewhere, on the world stage, in mid 2014, came the ISIS caliphate! I saw LiveLeak videos (youtube would filter out such stuff) and eyewitness reports, showing brutality of ISIS against their captives - execution of groups of helpless unarmed prisoners, sex slavery of women from religious groups that were looked down upon by ISIS after their fathers/husbands/brothers were killed, crucifixion (yes, crucifixion like what was done to Jesus, but in 2010s!!!). What one had read about violent religious intolerance in the medieval world was on display though Internet pics and videos of actual events in 2010s (after 2014)! Shocking and terrifying!

Ahimsa in thought, word and deed is one thing that I have now ***completely dropped*** from my belief system. I need to add some clarifications here. I am a law-abiding resident and citizen of India. I personally have never had to indulge in physical violence against another human being so far in my life, and I hope and pray that it remains that way for the rest of my life. But I recognize that it is the violence against invaders, terrorists and criminals that the police and armed forces of India do, when required, to protect law-abiding residents and citizens like me, that has enabled me, so far, to lead a fairly comfortable non-violent life. If the police were not there, then I have no doubt that robbers and criminals would simply snatch what they could of my limited possessions (e.g. computer, mobile phone, cash on hand), unless I was able to deter them with my willingness to fight to retain my limited possessions.

Further, after Mahasamadhi of Sathya Sai in Puttaparthi in April 2011, some nasty features of life in Puttaparthi came to the fore. Verbal bullying and misuse & abuse of power became common in the ashram system and those who opposed powerful bullies were either marginalized or forced out of the ashram system. As I became a whistle-blower of such matters from 2015 onwards, I have been verbally attacked by some enemies as I exposed their Asathya & Adharma (untruth and unethical ways), including pathetic and criminal defamation done against me when I was providing free service in a deemed university in Andhra Pradesh. Essentially some Asathya & Adharma crooks tried to bully me to stay silent. I told them (on Facebook via public comments) that I will fight like Jatayu fought Ravana, even though it was an unequal fight weighed against Jatayu and where Jatayu became a heroic martyr in his attempt to save Sita from Ravana kidnapping her. That willingness that I showed to fight these bullies, made them step back. In other words, these horrible bullies would have bulldozed me if I had used an Ahimsa approach, and backed off only when I showed them my willingness to fight like Jatayu implying that I was prepared to be a martyr for Sathya & Dharma.

Therefore my experience in Puttaparthi, especially after Mahasamadhi of Sathya Sai in April 2011, has been that Ahimsa as a key component of a belief system, did not work and created an atmosphere where bullies rode into power and bullied people into silence and submission. Most of such bullied people were rather pathetic silent witnesses to Asathya & Adharma in the form of gross misuse and abuse of power committed right in front of them. And that impacted the system in a very strong and negative way. Therefore I am not comfortable now with Ahimsa in thought, word & deed as a key component of my belief system, and have dropped it from my belief system. But I repeat that I am a law-abiding resident and citizen of India. I will consider violence in thought, word, and deed only in self-defense.

Sathya, Dharma, Shanti and Prema continue to be key values of my belief system. So I am a Shanti (peace) loving person but am willing to defend myself against attack by others by fighting my attackers.

It is a dog-eat-dog world. I started watching Wild West movies to make myself get grounded in reality and come out of the spell that I had fallen in, believing that while Sathya Sai was in physical form, the world would get transformed. I have now come to accept the reality that even Anantapur district has not been transformed into a haven of Sathya, Dharma, Shanti, Prema and Ahimsa as literally murderous, I repeat literally murderous, faction rivalry is what dominates the power equations in Anantapur district, even today.

Wild West (USA) movies helps me to get grounded in the reality of Anantapur district as well as many parts of the world today. Of course, Anantapur district does not have gunslingers and shootouts between rivals/rival gangs like in the Wild West (USA). But physical violence and the threat of physical violence are inescapable realities in some spheres of life in Anantapur district like politics or big business. In that critical aspect, I think there is commonality between Wild West movies and Anantapur district life. Here's one Wild West movie I  watched recently, in fits & bursts, Western Movie "Јuѕtісе" 2017 Full - English Subtitle, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-in04r4n1yY, set in immediate period after American civil war.

Note that Puttaparthi town, which lies in Anantapur district, is special. It is a peaceful and compassionate place for devotees of Sathya Sai (as against business people who want to make big money who will have to face Anantapur district type tough realities). Devotees who come here are treated with kid gloves by locals, so long as the devotees are not in big competition with them for big business. So Puttaparthi town is a safe place for devotees who do not come here for big commercial or big money-earning purposes.
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Given below are my parts of a tweet exchange on my tweet about this post, https://twitter.com/RaviSaiIyer/status/1178073146718445568.

In response to a tweet, I (Ravi) wrote:
Bro., Well, it is a difficult situation. Wait & watch is one option. I prefer to do my little bit within my many limitations, and within what I have understood of spirituality & Sanathana Dharma
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In response to a tweet, I (Ravi) wrote:
Yes, Swami's exhortation about heroism and courage and leading ideal life are clear in this discourse. However, I do have my fair share of human flaws and do not claim to lead such an ideal life. But I am a law-abiding resident and citizen of India.
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In response to a tweet, I (Ravi) wrote:
Hmm. So bro. Swagat you have read quite a bit of book already! Well, I was crazy about spiritual path then, and still crazy now. I think it was my destiny to be on spiritual path. But still not a hero. I still struggle with overcoming Kama & Krodha!
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In response to a tweet, I (Ravi) wrote:
To be honest, my view is that if one steps back from the regular world, Kama and Krodha can be controlled more easily. In the past few years, I have chosen to get involved with the regular world (as against ashram kind of community) and that involves Kama & Krodha, ...

... and I have come to terms with that. So I watch old Bollywood romantic songs and share them deliberately on Facebook :-) to indicate to people that I am no longer in ashram kind of community but in regular world community, where Kama & Krodha are part of regular life.
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I (Ravi) wrote:
BTW I wonder whether you know about Martin Luther a key 16th century figure in the Protestant Reformation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther. Let me say that in the past few years, I have been quite influenced by how he moved from celibate priestly life to regular family life.
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In response to a tweet, I (Ravi) wrote:
Bro., If you want to get a good understanding of how society is influenced by spirituality & religion then I think you should at least read up Martin Luther's wiki page. The Protestant Reformation was a reaction against the corruption that had set in in Roman Catholic Church...

...of those times which was very powerful then in Europe. Also note that vast majority of society including in our times - Hindu, Christian, Islamic etc. communities - is composed of family people - the Grihasta ashramis - whose support is vital for any major ...

... spiritual/religious movement in society to succeed.
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