A Move Towards Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax

Every time we say that time changes so do the situations, time changes so do the rule and regulations, time changes so do the moral obligations. But when the time is shifting in per-second level (I mean when we are contemporary living beings watching our own changes), it is difficult to notice what is exactly changing.

We have millions of articles which focus on the study of History and we have hundreds of documentaries which predict how our future is going to be. But a study on the change of present situations in an explicit manner is what I think is not much focussed upon. The same idea forms the soul of this post and takes the concept of 'carbon tax' as an instance to substantiate my position.


The crux of the story I am going to envisage is the carbon cycle. Yeah, as we mildly remember,  analogous to the water cycle, we have a constant transfer of carbon to and from the bottom of the earth. Prior to the industrial era, we relied on the cutting of trees, slaughtering of whales and much more to meet our energy demands. But we 'instantaneously' shifted to the industrial era. That instant shift took centuries to start but merely 2 or 3 centuries to execute. The following 2 graphs say a lot:

As I was explaining about the carbon cycle, the credit for adding something to the carbon cycle goes to the Industrial era. Unfortunately, that something is the 'carbon'. The result is less absorption of carbon by the earth compared to the amount prevailing in our atmosphere. Talking about the direct impact, there is a danger signal to the coastal areas as they are super-sensitive to climate change. In the climate crisis due to obvious reasons, they are going to be the first ones to suffer. And problem elevates as you can see here:

                                                                                                                   

What we pay now today is the commodity that has been borne out of burning fuels. No matter whether it belongs to this company or that country, once the word 'industrial' comes before any product, it should be understood the product is the outcome of industrial revolution. But wait, industrial revolution was also the outcome. Yes, it was. Of the era which saw the heavy killing of animals and forests. The era which was manually written. But since every era has its ending and some era just lasts not long, to un-declare them as era, it's time to move on from fossil fuel era completely to renewable source era.

Back to the point, I was talking about the money which we slog off for day and night. Although money we spend get subsidised by Government in some cases, but a latent equivalent of subsidy is what we are enjoying by virtue of our mute 'mother nature'. A direct analogy of this subsidy can be made with the money which we pay for garbage collection. Since, garbage adds waste product to nature, we pay money so that authorities may recycle them to useful products. Same thing goes with carbon. Industries eject 'carbon' to atmosphere adhering to laws which limits their rate of ejection. But, can't we take carbo-tax from them so that they're forced to use better ways of production and produce less carbon. Although, the argument seems quite literal in a sense. But , the image below is enough to stress the problem :

                                         

                                                                       

Thus, it is evitable that this 'garbage' in our atmosphere is really a big subject to worry about. The idea of Carbon tax also seems quite reasonable. But, 'change' and 'success' are two amazing words that have miles of gap between them.
If we think to wait, there are two extreme results that can follow:

  As scientists predict worst case to be more probable, waiting means getting screwed up.

 Hence, a neutral carbon tax is the term getting preached by most climate think tanks. 'Neutral' means  that tax extracted from carbon expulsion should be balanced by tax evasion from some other source.
 One possible solution, I think, will to be preach various alliances: G-20, EU, BRICS etc. to join and  amend their environment and climate related laws. They can cut the service tax on cable  communications (as it is now a necessity) and start collecting the equivalent money from private  industries. In this way, a revenue-neutral carbon tax. However, this is my opinion. Other smart  options can also be tried.

 I am pretty sure that before 2100 we will convert our 80% of fuel dependency into renewable source  of dependency. But the point is that how fast can we bring this change. We have to unite together to
 be able to see the change in our generation only. The subjects like Machine learning, AI, IoT are
 already complementing the move by doing their part. All eyes are actually on the industry and  manufacturing sector (which in turn depends on the work by researchers), countries and their laws
 and our combined efforts.
           " We deem to make our descendants see a changed world, so that they can be proud of us. "

 

How it feels after you sleep for more than half of your day ? My conclusion.

Health experts always preach that one must sleep 8 hours a day along with taking small naps of half an hour to one a couple of times when one finds himself tiring. I never slept for more than 7 hours in the past 3 months (barring few days of discontinuity as was 2 days back). But suddenly I realised 2 days back that life should be chill in college, so I broke all my habits and slept with utmost laziness of more than 14 hours. This venture may be termed as an experiment with my habits and to see what comes as an outcome.

I say with all my confidence and belief that the only thing that can cause hindrance to one's path is SLEEP and the only thing that can make one person beat another is SLEEP. I have realised that sleep is the only thing that has distinguished all sorts of people into different economic categories. The one who manages to conquer his hold over sleep is the ultimate winner of life.

So let's start with the most famous quote: "Early to bed early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Examining critically this line,  I would say that the term: 'early' is totally relative in modern day's world. Gone are those days when man used to sleep at night only because no artificial electric lights were there. But in today's world, it is in our hand to decide when you are 'early' to go to sleep and 'early' to rise. Or more clearly, reference of your sleep time can be shifted to any point of 24 hours, so in this way even if you sleep at 4 AM, be confident that this reference is perfect according to you.

OH WAIT !
DISCLAIMER: THIS POST IS TARGETED AT COLLEGE STUDENTS ONLY, ANY NON-COLLEGE STUDENT SHOULD DIRECTLY CLOSE THIS TAB. SERIOUSLY.

Next, the main thing for which we are roaming throughout the day is to achieve our goal. (The one who has no goal for any single day, is a fuckin' idiot in literal sense). So now comes the fact that how sleep is related to goal. As I play with words, SLEEP and GOAL are the terms that shapes your SOUL. To coordinate well with sleep (or time, here) and goal, one must be clear with variety of things.

Let say you are learning something and it entices you everytime something new about it. You are totally mad about it (If, at any point of your college life, there is nothing that makes you crazy to think about and you never felt any concept/idea/subject/art/category/topic that makes you feel goosebumps, then my friend you are fuckin' idiot). If you are falling in the former situation, then the only thing that will come in your way is sleep. My mantra in that situation would be to manipulate your timing of sleep , keeping in mind the fact that you are made for achieving goals and sleep is your enemy.The best way to defeat any enemy is to befriend him. So befriend sleep,  by not telling her that she is your enemy,actually. This befriending can be done by going to sleep at any point of day, by makes your nights and days equal by purpose in terms of sleeping, by making your mind 'on' while waking and 'figuratively' off while sleeping.

The reason why this weird algo will work is because you are making sleep relative w.r.t. time. The reason why you are doing this stupid thing is because you are committed to complete any long-term goal (step-by-step). The reason why I choose sleep as my weapon again sleep is that man is creative in his extreme level while sleeping. But that creativeness depends on what you were doing a few hours before sleeping. Now as you are sleeping very irregularly (but beware duration should be at least 5 hours) , you are stressed. Probably you will get to sleep very fast. As you are already 'burdened' by your commitment to achieve your goals, your enemy will help you to manipulate things will in your mind. And who knows you might get an idea to solve any problem which was practically unsolvable if you would have been waking at that  (or sleeping in more relaxed manner).

So ultimately, I want to stress the fact sleep is the weapon which one should use judiciously keeping in mind the practical limitations (which I won't explain as one should experiment all things possible).

Explaining the terms : Soul and Brahman

In the continuation of my previous post, some clarifications of classic terms: Soul and Brahmin, will be my point of interest in this post.

A layman will term Brahmin as a body born in some high caste family irrespective of what are his future deeds. But how can we describe Brahmin as a "body".Anything could  be a deciding factor for describing someone as Brahmin. The factor can be a soul. It can be one who performs spiritual rites. It can be one who has knowledge. It can be one who masters every skill.
Isn't it going too puzzling? To find out what Brahmin is, one has to critically examine each factor which terms someone as Brahmin.

Assume soul to be the  deciding factor. Throughout every generation the soul remains same, only the body changes. And since all the works that body does are outcome of previous works, it means that Soul can do good/bad work in different generations. But Brahmin is supposed to do good deeds only, hence soul can't decide who is Brahmin.

Assume body as a deciding factor.Now the body is made up of 5 elements which are common for all types of individuals. These elements can never decide who is Brahmin. There must be some other term which can certify Brahmins.

It is said that class of family makes someone Brahmin. But the mythology states that many sages were born from diverse origins, like drop of sweat, deer, ant-hill etc. Obviously, no-family origin also made them Brahmins.

Knowledge can't decide someone as Brahmin. There were many Kshatriyas who had unbound knowledge in the past. But since we can't mix the 4 classes of society, there must be some other deciding factor.

Performing spiritual rites and works never make someone Brahmin as the works get impelled by previous birth karmas.

As an example from my previous post, after going through the "9-day long" journey of hardships and struggles, we attain the fruit from Goddess Kali, Laxmi and Saraswati. But since this cycle is repetitive, we have to face this cycle throughout our lifetime. The one who passes this stage every time successfully without bearing in his mind any feeling of self, through the fulfilment of his nature, becomes rid of the faults of desire, attachment, etc., and endowed with qualities of tranquillity, etc., rid of the states of being, spite, greed, expectation, bewilderment, etc., with his mind unaffected by ostentation, self-sense and the like, he lives. He alone, who is possessed of these qualities, is the Brahmana. 
Lastly, it will be wise to say that Brahmin and Soul have no relative connection. The connection of Soul remains with body everytime. But the deeds of body changes, so Soul itself get affected and loses its purity. What the body does at a particular instant makes a person near or far to the state of Brahmana.

Colors of Indian Festive Season : Navratri

The most awaited season in India is the Autumn season. Technically, the monsoon season is known for the economic prosperity which it brings to working-class season dependent people. But months of October, September and November are full of so many holidays (due to festivals) that we somehow forget to acknowledge the concept behind these festivals. Let's now focus on Navratri which is celebrated all over India and Nepal.
I will focus on the mythology and interpretation behind Navratri. I will put light on the concept of Navratri in our lives. Then, I will cover the term 'Brahmana' as it gets closely related to holy fests in India.

STORYTIME:

Let's start with a story written in ancient Indian scriptures which lay the foundation of  Navratri.
A long time ago, there were two brothers who were performing die-hard austerities in order to gain special powers. But Indra killed one of them as he became nervous off their hard work. But the other one goes unnoticed and gained a power which made him unkillable by demons, Gods and humans. In due course of time, he fell in love with a female buffalo and copulated her by changing his form. But he went under the fury of female's brother and was killed. Female buffalo, being pregnant, buried herself in his pyre. But her son got delivered before her death and came out in the mixed form of buffalo and human, named Mahishasur. As he notoriously caused havoc almost everywhere, the three supreme Gods- Brahma, Vishnu, Shiv joined to form a newly formed light called Durga which was the combination of powers of all Gods and Goddesses. She eventually waged a war against Mahishasur which continued for 9 days and nights.

INTERPRETATIONS:

Now comes the interpretations of this 'myth'ology in our lives. At first, it is better to come up with imagery of this story.

The short term Navratri festival represents our long-term fight against egos, evils, negativeness in our lives. We continue to fight against many evils which have possessed us in many ways. We continue to face many ups and downs in this course which many range up to several years (up to infinite even).

Even if we manage to somehow win over it, what we gain is a "void" feeling of victory. This feeling can be filled either by boastfulness (a form of evilness) or goodness. The aftermath of Navratri symbolises the worshipping of Laxmi and Saraswati who are meant to spread wealth, prosperity and wisdom, knowledge respectively. If we manage to trace this path successfully in our lives we realise that life is nothing but a cycle of this time period. All three forms of Goddesses - Kali, Laxmi and Saraswati are combined forms of Durga. We need to embody their skills and power in ourselves, every time we face problems and that '9-day' cycle.

                                                                       OUTCOME:

But many questions arise:
1.  Who is Soul?

Even Vedas say that we transform into a new form which they call as "Brahmana".
2.  But who is Brahmana?
3.  Is it a specific or abstract class?
4.  How can one say that one is Brahmana or not if passes one cycle but not other?

5.  The classification of our society has anything to do with "Brahmana"?
                                                                                                                      .......................contd.....

The recursion of Motivation,Laziness,Success and Laziness.

 

Whenever you get fed up of your continuous failure or your under-performance, the only things that come to your rescue are these 'well-articulated' quotes.
But are these quotes really useful?
Do they really satisfy the purpose for what they are supposed to be meant?
Have you ever listened about a man who was successful by just reading some set of quotes?
Till what extent do these quotes really satisfy the purpose of motivating us?
Believe me, this post is going to a direct attack on fickle-minded people who try regularly to take inspiration from these virtual sources.

Coming to the main content:
'Most' of us have a habit of taking inspiration from every niche of material source possible.It may be any catchy quote, a new success story published in national daily, new biopic of some successful person, a celebrity interview recapping his life, fishy motivation TedX talks or youtube jukebox with remixed motivational songs.
I would never realize how can these handmade stuff scan motivate someone who is reluctant to do anything new on his own?

Let's start with your day. Suppose there are two individuals  living in disjoint localities.Let their names be Cop and Van. Both are medical students who are studying in a reputed college of their country and have admitted there after passing through a tough competitive test. Now both must be having some plan to do  after college. But this is true for Van only who is enthusiastic off Radiology and Imaging course right after it was introduced to all in very first class. Cop has a good sense of understanding new things but lacks an interest in any particular thing. Now as he has to choose something good for his future.
The point is that one type of an individual is taking all the things as the point of interest and thus enjoying his course structure as granted. But another individual is pretty clear what do he want to do.

Now comes the point of this story's relation with my argument against quotes.Since, Cop will resort to copying interest from other people, he will face many difficulties in his path.Even though he may be doing well in his field, but a sense of detachment will always deject him from focusing well towards his target.Van's mind is totally clear of the field for which he was made starting back from his first day in college.He may face more difficulties, but I am sure he will never look down any success story to copy from. He is unique in his own sense.
The conclusion I want to draw is that success without motivation is possible only for top 1% of the top 1% of individuals.Others are just copycats like Cop who choose their field out of interest and struggle hard, become lazy, search for brute force methods, find quotes, motivational movies and lurch for success and achieve it.
The people like Van are those individuals who aren't part of this recursion cycle.They have their own cycle of their success, failure and other things which is unique for him.
Now the choice is yours: which you think that, by fate, is not in your hand, but it is, owing to axiom of your mind's volition, is in your hand, whether we want to be like Van or Cop.

BLASPHEMY AND ATHEISM

BLASPHEMY: FOCUS ON EXTREMISTS

I wouldn't have written this post unless I had searched a random keyword - PAKISTAN LAWS - on youtube and the topmost suggestion would have been blasphemy.Thus, here goes my stint of few dozens of lines with this domain:

Imagine you are the most analytical thinker of your class and there comes a new teacher one day who starts teaching something new to you. But you find the stuff  less easy to digest because you have a habit of gaining new things in a rational way.She is insisting you to mug up the facts and you are approaching the solutions rationally. The problem lies in the fact that both of you consider your way of thinking as the supreme one. The problem intensifies when one who presumes to have greater authority is actually wrong in her take. At this point, the student starts cursing the ideas of teacher (blasphemy) and teacher knows that ultimately she will be the winner(religion).

I won't favour any side but will present the view from both of sides. From student point of view :

                                                                                                                                                         

      From teacher's point of view, the allegation of irrationality (blasphemy on student's side)

           has no effect on her.Her ways are perfect according to her. 

Technically, act of  showing disrespect, less regard to God or any other higher moral authority.

Now comes, the example of Pakistan in due course of our discussion about blasphemy.
Starting back from 'our' British days, blasphemy was implemented in 1860. A legal restriction was applied on insulting other religions/sections.But the reason behind the stability of this law was that this law was equally applicable to all religions. In general, it was actually similar to India's present laws om protecting religious minorities and respecting every religion's beliefs.

But since times immemorial, Pakistan is famous for misinterpretation for anything given granted to it.No matter whether it is our gift of Indus valley to them or Indus river beneficiaries. Same goes for blasphemy. They took the concept in their hand and moulded it arbitrarily.By law, any person who shows disrespect to any idea, custom, ritual of Islam would be given a direct death penalty. Please carefully see the judicial imprudence behind this statement.

How can you prove that a certain person has insulted any element of ISLAM?

How can one be so irrational towards other religions?

How can we implement such law?
It is just like banning 'watching' porn in India and accusing a person, he has watched out some previously downloaded stuff , on a literal basis.

 The other countries are on the whole basis more liberal towards blasphemy of each and every  religion. As you can see here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasphemy_law#Pakistan. They are not as much as extremist by law as Pakistan. In India itself, it is the secularism which deals  with all problems of blasphemy. Here every religion has a defensive law against blasphemy by other religion. Thus, the chance of its misuse reduces manifold.

Overall, atheism is more close to blasphemy, but more clearly former is the subset of the latter.

But I would say that your take on the argument that you are an atheist or criticise other religions depends on your social standard. As you can see above, well learned pragmatic innovators are mostly atheists because they had lived the whole life searching out logics and reasons. They never took anything for granted.

 CONCLUSION FOR EXTREMISTS:

                                                    1. EITHER YOU CRAVE FOR  THIS.

2. OR RESORT TO BLASPHEMY.