New Book!

I have published a science fiction novelette 'Homo-Posterus' at kdp.amazon.com.
The book is about an inventor who travels to 3000 AD and meets his successors. There he gets the information about the way humans perished and gets opportunity to meet the super-humans, the successor race. His plans of coming back to Earth and, the super-humans' plan of keeping him for certain research, together with the moments of intrigue and passion resulting from this, are narrated in these pages. 

https://www.amazon.com/Homo-posterus-vadis-Roy-T-James-ebook/dp/B01JBTVTWI/

About THOUGHT VIBRATION

‘THOUGHT VIBRATION’ by William W. Atkinson deals with ‘The Law of Attraction’ of the thought world. Like a stone thrown into the water, thought produces ripples and waves which spread out over the great ocean of thought. There is this difference, however: the waves on the water move only on a level plane in all directions, whereas thought waves move in all directions from a common center, just as do the rays from the sun. Just as we here on earth are surrounded by a great sea of air, so are we surrounded by a great sea of Mind.  We receive only that which corresponds to what our mind is tuned to. In this, the affirmations and auto-suggestions used by the several schools of Mental Science and other New Thought cults come to be of great use. For example, the man who asserts that he can and will do a thing – and asserts it earnestly – develops in himself the qualities conducive to the well doing of that thing, and at the same time places his mind in the proper key to receive all the thought waves likely to help him in the doing.

Further chapters discuss issues related to building one’s mind, enhancing one’s willpower, and how to overcome the habit of Fear by assuming the mental attitude of Courage. Mentioning that the key to attainment is Desire, Confidence, and Will, the book mentions of the need to overcome emotions like fear and worry. While bright, cheerful and happy thoughts attract bright,cheerful  and  happy  things  to  us, worry  drives  them  away.

We may be used to regarding the emotions as something connected with “feeling” and quite divorced from intellectual effort, the author says. But one may repress, increase, develop, and change one’s emotions, just as one may regulate habits of action and lines of thought, he mentions while discussing The Psychology of Emotion. Therefore the thing to do, the author says,  is to set your mind to the keynote of courage, confidence, strength and success. That lets you attract to yourself thoughts of like nature; people of like nature; things that fit in the mental tune. Who among them will be picked up you – your prevailing thought or mood determines.

‘You are today setting into motion thought currents which will in time attract toward you, thoughts, people and conditions in harmony with the predominant note of your thought’, the author concludes.

If ‘birds of a feather flock together’, why not men of the same thought?

The Error-prone Species

To Err is Human. Why?

I know, I am questioning one of the fundamental tenets of human society. This particular idea is so ingrained in us that we have devised a flurry of arguments to keep its support alive at all times, and under any circumstance. A few of them are:

1. Making mistakes teach us valuable lessons.

2. Mistakes teach us to be forgiving.

3. Mistakes help us let go of our fears.

4. Making mistakes is essential to living a life without regrets.

5. Mistakes help you grow as a person.

6. Mistakes can be fun.

7. Mistakes lead to success.

8. Mistakes serve as a warning.

9. Mistakes allow us to see how we are like others.

10. No human is perfect and so everyone makes mistakes.

We don’t stop here. Our understanding of errors has been enhanced by distinguishing between two types of cognitive tasks that may result in errors. The first type of task occurs when people engage in well-known, oft-repeated processes, such as driving to work or making a pot of coffee. Errors may occur while performing these tasks because of interruptions, fatigue, time pressure, anger, distraction, anxiety, fear, or boredom. By contrast, tasks that require problem solving are done more slowly and sequentially, are perceived as more difficult, and require conscious attention. Examples include making a differential diagnosis and readying several types of surgical equipment made by different manufacturers. Errors here are due to misinterpretation of the problem that must be solved and lack of knowledge. Keeping in mind these two different kinds of tasks is helpful to understanding the multiple reasons for errors and is the first step in preventing them.

We continue. Now we try to distinguish between different environmental conditions that can lead to errors. People make errors for a variety of reasons that have little to do with lack of good intention or knowledge. Humans have many intellectual strengths (e.g., large memory capacity and an ability to react creatively and effectively to the unexpected) and limitations (e.g., difficulty attending carefully to several things at once and generally poor computational ability, especially when tired).

There are many opportunities for individuals to prevent error. Some actions involve communicating clearly to other team members, requesting and giving feedback for all verbal orders; and being alert to “accidents waiting to happen.”  Other actions that include simplifying processes and standardizing protocols, developing and participating in multidisciplinary team training, and, being receptive to discussions about errors and near misses, are also in vogue.

However, large, complex problems require thoughtful, multifaceted responses by individuals, teams, and organizations. That is, preventing errors and improving safety require a systems approach to the design of processes, tasks, training, and conditions of work in order to modify the conditions that contribute to errors.

Designing for safety, which requires a commitment to safety, a thorough knowledge of the technical processes of care, an understanding of likely sources of error, and effective ways to reduce errors, is our present approach to this issue.

So much preparation is not needed, for any other form of life, to do things in the right way. What is the difference between humans and all other species? How is that we are very comfortable with the argument that no human is perfect, and, say, all dogs are perfect?

There is a big difference between humans and other species. Unlike other forms of life, humans tend to do everything in a style that is more than natural, and, though the mating season lasts throughout the year, there is no visible post mating agony. Putting two and two together, I think it is rather intuitive to conclude that humans need so much of style and preparation to occupy all the activities of life fully, such that, there is less time or space left for mating, and none for post mating agony. (This perhaps explains how, we happen to have many of our customs, ceremonies and codes centered around the human reproductive organs) And one dependable facet of every activity of life, which has the power to keep us engaged, happens to be, errors. Errors can provide a reason to keep us occupied, even when everything else fails.

Book Review: THE MOST DANGEROUS SUPERSTITION

In ‘THE MOST DANGEROUS SUPERSTITION’, Larken Rose explains how, the belief in “authority,” which includes all belief in “government,” is irrational and self-contradictory.  How it  is  contrary  to  civilization  and  morality,  and  constitutes  the  most dangerous,  destructive  superstition that  has  ever existed.  “Rather than being  a  force  for order and justice”, the author says, “the belief in “authority” is the arch-enemy of humanity.”

The book begins with distilling down ‘authority’ to its  most basic essence, and examining it objectively. Part II of this book shows that  the  concept  itself is  fatally  flawed,  that the  underlying premise  of  any form of government is  utterly incompatible with  logic  and morality.  In  fact,  it shows the “government” as a purely religious belief – a faith-based acceptance of a  superhuman,  mythological  entity  that  has  never  existed  and  will  never  exist.

Part  III of this book deals with the ‘belief’  in  authority,  including  all  belief  in “government,” and shows how it is  horrendously dangerous  and destructive. Specifically,  it will  be  shown how the belief in “authority” dramatically impacts both the perceptions and the actions of various categories of people, leading literally billions of otherwise good, peaceful people to condone or commit acts of violent, immoral aggression. In fact, everyone who believes in  “government”  does  this,  though  the  vast  majority  does  not  realize  it,  and  would vehemently deny it.

In the last part, Part IV, the reader is given a glimpse into what life without the belief in “authority”  could  look  like.  Contrary  to  the  usual  assumption  that  an  absence  of “government” would mean chaos and destruction, when the myth of “authority” is abandoned, not much is seen to have changed. Unlike the popular idea that the belief in “government” is necessary for a  peaceful  society, as nearly all of us has been taught, belief is shown as the biggest obstacle  to  mutually  beneficial  organization,  cooperation,  and  peaceful  coexistence. 

The book makes this clear: Contrary to what nearly everyone has been taught to believe, “government” is not a necessary part of civilization. It is not conducive to civilization. It is, in fact, the antithesis of civilization. It is not cooperation, or working together, or voluntary interaction. It is not peaceful coexistence. It is coercion; it is force; it is violence. It is aggression, cloaked by pseudo-religious, cult-like rituals which are designed to make it appear legitimate and righteous. It is brute thuggery, disguised as consent and organization. It is the enslavement of mankind, the subjugation of free will, and the destruction of morality, masquerading as “civilization” and “society.” The problem is not just that “authority” can be used for evil; the problem is that, at its most basic essence, it is evil. In everything it does, it defeats the free will of human being controlling them through coercion and fear. It supersedes and destroys moral consciences, replacing them with unthinking blind obedience. It cannot be used for good, any more than a bomb can be used to heal a body. It is always aggression, always the enemy of peace, always the enemy of justice. The moment it ceases to be an attacker, it ceases to fit the definition of “government.” It is, by its very nature, a murderer and a thief, the enemy of mankind, a poison to humanity. As a domineering one, controller, ruler and oppressor, it can be nothing else.

Though the book presents a strong case for anarchy, the suggestions are more pedantic than pragmatic. We are, I think, quite at home in utilizing the avenues available with the present system of governance for our convenience. How actually we can do the same, and what new avenues shall be there for us to take, when we have a society where governance takes place without government, should have been dealt with in greater detail.

In fact, this is the reason we have happily agreed to live with ‘government’. All things sundry, which affects our daily existence, shall remain well defined and without doubt.

That is also the reason, we have not adopted anarchy in our life. Though all things abstract, which incidentally does not touch our daily life, are placed very high.

Book Review: The Physiology of Marriage

The Physiology of Marriage, by Honore de Balzac, is a study of a well known enigma. It starts with a powerful observation that women in general, bestow their love only upon a fool, in almost all the the cases of collapse of marriage. The author then goes on to examine the topic in nine chapters, termed meditations.

The first one begins with common observations, like that life consists of passions, but no passion survives marriage, or that in spite of husbands having superior intellect and wealth, wives have lovers, insignificant in appearance and stupid in mind. In subsequent meditations, many other facets of women  and marriage are examined. 

In all this, the first point noted is about the scant availability of information in this regard. "The administration has been occupied for nearly twenty years in reckoning how many acres of woodland, meadow, vineyard and fallow are comprised in the area of France. It has not stopped there, but has also tried to learn the number and species of the animals to be found there. Scientific men have gone still further; they have reckoned up the cords of wood, the pounds of beef, the apples and eggs consumed in Paris. But no one has yet undertaken either in the name of marital honor or in the interest of marriageable people, or for the advantage of morality and the progress of human institutions, to investigate the number of honest wives."

The author then goes on with a fresh study of the principal component of all marriages, the man and the woman. Stating that "a woman is a rare variety of the human race, and her principal characteristics are due to the special care men have bestowed upon its cultivation. The life of a woman is divided into three periods, very distinct from each other: the first begins in the cradle and ends on the attainment of a marriageable age; the second embraces the time during which a woman belongs to marriage; the third opens with the critical period, the ending with which nature closes the passions of life. However, physically, a man is a man much longer than a woman is a woman."

Further meditations deal with "obstacles to happiness", "honey moon" as well as "the first symptoms of storm". Here the author gives one of the finest observations I have come across, that "happy marriages are rare because the great men of love are never recognized, though they are, in war, philosophy or, science." While examining the relevance of honey moon, many questions are investigated, like, "How can the honeymoon rise upon two beings who cannot possibly love each other?, How can it set, when once it has risen?, as well as Have all marriages their honeymoon?" Author concludes with his idea of a successful marriage. "A man ought not to marry without having studied anatomy, and dissected at least one woman.As ideas are capable of infinite combination, it ought to be the same with pleasures.If there are differences between one moment of pleasure and another, a man can always be happy with the same woman."

In part II of this book is examined, what is termed as marital policy and its conduct. The book gives a few important warnings. “The first is never to believe what a woman says; the second, always to look for the spirit without dwelling too much upon the letter of her actions; and the third, not to forget that a woman is never so garrulous as when she holds her tongue, and is never working with more energy than when she keeps quiet.”

This book, though not suitable to the present social structure and the reigning man – woman relationships, can be enjoyed as a good analysis of the past society. The author has correctly evaluated the character of every woman as something special and deserving further study, but, seems to have made the same historical mistake, of attributing those peculiarities to the weakness of the female sex. Like all proponents of such views, no justification is offered, how, unlike the females of all other species of life, human female happened to be of weak constitution and frail temperament.

Do we have a penchant for the Natural?

Is our penchant for the Natural, natural?

What is behind our predilection for the natural?

Nowadays, especially, there is so much value attached to that word. Things like ‘all natural whole grain goodness’, or ‘non toxic all natural household cleaning kits’, are some of the more common marketing jargons of today, amply proving this.

But it was not so some time back. Things like ‘Fortified grain’, ‘Vitalized oil’,  were the ones in great demand. Now we are discarding the fortified, or vitalized stuff, giving it a rather repulsive term, artificial, and choosing the rather feeble ones in lieu, naming them of course, with a rather agreeable word, organic.

Why?

I think we, the people, make societies. Therefore, societies behave exactly like people.

Our behavior, and our priorities in life are not the same in our childhood, youth, or old age. In a similar manner, societies, and nations which are constituted by the societies, also have their priorities changing over time.

Thus, when the world was in in its childhood, which, let us say, is the period before the industrial revolution, we witnessed a rather low demographic, cultural and economic status. The period thereafter show a burgeoning society that is ceaselessly making fast and steady leaps forward. We were at home with great changes, explorations, and successes. Now I think the world is entering its old age. The signs that we see everywhere of decadence and, an agitated and unstable state of societies, I think, is an indication that the present social setup is an unsuitable one.

We can confirm this just by looking around. See any nation of the world. Everywhere, it can be seen that more and more irrational happenings are taking place. Our penchant for the natural therefore, is just another example of the irrational.