Random Thoughts

History Repeats Itself

The words of the title attributable to Karl Marx go on to proclaim “first as a tragedy and then as a farce”. By now my readers know that I have an idle mind and sometimes I sublet it to the Devil to use it as his workshop. Lately I have been reading Quantum Mechanics amongst other things and revising my acquaintance with Feynman diagrams. In one of these, an electron and a positron annihilate, producing a virtual photon that becomes a quark-antiquark pair. Then one radiates a gluon. It struck me that an electron going forwards in time is the same as a positron going backwards in time. Having understood the complexity of quantum theory despite Feynman’s explicit warning, “I think it is safe to say that no one understands Quantum Mechanics”, I decided to analyze this business of Osama Bin Laden.

I am interested in phonetics and familiar with ethnic jokes in which Japanese and Chinese speakers have difficulty pronouncing the consonant “R” and mispronounce it as “L”. Thus fried rice comes out as flied lice. I also know that many north Indians pronounce the word station as istation and south Indians have lilting accents, while Gujaratis pronounce foreign as phhorin. The Swedes also have a lilting tone when speaking English and emphasize the first syllable while saying “three”. Canadians can be easily detected by the way they say the words “out” and “about” because their accents are like those of the Scots for those words. Germans get caught as they say “Vendy” instead of “Wendy”. Southerners have their drawls which vary and can be reliable in placing them in the fashion of Professor Higgins in Shaw’s Pygmalion.

Under the circumstances when I heard Senator Mitch McConnell raving, ranting and railing about his life’s goal and raison d’etre, being to defeat Obama, I though it must be a variant of a Kentucky drawl or some lisping speech defect, as the consonant “B” which is a voiced labial is not interchangeable with “S” which is fricative. In Sanskrit, Indo-Iranian and Greek branch of Indo-European, “S” changes to “H” as in Soma becoming Homa in ancient Persian and Septa becoming Hepta in Greek. It was because of that I thought that McConnell with a Scotch-Irish mixture of Kentuckian brogue and burr, meant Osama, when he spoke Obama. Finally I realized that I had mis-diagnosed his problem and his burr was definitely not at the front end of his gastrointestinal tract. I realized it when I heard sundry prominent Retropubicans crediting Bush for the killing of Obama and Senator McConnell and his co-conspirators were not lisping but had their lasers focused on Obama’s defeat, not Osama’s.

I had known about repeating as a tragedy and farce ever since I was exposed to Hollywood and Bollywood and Rambo 1,2 &3, Rocky 1,2,3,4, Devdas (Saigal, Dilip Kumar, SRK), Pelham1,2,3 re-makes. I didn’t know that a new national motion picture and propaganda center had opened up near Washington DC in a studio called Pentagon. They had produced movies in the genre of Leni Riefenstahl and recieved the Riefenstahl award in their production of the “Jessica Lynch Story” and the “Pat Tillman Saga”, so they used their public relations firm of Leon Panetta, Jay Carney and Brennan to put out advance stories about the raid on Abbottabad and killing of Bin Laden.
 
Remember the Kuwaiti Ambassador’s daughter living in Washington DC, who swore having personally witnessed Saddam, the Scum Bucket disconnecting premature babies from respirators, which he sold for Colombian cocaine to arm the contras, all from the lawn of the White House. Now there were only 25 Navy Seals who showed immense skill and bravery in the successful raid and yet the entire Pentagon, CIA and Executive Branch of the US government could not give the story straight and honest, twenty-four hours after debriefing them. They had to embellish it by non-existent constant firefights, using women and children as shields, claiming that live capture of the terrorist was impossible because of unarmed Rambo Osama’s  firefights and making contradictory statements about help from Pakistan. Then Obama ordered not to release the pictures of a dead Bin Laden, for fear of increased terror attacks, but felt it was proper to announce the same if it boosted his ratings.

Let us analyze the matter. The compound in which the building was attacked was said to be seven or eight acres. It was well within the capability of our superb air-force to use precision guided missiles or bombs to selectively obliterate the entire building and achieve the objective of killing its occupants without risking the precious lives of the brave Navy Seals. Didn’t Bush cut veterans health funding and neglect Walter Reed, while wasting time and money pretending to be an aviator on the deck of an aircraft carrier? We have done that with Global Hawks, Predators and Hellfire missiles in Pakistan itself, merely because of suspicion that the crowd below were insurgents and have turned out to be wedding parties, children gathering gasoline or elders gathering for a Shura. Raymond Davis shot two Pakistanis on a mere suspicion, so our bogus cry of being extra sensitive to collateral civilian damage and casualties rings hollow.

Pakistan’s claim that they were unaware that Bin Laden was living near their military is a matching lie. The ISI and the army chief probably offered him sanctuary and probably betrayed him to calm irritated America and continue receiving economic and military aid to prevent bankruptcy and compete with India. If they admit that they sold out Bin Laden, it would raise the ire of the jihadis, increase terror attacks in Pakistan and refute their claim of being the Sword Of Islam. As some American experts have remarked, I see Mr. Ten Percent angling at his game for the reward.

The most likely scenario is that Pakistan has given sanctuary, monetary and military aid to the terrorists of Taliban and Al Qaeda and has been selling them out one by one to obtain American aid. One cannot even be sure whether Obama is telling the truth or this whole story is a gimmick to raise his popularity, deflect attention from a stalled economy (a la Clinton -Lewinsky cruise missiles to avoid impeachment, or Sarkozy- Libya bombing to beat Le Pen in elections) and chances for re-election, like he dumped his pastor to win his first term.

To re-interpret Marx’s words that history repeats itself, first as a tragedy and then as a farce and collate it with quantum mechanics that an electron moving forward in time is the same as a positron moving backward in time, I come up with the death of Anti-Christ Osama being the farcical repeat of a tragedy of the death of Christ. To me it is obvious who played Caiaphas, Judas and Pontius Pilate this time. We have already heard the apostles Carney, Brennan, Panetta give their versions of the gospel truth and they differ just like Mark, Matthew and Luke. I am however more doubting than Thomas and will not be surprised whether Bin Laden is dead or resurrected. I also think the believers will grant him martyrdom and worry that a new avatar, prophet, imam or son of god will appear to replace him as long as there are gullible religious believers. P.T. Barnum, you were so right!

With apologies to Baroness Orczy

They seek him here
They seek him there
Yankees seek him everywhere
Is he in heaven, Is he in hell,
That damned elusive UBL   
 

07-May-2011

More by :  Gaurang Bhatt, MD


Top | Random Thoughts

Views: 3492      Comments: 10



Comment The big mistake atheists make is in thinking because they say (believe) God does not exist, God does not exist. Likewise, your not believing in the resurrection event equals it never occurred. Here you make the prejudices of your mind the reality, which is the definition of delusion. The analogy is Osama. You are the man.

' I suspect that his disciples including the proverbial doubting Thomas were hallucinating at best' - it only confirms to any serious reader a wilful denial of the facts in the form of a joke that is no joke; that, basically, you are talking to yourself to convince yourself, and are convinced. No one else can possibly be.

rdashby
13-May-2011 06:30 AM

Comment Hi Gaurang,

In process to proove your worth as a intelect & to boost your ego through "mental masturbation", you have gone too far and lost the plot, like you have done so many times in past.....you are obviously a rationalist, in many previous posts hell bent on denying existance of purpose of life....i think mate you seriously need some ***R?m@nCe*** in life....

Niraj Trivedi
13-May-2011 01:10 AM

Comment To Alan,
My objection is to mere name calling instead of specific criticism. Since you have compared my piece to Sokal's hoax and its acceptance by a social science periodical,I owe you an explanation. While its analogy may be far fetched by some person's standards, it was with the intentions of satire. Nobody understands quantum theory as Feynman succinctly said and my point was that the same is the status of terrorism and democracy as conveniently defined by the US (suppression of Egyptian, Bahrain, Tunisia protests, use of military force against Qadafi, support for Saudi, Jordanian and Moroccan monarchy, drone bombing of civilians in foreign countries merely on suspicion and oblivious to collateral damage and death of innocents). To me it seems obvious that my claim regarding understanding quantum theory was a spoof, because I confessed to having an idle mind and subletting it to the devil for his workshop.

My derogatory opinion on religion does affect my writings. To many Muslims Osama is a rashid or a Muslim on the right path, even though we have a diametrically opposite opinion of him. His killing while necessary and appropriate from our point of view is not an example of justice. If he was not resisting and not armed he should have been captured, tried and sentenced to death if proven guilty in a court. What we are doing in Guantanamo, Bagram and rendition does not qualify as justice and while it maybe the only effective strategy, it is nothing to boast of and crow about for any civilized society, which we trumpet ourselves as. For the Jewish establishment Christ was a rabble rouser and not a reformer and they saw his crucifixion as justice and reprieve for Barabbas as alright. In my opinion since the benignity of Christ could only be made equivalent to the malignity of Osama by the convenient mathematical magic of a negative sign, I invoked the simile of an electron going forward and a positron going backwards in time. If that led to violation of charge, parity and time, I tried to connect it to quantum theory. Finally I do not believe that Christ or anyone is resurrected and I suspect that his disciples including the proverbial doubting Thomas were hallucinating at best and thus founded the cult of Christianity (all religions are cults and opiates for the masses), it is equally likely that some of his Muslim admirers will resurrect Osama (a la Elvis) and others will grant him martyrdom and be inspired to do us more harm.

As to Obama's lame explanations for sending in SEALs while foregoing the option of aerial bombing to avoid collateral civilian damage, while using drone bombing of any suspicious target in FATA, I argued that it was to boost his re-election chances and to claim the title of the Killer of Bin Laden. It is reminiscent of Mullah Omar draping himself in the alleged cloak of the prophet Mohammed and assuming the title of Amir-Ul-Momeen or Leader of the Faithful. The irony is that to win his prior election to the presidency, he actually did just the opposite and dumped his pastor. He is the proverbial chameleon who adopts a center left camouflage to win while governing from the right (his appointments of Summers, Geithner, Schapiro etc. -- See the documentary "Inside Job").

I concede that these connections which I have elaborated in this comment may not have been clearly laid out in the article for fear of making it too long or even my ability to do so, and my assumption that an informed reader would make the connection not justifiable or valid. If your time was wasted or if you felt like a victim of bait and switch, it was not intentional on my part and these things happen. Look how much of my own time was wasted by answering people in the only script they can read and write, that of abuse and name calling. But no one compels anyone to read, comment or reply to any writing at any website and those of us who feel compelled to do so by evolutionary constraints and have only the single repertoire of spewing gratuitous venom, may on occasion need to realize that if we live by the sword, we could also die by the sword.

Gaurang Bhatt

gaurang bhatt
12-May-2011 10:37 AM

Comment Thanks Jesus, at-least you saved Feynman and Rene Descartes. They are lucky enough to rest in eternal peace and not alive today to read this master piece diatribe. I can imagine how Feynman would have banged his head and Descartes must have denounced his own words. Use of quotes is acceptable. Till today I did not know that abuse is also part of nuance, and is right too.

Heaven or humanity sake please do not abuse people posthumously. It is neither accepted nor appreciated in civilised society. Your are right, I acknowledge your advice that, I should be more cautious in my reading habits. All those who speak about Quantum mechanics are not Feynman or N. Bohr.

Vinay
12-May-2011 08:44 AM

Comment Hit this essay in my random Google search. My first thought was 'Awesome' when I had read the first paragraph. Continued further down,felt little lost...in the end I was on different paradigm. I agree that my knowledge on terrorism is limited but such a casual out of context use of Christ simile was indeed disturbing.

I must say sorry in advance as I am giving unsolicited advice and still do not intend to get involved in below the belt debate between blogger and Vinay. But I wish to advice that both of you should read the book "Fashionable Nonsense" from Alan Sokal, and Jean Bricmont.

Alan Schuptere
12-May-2011 02:49 AM

Comment To rdpashby, No comments in matters of faith.

To Vinay, Every blog is a reflection of the writers views and thoughts and nuances are meant to stimulate thought or even controversy, but this blog is not meant for children, immature persons or those who are mentally challenged and you should check with your adult supervisor before surfing sights for mature persons on the internet. Those who can write, try to, those who can't simply post one liners at websites like defecating animals marking their scents to validate their life and existence, because they cannot meet Descartes criterion of "Cogito ergo sum" -- I think therefore I am. Stick to the level of your ability. There is no shame and don't be disheartened, even if you can merely read only a few letters as long as you are doing your best and really trying sincerely.

Gaurang Bhatt

gaurang bhatt
11-May-2011 18:58 PM

Comment There the analogy ends. What distinguishes Christ from Osama, or Mohammed, or Buddha, or anybody else in history, is his physical resurrection from the dead. St Paul is the realist; "And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain" (1 Cor. 15:14).


rdpashby
11-May-2011 06:58 AM

Comment This blog is quintessential to "How to twist & confuse simple issues" OR 'How one should not write?" OR "How some people take other granted to show their intellect & satisfy their bloated egos?"

Vinay
10-May-2011 22:53 PM

Comment The analogy to Christ was to connect with quantum theory and raise violation of charge and parity and the Yang Mills theory. The less physics related and more biblical history related story is that Osama was the false prophet of Islam (an antichrist ) but in this story too there is a Caiaphas (Abdullah of Saudi Arabia), Judas (General Kayani of Pakistan), Pontius Pilate (who like Obama washed his hands off the deed, calling it justice instead of retaliation or revenge and turning justice, just war and morality on its head while saying that the end justifies the means with his cleverly hidden forked tongue) and even a Barabbas (the thief who escaped punishment -Ten Percent Zardari). Many scriptures have justified assassination or unjust killing on the grounds of revenge for dastardly acts. Hindu Mahabharata in the killing of Karna, deceitful killing of Drona and hitting Duryodhana below the belt. The actions of Joshua towards the Canaanites and the killing of Shechemites by Simeon, the murder of Jewish tribes by Mohammed. Not even the anarchist who killed Mckinley, Booth who killed Lincoln, the psychopath Sirhan who killed Kennedy, claimed that they were doing justice. Obama is a bigger hypocrite than all of them because his deeds are premeditated with an intention to mislead merely to enhance his chances of re-election. He will deny even the lord to win an election. Maybe he is more teflon coated than the Gipper, the demented one or maybe he has the blessings or curse of Dorian Grey.
So we have to play our life's rubber by bidding no Trumps with the insane republicans or Yarborough Obama's bluff, while we are the only ones who are vulnerable and face a penalty, while the crooked congress, senators, presidents and CEOs jump out with their golden parachutes and million dollar book contracts.
We will inherit the earth, our reward will be greater in heaven or maybe we will be reborn as Brahmins or metamorphose into a cockroach in our next life as a compensation for a well done Job.

Gaurang Bhatt

gaurang bhatt
10-May-2011 18:08 PM

Comment If history repeats itself, OBL's form of assassination by bullet to the head precludes a precedent in Jesus Christ, who at least underwent a semblance of due process of the law before his execution by nailing to a cross - a rather more laborious killing procedure; but most evidently includes a string of American presidents (true precedents) from Lincoln to the Kennedy brothers, throw in the attempt at Reagan's life - oh, and let's not forget Martin Luther King, though just a popular leader, if not a president then still a precedent. Assassination by means of the metaphorical silver bullet appears to be an American solution to the problem of due process; and it was implemented in the case of OBL, about whom at least, one could say to both sides, he was accorded an honorary US president's end.

What disturbs me is that Obama is US president, and that an equation is hanging in the air - Bin laden's honorary president execution equals...exactly what?

rdpashby
09-May-2011 18:00 PM




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