Truth is a state of mind?

Conspiracy Theory (1997)
Director: Richard Donner

In the pre-internet era, Malaysian coffee shops were fertile grounds for conspiracy theories. At a time when all news was coming out in print and the airwaves were tightly controlled, information was a priced commodity. Everyone had their version of what was going on beyond the iron curtain of bureaucracy, of what was reported and what was not. 

Surprisingly, at least in Malaysia, all the coffee shop banter that would initially be denied by the powers that be will turn out to be true. Investigational journalism is better done by the single cup of coffee purchaser sitting in the shop the whole day than by people trained and paid to do the reporting job. 

In the infancy age of the internet, in the early 1990s, internet buffs scrambled to be on the mailing list of MGG Pillai's discussion forum, Sang Kancil. His brand of hard-hitting fire brand exposè journalism excited young minds who were quite fed up with paternalistic information dispersal. Some of his reports were so unbelievably accurate, as if he had peeked into all governmental secret documents. A great vacuum was left after his demise in 2006. It was indeed a sad day for journalism. The hole was soon filled by Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK), who, probably with his lineage with the royalties, may be privy to much-privileged information. 

RPK did such a good job that he landed on the wrong side of the law several times. Over time, he became so controversial that people wondered whose side he was on. 

Sadly, with so much digital exposure these days, we are still trying to figure out what is real news and what is fake. Those who do not conform to the mainstream narrative are quickly labelled conspiracy theorists. Despite everything being at our disposal, we are still left as confused as ever. Alternative news still turns out to be accurate, as it was before. Nothing has really changed. 

This 1997 obscure film tells the tale of a taxi driver who is termed a lunatic who goes on broadcasting about a grand governmental plan to kill and destroy. In between, he is also apprehended by psychologists or government agents who feed him hallucinogens and try to extract information from him. To a certain extent, we, the viewers, are also confused about what is real and what the cab driver's imagination is. In that city, he is trying to contact a lawyer with the Justice Department. Long story short, the cab driver is correct. He is part of the US mind-control team of the State, which is programmed to carry out secret missions for the government. 

Truth is a state of mind?

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Control is key!

La Luna (2023)

Director: M. Raihan Halim

It is not just confined to one religion; it so happens that Islam is the reference in this film. Leaders of any religion, way of life, or cult take it upon themselves to be the de facto spokesperson on how the religion should be practised. They want to have the final say as if they had an audience with the Almighty, who whispered the secrets of life in their ears. 

To the young and restless, they give the impression that their lifelong purpose in life is to screw up everybody's happiness. Just to show who is the boss. 

Take this example. Occasionally, at the temple I sometimes frequent, there will be public service announcements of some good news or achievements. Naturally, the congregation would display their pleasure and admiration by clapping. That was the most natural thing for us humans to do. "But no!" said one elder, who raised his hands angrily to stop them from clapping. Strangely, a few minutes later, everyone was seen ecstatic, clapping and chanting to chants of 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna'. Nobody seems to know that there is such a rule and the rationale for having one when I ask around. After all, how does clapping in felicitations differ from the one during the recital of hymns? Finally, a very senior attendee just said that it was traditional. Period.

The lesson from this example is that people put rules and regulations in place because they can and want to. It is all about control and showing who is the boss.

This film got many of the religious people hot under the garbs. This comedy questions our blind faith and how leaders use it for selfish needs.

Kampong Bras Basah is a closely knitted village overseen by the conservative local holy man. He determines what is preached in the Friday prayers and micromanages peoples' affairs. Troubles come knocking when a plucky young lady starts her lingerie business in the village. Even though initially the villagers looked at the shop with scorn, they eventually flocked to the shop when one of the couples in the village showed remarkable improvement in their intimate relationships. The holy man digs up his sleeves to shut down the business. The storyline includes hints of spousal abuse, women empowerment, and the need to stand your ground and not blindly follow rules. 4/5.

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Control has its limits!

You think you have your life under control. You know what you want to achieve and get your path mapped out. You have a Plan B and a Plan C just in case the inevitable happens. You work your butt out, knowing the way laden ahead is no walk in the park but one paved with shrapnels and gravel. But you persevere.

Just when you look at yourself and think you have made a somebody out of yourself and think life cannot be any better, that is when life gives a devious smile and shows you who is boss.

By then, you decided that life must be more 'complete'. You bow to societal pressure to be complete for the continuity of progeny. You import your significant other into it, and the other accompanying condiments ensue afterwards.

Progressively you feel you have hit a dead-end. Nothing seems to progress at the individual level or as a collective unit. And it becomes gradually more difficult to amend the course or steer the ship. Things that were once in our control are no more. Sadly, you are at the mercy of others who do not share your sentiments. For that matter, they have no pressing needs to meet any goals. They either say, "snap out of it! Smell the roses; life is meant to be enjoyed" or "you come from another time which was hostile,".

Hostile or no hostility, events around the Wuhan virus have illustrated that being prepared for a rainy day is the virtue that saves the day. One has to be ready for a Black Swan event.

In the wise words of Buddha and the many rishis before him, these are all entrapments of life. Attachments are the source of all suffering. One has to detach to be released from all miseries, they say. But then, this brahmachari way of life may not be suitable for all. Finally, some people have to go through the whole gamut of life to have that realisation. Others are not really suited for a celibate life. Some may find it to complete their householder's duty before embarking on a journey of self-discovery or the endeavour to seek the truth (a sanyasi).

There are two ways to seek the truth; either do not indulge in family life in search of it or complete your household duties and then go on the journey. The trouble is knowing when household duties exactly end.

This sanyasi path is bogged down by the tentacles of filial piety. It is not easy to just amputate these appendages over self-interests. 

It is a dilemma all over again, which path to follow!

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Crookery at Crockett Island!

Midnight Mass (Netflix miniseries; 2021)
Creator, Director: Mike Flanagan

This miniseries is specifically relevant to the many unthinking keyboard warriors who spew venom freely over social media with their ill-thought seventh-century ideologies to spread ridiculous so-called divine decrees. Just because outsourcing labour is a legitimate way to ease physical burdens, it does mean it applies to rational thinking. 

As the joke goes, the top students in the class will become scientists who will change the course of mankind. The following best will be professionals, doctors, architects, engineers, etc. The professionals will control the scientists. The truant skivers will become lawyers who will take charge of the first two groups. The playful mavericks who frequently dodge their assignments will end up as politicians and will dictate terms at the end. But it is the boys sitting at the back of the class who fail all exams who will end up as holy men who would eventually control everybody else, from politicians all through to the scientists. 

This is precisely what is happening here in Malaysia today. Sixty years of lulled intellectual development and lack of competitive edge to excel have elevated the godmen clan to such a level that defies logic. Every little day-to-day problem demands men of theology to have the final say, not science or intellectual discourse. Whilst the country is let wayward by corrupt politicians and left to rot as its neighbours reach for newer frontier, the masses are left inebriated in the opium of religion.

The uncertainty of the purpose of life and the fear of the unknown draws more inhabitants of a small remote island, Crockett Island, to flock to its only Church, a Catholic Church. It revolves around many of its inhabitants. A disillusioned young man returns home to the island after serving time for drunk driving and killing a pedestrian. He is trying to fit into his disappointed family and judging community. The Sheriff, a Muslim widower, finds it hard to fit into the exclusively Christian society. After losing his wife to cancer, his duty as a father to a teenage boy is challenging as the son seems curious about Christianity. 

Then, the resident Preacher, who is supposed to return from the mainland, fails to turn up. In his place is a young pastor turns up. He seems more dynamic and draws the crowd to the parish. The congregation at the Church grows phenomenally more significant as a miracle takes place on its premises. A wheelchair girl starts walking!

Slowly, people go missing. The last straw comes when an ultrasound-proven pregnancy goes missing. Meanwhile, there is a kind of caretaker lady of the Church who has a firm hold on running the house of worship. She indeed has planned for the Easter weekend, as the islanders stay vigil for Easter Sunday!

This miniseries, Midnight Mass, is a set-piece that discusses how faith can be contagious and fuel cruelty and violence. It justifies people's actions and inactions. The name of the Divine is invoked to absolve them of the moral culpabilities of their acts. A divine decree, however bitter, needs to be enforced. Organised religion seems to give a sense of superiority as if they have complete knowledge of the secrets of the Universe and a feeling of exclusivity, giving titles like heathens, pagans, kuffars and non-believers to others.

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Gun, Oil and Drugs - the GOD Complex!

Population Control: How Corporate Owners Are Killing Us
Jim Marrs (2015)

It may have sounded like rumblings of an old man who had lived too long to be amiable to the wranglings of the modern world, or it may scream of the rebel yell of a conspiracy theorist who is explaining about that is wrong with the world today.

In America and in the world as a whole, entire populations have been culled for profit and control. Elites have used the so-called GOD syndicate—Guns, Oil, and Drugs—as well as toxic air, water, food, and medicines, and of course, the unhealthy financial system on which the whole master plan depends—to reduce the world’s population. This is due to the belief of the global elite that the basis of all the world’s problems is overpopulation—just too many people using the Earth’s limited resources.
The conspiracy theory angle starts with the story of the American Stonehenge, which was unveiled in 1980, in the state of Georgia by anonymous donors. The inscription gracing the four mammoth slab of Georgia Guidestone, written in eight different languages, among other things mentions the need to maintain the world population at 500 million. In 1980, the world population had already capped at 4.4 billion. How on Earth are the people behind the Georgia Guidestone going to have their mission accomplished if not for the mass killing of the masses?

We were taught that economic growth and population growth are inversely related to each other; overpopulation is linked to poverty and famine. On the hand, the equation is not so straight forward. It has to be weighed against productivity, migration policies, access to medical, savings and educational facilities as well as civil society and good governance.

Modern statistics teaches us that for a society to continue, there needs to be a constant population growth of at least 2.1. By biological design, to create more thinking brain and exponential technological advancements, couples have to have more than two children. Exponential population growth, however, is a recent phenomenon, spurred by the industrial revolution and later progress in the medical field after the second World War. 

The neutrality of population growth with respect to economic development came into disrepute again in the 1990s, when tigers of East Asian sprang their fangs. Despite their vast population, instead of being a burden to the country, they became a market for their products, which consecutively steamrolled the economy.

Georgia Guidance

The premise of the book is that there is a cabal which wants to control the whole world and control its resources. First, it needs to eliminate the population, damage the environment, acquire all its natural resources, its fauna and flora, influencing the economy, usurping industries, destroying mom-and-pop businesses and replacing them with multinational conglomerate owned enterprises which would terrorise to control price, seed and quality.

The water would be polluted with toxic fumes and chemicals. The land will be laden with heavy metals and polluting hydrocarbons. Big pharma will sell medicine for the diseases that they create. And the data which are reported by dishonest scientists who sell away humanity for personal glory. New non-existent disorders are plucked out of thin air, like social anxiety disorder which was formerly referred to as just shyness and female sexual dysfunction syndrome. The society is drugged to receive fake news, to be numbed and be herded to the slaughter.

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Man maketh the clothes!

Sex Pistols

It is quite comical to hear how some ladies insist that absolutely no one can tell them how to dress. I chuckle a little (to myself) when they say that nobody can restrict them from wearing a headscarf. At the same time, they cannot be pressured to don one. 

To wear or not to wear is not the question but the logic behind it is.

What we wear and how we wear denotes a specific identity. We identify and feel bonded to one having the same fashion sense like us. Anthropologically we must have wanted to stay together as numbers mean strength and protection from the evil elements of Nature.

The story of the genesis of the greatest punk rock band ‘The Sex Pistols’ is one that began with a group of downtrodden rebellious teenagers who identified them with black leather jackets and outrageous fashion sense.

It began when Vivienne Westwood started sewing her brand of garments in a small lifestyle shop in King’s Road in London. Strikingly named SEX, it drew droves of young crowd who wanted to stand out amongst the rest. As the shop’s popularity grew, so did Westwood’s partner’s, Malcolm McLaren’s ambition to manage a punk band. With Westwood’s shock-value garments and McLaren’s group, ‘The Sex Pistols’ with their provocative lyrics, soon the Pistols became a household name.

Fans identified each other with the same kind of outfit. Gangs of one group would frequent one drink outlet whilst another gang, maybe the skinheads, or the romantics, all differentiated by the dressing or hairdo, would haunt other joints.

It is all about being part of a pack for identification and maybe protection.

In the same manner, organisations that insist their down liners dress in a particular way has no noble intentions or divine decree to suggest so. It is all about controlling the head, to build camaraderie, exert power over and possibly make them pawns to do their dirty work.

All the explanations to act, speak, dress, eat, live and pray in a certain ritualistic way is just a smokescreen for more sinister intentions.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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Psychopath's Handbook?

How to Win Friends & Influence People 

Dale Carnegie (©1936)

I must be exuding the aura of being a loner with very few friends that someone actually loaned me this book. He must have thought that it must be a sure way to end all my perceived 'woes'. Generally, I do not cherish books of this nature. To me, they appear like learning swimming by reading. Some things can be acquired only through practice, experience, and dents from the School of Hard Knocks.

After reading through it, I find it to be more like a handbook for psychopaths. It tells its readers how to skew others' thinking and actions towards the readers' self-serving needs. The psychopath would slowly play mind games to influence his victims into thinking that they are doing something altruistic akin to how Piped Piper would rid the town all the mice for nothing (thank you very much). And how the children would be mesmerised to his enchanting flute music to march in like zombies into the caves and never return.

Many of the topics illustrate the insincerity of people in making friends and influence them. They try to make people like them. They attempt to control people with their way of thinking, to be a leader without offence or resentment.  

Nobody, I mean nobody, can teach anybody anything. We cannot even make them learn. The yearning should come from within. 99% of the time, people, even hardened criminals, do not blame themselves for the mess they create or the mayhem that they are privy to. Criticising does not change anything, only creates resentment said Lincoln. People have to feel important. They want good health, food, sleep, money, sexual gratifications, the wellbeing of their children and perhaps a good after-life. We have to remember these when we want to influence people. 

Even though the methods that are suggested simple enough, most of us take them for granted and end up doing just the opposite; with disastrous outcomes. It is all about dancing to the tune of the intended 'victim'. Some of the strategies include making the others feel important, be free with appreciation but not flattery, arouse the interest of the other, show genuine interest, remember their names, be a good listener, talk in term of others' interests (while keeping in mind his true intentions, I suppose), be friendly, use diplomacy and not to run anyone down, be sympathetic to others' views, be dramatic and throw challenges to maintain the interest. 

We should remember that a drop of honey attracts more flies than a gallon of gall. The results seem more important than the means.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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Heaven on Earth?

"Don't ask too many questions, sometimes it is better to just let go and follow the pack. Follow the people who are experts and know more than us!" At the end of our intellectual discourse on religion, this is the best my friend could tell me. I think that aptly explains the current situation we are in.

There was a time in our civilisation, we were all clueless about the things around us. One blind leading another, we all used to grope around making sense of things as we moved around in an environment that never failed to awe us. Initially, simple explanations sufficed to satisfy our curiosity. Answers begot more questions and our thirst for knowledge and desire to know the Truth never got doused.

Then a group of self-appointed beholden of the race came to the fore to claim of direct communications with the Maker. They claim to have obtained fresh rolls hot out of the oven! Our answers are answered and that we have reached the zenith of our understanding. That, we should not kid our minuscule minds to comprehend the master plan set by the Agent Intellect. That we should just accept and not prod too much.

These leaders' action smattered of power and control but who are we to question? They put us the fear of eternal damnation and the horrid pain of hell fire. We cow to submission.

On the other hand, tribes who dwelled in an environment of discourse, constructive argumentation and scientific thinking, always questioning the known and experimenting the unknown, reached progress of dizzying heights. The naysayers lament that their advancement is not the one favoured by the Agent Intellect but who cares. They have their society in order and their life peaceful. After all, that is what we want. Peace on Earth and Heaven on Earth!

They want us to believe!

X Files Season 10 (E1-E5)

More than 10 years after their tour of duty, the last the two renegade FBI agents are still at their conspiracy theories. They are still keen to expose to the world of their employers’ devious plans to hide major secrets from mankind and their attempts at hastening the annihilation of mankind as we know it.

Many things have happened since their last outing. The paranormal department had been closed. Fox Mulder is on medication for depression. Dana Scully is working in a hospital, minding her own business. There is a mention of Scully having been abducted by aliens before. They (Mulder and Scully) have an 11-year-old child whom they have given away for adoption for security reasons. They have reason to believe that the child must have been infused with alien DNA, hence the secrecy.

The smoking man is still around! The last time I saw him, he had laryngeal cancer. In the first episode, he is seen with a tracheostomy but still smoking via his tracheal aperture! And still up to his tricks! Telepathy and killing through mind control make its presence again. The episode on were-monster is set on a light note and is more comical and thought-provoking than scary! A trashman is a thought form (a monster which arose from an artist’s mind!) who is a killing machine who seeks justice for the homeless. The homeless are treated like trash - everyone knows it is there but nobody wants to know what becomes of it!

In keeping with the sentiments of the times, the 5th episode is on suicide bombing. In their attempt to extricate information from a comatose bomber, Scully and Mulder with a set of sort reverse image of their roles, two other FBI agents, try to do the job. One pair decided to partake this task through out-of-body experience with magic mushroom (hallucinogens) and the other through analysis of EEG wave.

It is amazing how imaginative the writers can be to keep the interest of fans after all these years. Another round of galore for conspiracy theorists and for those who want to believe that the truth is still out there. Whether we would be happy to know the truth, would be satisfied to learn of the truth, believe that it the truth when the truth is laid bare or be able to handle the truth, that is another story. They say the joy is in the journey in finding the truth. The truth is just the icing, we can live without it!

Dialogue the way forward?

Malaiur Manikam (Malay; 2015)
Author: Uthaya Sankar SB


From the time of Thales, the first European philosopher, the first from the European perspective, the Easterners claim to have known this earlier, the quest to know the secrets of the universe kept on growing. The Greek philosophers thought that the structure of universe could be explained via trigonometry and mathematics. They were excited when they correctly predicted a solar eclipse in 585BCE.
From then on, via critical debates and intelligent deductions, many theories were created.

At the heights of the Golden Era of the Islamic Civilisation and the courtyards of Agra of the Mogul Empire, majlis and interfaith dialogues were familiar scenes. Each scholar would go as far as learning each other culture’s language so as to understand the crux of knowledge that each had to offer. They understood that what they knew was the only fistful; when what they need to know was ocean deep! Akbar went as far as creating Dīn-i Ilāhī, an amalgam of the best of Hindu, Islam, Jain, Christian and Zoroastrianism.

The author incisively criticises leaders who seem go around the country with blinkers and a self-installed halo refusing to accept alternative opinions and think that they know everything. Period.

Uthaya Sankar tries to put many things in perspective. He attempts to educate the masses about certain concepts in Hinduism, the sacred place of cows in society and the meanings of certain celebrations. He went on to ruffle many feathers by reminding us of our early history of Nusantara and the genesis of the diaspora called Malays. Even though our education system boasts of trying to unite the citizens of the country, many are still in the dark about their brethren’s practices and cultures. This book introduces us to the core of Sikhism and Buddhism. The plight of the LGBT community is also highlighted for us to digest. The most interesting part of the book was the section on Tamil literature, about the great poems and their relevance to the time.

This book is a light read to refresh our rich heritage. We should all respect each other’s cultures as what may seem like absurd or comical to one may be dear to another. After all, we are all human, only separated by our minds.

N.B. The title could be a cheeky way of telling that he is not a foreigner but a jewel from a country called Malaya (Malaiur = old name for the Peninsular of Malaya, a hilly country; Manikam= jewel)

First they control your eyes....

I may not be a connoisseur of films, but I sure do indulge in a lot of them, not in the making but as a consumer. Sometimes, I wonder if I am hiding in a fictitious world of make-believe, fantasy and poetic justice. Or that the conventional wisdom that I learned in the course of my growing up facing the hurdles of life are somehow unlearnt and new thoughts are infused.

If fact, way back as early as 1905, a Catholic priest had suspected that the newly introduced moving pictures were corrupting the mind of the masses. He objectively demonstrated his theory via a modern-day lie-detector type of a contraption to prove his conviction. Over the years, people started analysing movies and its messages, whether hidden or otherwise. Hence was born the field of film studies.

After its successful role of being a propaganda tool of the Americans to justify their entry and actions in the first World War, it continued its heyday of trying to mould and unify the thoughts of the Western-educated world. Follies and injustices were nicely swept under the carpet and given cosmetic touch-up. Hitler and his party created mass hatred of a certain through his orchestrated attack of a section of the population via films. So did the Allies in giving hope to the supposed warriors of the 'correct side' of the war.

The advent of cable news networks brought about mongers of news from individuals with a vested interest who could sell ice to Eskimos and create a mountain out of a molehill! Lessons learnt from its early years strengthen the adage that a lie oft repeated becomes the truth.

The next step in the brainwashing exercise is the appointment of modern-day management gurus in the form of talk-show hosts. They highlight social issues which are primarily first world problems which would not bat an eyelid in any third world country. The hosts, being hosts, the peddler of issues with the uncanny ability to pluck questions from thin air, attempt to influence sponge-like minds of the modern mind to think alike. In a way, it is modern-day post-Cold War indoctrination of the mind.

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