The Apollonian-Dionysian balance

Rush (2013)


Friederich Nietzsche identified enduring dichotomies within and amongst us that make our world tick. These two attitudes, both named after Greek Gods, have clashing features. Apollo, son of Zeus, stands for order, logic and reason while Dionysius, the God of Wine, represents chaos, madness and drunkenness. Nietzsche thinks we need both. It emerges from nature itself and can be applied in our day-to-day activities, from art, psychology, ethics to politics.

Apollonian way of doing things can be visualised how a scientist functions with his obsession with precision, discipline and punctuality. The Dionysian effect can be seen in music and art form, which may appear chaotic and not following the rules but nevertheless is music as it is, pleasant to the ears and emotive.

Nietzche saw the fusion of frenzied energy of the Dionysian to be applied constructively inside an Apollonian framework as ideal.

This biopic depiction of the professional rivalry between two F1 racing legends, Niki Lauda and James Hunt brings us to a time when F1 racing meant booze, girls and drug. Even though the movie depicts them as mortal enemies, in real life, they were close friends and had kept in touch for a long time.

James Hunt is the impulsive hard-drinking, the hard-partying late-night bad boy of F1. Lauda, on the other hand, is a fastidious, calculative and disciplined racer who prepares his every move meticulously and goes to bed early.

A memorable quote in the film goes like this. 'Drivers are revered not because of what they do, driving around in circles but because of their brush with death. The closer they are with death, the more people find them fascinating.' I suppose the same applies to other professions that deal with or hold people's life at the clutch of their hands. This would include people in the medical fraternity or in the mafia business.

This opposing features in the drivers form a compelling narrative for a cliffhanging adrenaline-fueled, rubber-burning suspense at the F1 track set in the early to mid-70s. The excellent direction by Ron Howard makes the experience more enjoyable.

Life would be boring if everyone conforms to a universal set of rules and practises fair play all the way. The Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy remains a useful way to view art, psychology, society and every other aspect of life.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This is not a drill

© Juan Rumimpunu

People, mainly the theistic type, are in a dilemma now. They are currently undergoing a test of faith. On the one hand, they feel they should not have been subjected through such a trial. Whoever had heard of Man-created laws preventing believers from performing their daily mandatory salutations of the Divine Forces? Furthermore, at this time of calamity, if they cannot turn for Divine help, where else can they turn to?

But wait...

Why did the Divine Forces 'send' such a test to us? Does he not love us so much? After all the cajoling over the generations, and the importance that humankind had accorded to the celestial forces these times, why are we continuously put to the test? Is it some kind of Divine Mirth for the amusement of the Maker and a testbed to gauge our devotion? Why do they feel that this time around, when the fear of COVID-19, the first place to be emptied are the places of worship? How can they be hotbeds for infection?

Are they justified is asking, "My Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?" Has God ditched his followers stricken with COVID-19 by shutting down religious centres with no prayer meetings? Social distancing seems to be the only panacea for all this ill. Perhaps He is telling us that blind faith does not work. Above all intelligence and cognitive power would make us stronger as a race.

Perhaps the answer would be, "I am here just for your solace. I cannot possibly change the trajectory of the Universe just because of your cajoling of me in prayers. Imagine the catastrophe that could cause to the others. I have other requests too, you know!"

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

'Cadaver particle' that turns people to corpse.

Semmelweis on Google Doodle

This post is dedicated to my mentor, VM, who exposed me to the field of history of medicine. As part of my training, he made it a point to drill me on the historical aspects of specific treatments. The exciting thing about these small vignettes regarding history is that they make good conversation pieces.

These days, seeing people around in frantic in hand-washing exercise, reminded me of one of the first historical icons that VM introduced. Something as simple hand washing is often undervalued, and the first person who promoted this was never really feted. In fact, as like other many historical figures, he, Ignaz Semmelweis, died a sad man.

The Vienna General Hospital of the mid-19th century had two obstetric wings; one manned by midwives and the other was run by doctors. This was during the pre-antibiotic era when puerperal fever was a common occurrence and death due to sepsis was nothing unusual. In fact, more mothers died in the doctor's wing, much to the embarrassment of its head, Prof Semmelweis. Mothers begged not to be admitted to the doctors' side and would instead deliver in the streets, claiming they had delivered en route the hospital. The surprising thing was the infection rate of those delivered by the streets was low.

Bizarre theories started flying about these maternal deaths. Many of the patients were of low morals, single mothers and prostitutes, hence personal hygiene was suggested. They even postulated poisoning by milk as yellowish exudates mimicking milk were found in their uteri during postmortem. Naturally, it was just pus.

The eureka moment came when his colleague died of sepsis after a cut on his finger during postmortem examination. Semmelweis found a connection between the autopsy done by the doctors and the patients that delivered. He concluded that there was a 'cadaveric' particle that transmitted to the parturient mothers via the doctors' hands. He suggested washing hands with a chlorinated lime solution to remove the 'putrid smell' of cadavers. His method reduced sepsis and maternal mortality tremendously.

Semmelweis tried to spread his technique all over Europe, much to the resistance of the old guards who were quite comfortable with their old ways. Just around that time, there was political turmoil in Hungary. Career insecurity was an issue. 

Cheers to Semmelweis
(with VM)

It is said that Semmelweis would have had a more significant impact if he had communicated his findings more effectively and avoid antagonising the medical establishment.

Eventually, his behaviour took a turn. He started drinking heavily, living openly with a prostitute and became progressively violent. He was institutionalised. A few days after that, he was restrained and hit by the institute paramedics. He died unceremoniously due to infections sustained from the assault; the same infections he was trying to avoid. He could also have suffered from tertiary syphilis or Alzheimer's disease. 

Only almost twenty years later was his theory proven true by Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur's Germ Theory.

People's actions over the ages never really change. They are quick to resist any new suggestion that would alter their routine. It has come to be referred to as Semmelweis reflex, a metaphor of human behaviour, where fresh ideas ridiculed and rejected by contemporaries. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Are we there yet?

Looks like the generation that enjoyed the “are we there yet?” clip from Shrek 2! are all grown up. Now that they are cooped up in lockdown, they complain that they are bored. They keep whining when the movement control order will end.

This is the generation that could not be left to themselves to interact and create games among themselves. Their parents had to arrange party games to keep them occupied. Some caregivers kept their kids glued to the TV for babysitting or kept them busy nibbling on junk food and gulping soda.

As if that the whole Universe was conspiring against them, in rolled the gaming devices and the world wide web network to quench the desire for instant gratification. Their wants, desires or any kind of squirms were met with a wave of fingers which almost looked like a sleight of hand.

The opposing forces of Nature, it seems, are fighting back. They want to impress upon the millennials that not everything can be fixed by their soccer mums. It is what it is. Even though satisfied that they would be left uninterrupted to their own digital devices, they yearn to hang around idly at the overpriced and overhyped eateries. 

The elders can tell them that it is a form of national service for them; that it is nothing compared to their grandparents who had to don military fatigues bearing artillery to scourge the tropical hinterland, it is all fairy tales to them.

They can be told of the single year without a summer in 1816 when Europe was frozen and how that misadventure created a brand-new genre which is incidentally one of their favourites. Without Frankenstein and Vampyre, their idol Robert Pattinson and Twilight would not have had their breaks. 

Meanwhile, are we there yet? Have we traversed the peak and descending path of the standard distribution curve of the Gaussian graph?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

“you don’t work for us, you work with us…”

Sorry We Missed You (2019)

During the infancy of my career, many a time, being the most junior of the team, I usually ended up having to see poor patients who just made it to the clinic at closing time. I soon came to know that they were living far from civilisation, deep in rubber or palm oil estate. Coming to the hospital meant getting up at four in the morning, preparing breakfast for the school-going children and being able to get on the first 6 o'clock morning bus to town. Invariably, they would be delayed. The transport out to the main road would not turn up. Perhaps, the feeder bus would break down or the bus that they had to change left earlier.

They would eventually reach the hospital close to noon. After getting an earful for not keeping to their time, they would have to seen by the junior most doctor of the team. The senior ones would have left the clinic for more pressing needs. Unable to make a definitive plan of medical treatment for them, these patients who would require most of the expertise from the medical team ended up discarded by the system. They would be given another appointment; the whole ritual needs to be repeated. On top of all these, as they are daily wage earners, absence from work meant the loss of a day's earning.

I thought all these slave-like working conditions would end as the world changed. With globalisation, workers were promised working conditions and preservation of unassailable rights of the workers. Marx's dream of working for sustenance and having leisure time to enjoy the reason for their existence, they thought, would of fruition with the gig economy. They do a gig when and if they want. The workers would be their own boss. They work for themselves; not for the bosses or company. They do not work for a company but with the company. What the company failed to highlight were the fine prints, the exclusion clauses and the penalty they were to be imposed if specific rules are not followed.

Fast forward, and workers realise that the whole economy is just a scam. The same old economic ideology is just re-packaged. The same plot of scheming the poor to feed the rich is in full force. The workers continue breaking their back until a new horizon emerges. Who knows what else would they promise the next time. Meanwhile, like Sisyphus, the unendowed have the find simple pleasures within their unending cycle of hardship, a flicker of hope, resolution, pain and the curse of repeating it all over again.

Still reeling with debts from the 2008 economic downturn, Ricky thought he found a sure way to end his financial woes. The promise of good returns as an independent despatch services provider, he felt his hard work was the only thing that separated him from economic independence. For that, however, he needed to purchase a pickup van. For its down payment, he had to sell off the family car in which, the wife, Abbie, a home care nurse moved around to meet her patients. 

Soon everyone realises that it is not all hunky-dory. Ricky has to spend long hours at work. Abbie finds it taxing to meet her demanding schedule. Their two teenage children are left to their devices. The parents are unable to meet up to their school and their children's emotional needs. Ricky's woes only accumulate. He has to pay damages for lost items which are not covered by insurance and to work despite his injuries after mugged.  

It looks like the dependence on others will spill over on to the next generation. Their dependency on their digital hand-held devices is not mere addiction. It has become their essential tools to do their school, learning, communication and more. The digital world is another platform that is manipulated by the economic giants to make people fall at the service providers' feet. This is yet another doublespeak and the dehumanising trap of the neoliberal economy. Instead of building an antifragile society that grows stronger with every stress that is hurled upon them, we will be left with a brittle one, needing support at the mere thought of pressure.

Again, our electron microscopic friend, COVID-19 has shown us the fragility of the gig economy. Being locked down for two weeks may be excellent for family time and bonding, but neither bring in the cash nor pays the bills.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

Truth, stranger than fiction?

Usual suspects (1995)

In this time and age, many conspiracy theorists are having a field day. They come up with so many mind-bending and mind-boggling explanations to drive home their point of why a particular event happened the way it did. Their story may sound incredulous, but they sure have an appropriate answer for the turn of events. 

Take the example of the genesis of Covid-19. One camp will insist that it was a Chinese bioweapon that went wrong. To support their assertion, they would show 'proof' of the Chinese Communist Party's secret laboratory in Wuhan and how a diseased bat landed in their market-place. 

Then the opposing party will say that the virus is actually US-made. To arrest China's seemingly unstoppable ascent for emerging as the world's largest economy, the US had to resort to such dirty tactics. A third party would then appear to insist that the virus was just a natural mutation, a sort of Nature's fight back to reclaim its territories.

When you turn around and tell them that their tall stories are too unbelievable to be accurate, they would turn around and tell you, "Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction!"

Then there is the New World, the Illuminati, the Cabal of Bankers with the Rothschilds, the Mossad and the list goes on who really controls all the wars, the economy and even tsunami and climate change.

'The Usual Suspects' has a sort of cult following. It is often quoted as a pop culture reference in many American shows including 'Saturday Night Live' and 'Family Guy'. The convoluted storyline told by a convict of an elusive mobster and twist at the end of the movie is a classic for many movie buffs. It also boasts of many memorable lines reminiscent of any good noir movie of the 50s.

As the signature of the film says, 'the greatest stunt that devil pulled was that he never existed' is precisely how the hidden forces of the controlling powers work. Work is done by proxies. The right-hand whacks, whilst the left applies the soothing liniment. The arms that break also embrace. That is the art of deception.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The iconic ending scene (not to give anything away) via GIPHY

The top, below and the will to fall.

The Platform (El Hoyo, Spanish, 2019)

The recent shopping spree shown by the public before an imminent lockdown following the Covid-19 shows how self-centred and selfish our society is. Some people stock up toilet rolls by the trolleys full just because they do not have to worry whether there is money left to be used for other things. The last thing on their mind is the fear of creating panic buying or that his fellow human will be struggling to get his. 

Some will blame the individual for such behaviour, whereas others will say that the system created such monsters.

We should be the change that we want, it is easy to say. Unfortunately, we are worried about our survival that we care less for others. Perhaps, we should learn that the joy of being wealthy is not in spending capriciously but using it judiciously.

The change in a broken system does not start from high above but from the people lower down the food chain. The ruling class do not see anything in the structure as it benefits them. Those in the lower rung are too disjointed and entrenched in their miseries that they feel helpless the corrupt. A change within the system needs to be initiated by the middle class to send a message to the ruling class that their system is broken and needed to be amended. This is a revolution. For this, there are people on the top, in the bottom and people who would fall for their cause in their course of action.

This Spanish film tells us about the monster that capitalism, which exploits our primal desires, has created. Symbolically, it shows a vertical prison where food is transported via a platform from level 0 all the way down to level 333 (as we later discover. 2 persons per floor would make it 666 occupants. 666, being the devil's reference, show the demonic nature of Man to survive.). 

The problem is the people on the top floors gorge on the offering, leaving crumbs or nothing for the rest below. Sometimes, they had to resort to cannibalism. Every month, their levels are changed at random. The upper occupants of the jail feel it is their time to indulge as they may not be so lucky the following month. 

Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza
- symbols for politics, beliefs and identity.
(Much like Adishankara who travelled to the four
corners of the Indian subcontinent to unite the nation)

The whole set-up stinks to high heavens, but no one is willing to take the lead to change or want to improve themselves. At the end of the day, someone had to take the fall to send a signal to the top by influencing the occupants of the bottom.

Just like how Don Quixote who travelled around the Spanish countryside to write an account and to unite the people, here the protagonist goes through all the levels to send a message of change. His philosophies of life are heard loud and clear in this show. Maybe, there is a hint that religion that could be an unnecessary diversion. Somewhere in the dialogue, one justifies cannibalism for survival by quoting a phrase often linked to Christianity - whoever eats the flesh and drinks the blood will live for eternity. It may be a suggestion that religion only relieves with short-term problems, not in our long-term living situations. That needs a change of mindset, excellent leadership from the middle strata of society, one who is knowledgable (one who reads) and a revolution of thoughts.

A thought-provoking one but not for the faint-hearted.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.