I am sitting currently on a slightly turbulent flight (as a matter of chance I did get upgraded to 1st Class hence I get complimentary bad airline food instead of having to pay for it) and a vibrating nose which is within tolerance limits. And the cooked (I think these are steamed) shrimps with a sort of cold marinara sauce is an excellent intellectual stimulant. I think it triggers a state of perfect peace with the inner self since the distraction of taste absolutely disappears. I for one do believe that taste is one of the key reasons that keeps us from achieving 'nirvana' in life. Imagine life without good food. The wise say that life is an ever unfolding pursuit of food and shelter at the basic levels of attainment. I think, however that I would be fine without a shelter (in a tropical geography) and replace that with good food.
Speaking of food, as I finish the horrible nightmare comprised of dinner served by American Airlines, my thoughts get diverted to the fact that not very long ago, inspired by the modern Indian sages (Babas of the day) with websites, FB pages and massive estates, of beginning a fast as soon as I could finalize on an agenda to rationalize my attention deficit disorder and some seed capital, viz. about 50 or so followers with a mixed combination of skills and qualities. About 10 moderately rich people with about two women to finance my idiosyncratic views of politics and the fate of the world, and in the process make it look good to the PR bees. About 10 followers need to SEO and Social Community experts to ensure sufficient buzz gets generated around the buzz to attract the 4 Ps of becoming a Baba - Press, Politicians, Poets and Philosophers (people with only perspective and never a solution). The remaining 25 to 30 followers need to basically be people who are in search of non-productive and non rewarding employment. And last but not the least, a lawyer and an accountant are a must have.
Once the stepping stone to becoming a successful sage or Baba is crossed, viz. gathering seed capital, the most difficult part of the planning and execution follows. This comprises of the critical path activity of deciding and finalization of the agenda. The followers will need a message to follow and spread and this is where I am currently stuck. I have a list but then I also have a three point filter list and most of my ideas so far have failed the "Three Point Idea Test for Successful Ascension to Baba Stature".
1. The idea must be niche and yet be able to strike a moral/economic chord among the Middle Class and the rich who have taken to philanthropy. Without the middle class backing up the idea preached, it will never gain popularity and thus not be profitable. However, in our age of information overload, it has to also be niche to be able to achieve a high Signal to Noise ratio in the great and powerful press and thus seek important corners of the right politicians hearts.
2. The idea must necessarily be such that can be linked to a derivation of ancient or not so ancient historical context so that it can be referenced back to "our cultural, historical, literary and/or philosophical root" in some form or manner. This is almost as important as the first filtering criteria since the ancient or not so ancient historical context will be the nectar of the philosophers and also therefore the subject of editorials and commentaries. Without the gift of the Philosopher's perspective and encouragement, generating positive reviews will be a steep mountain to climb.
3. The idea must have the romantic equity and intellectual appeal of poetry in the modern context. It is very important as this appeal is what captures the mind of the young (the quintessential follower) and allows the intellect to be mesmerized to follow the rational of absolute chaos. It is this group that I call the 'poets'.
Some if the ideas that I have thought about over the last week have somehow not been able to sieve through the filtering or gating criteria that I have put together after very detailed study of some of the recent and not so recent activist, who have taken to fasting as a means of attaining mass popularity, money and absolutely no constructive outcome (key success criteria).
The first ideas that came up were anti-corruption, world peace, anti-racism, oppression by the powerful, etc. were almost immediately ruled out since these are almost cliché and will not attract more that one of the 4 Ps and are bad ideas for a start up Baba. Of course, if you are established and already have the ability to go through with Conflict Theory, these might work; definitely not for me.
Sitting at 33000 Ft above Sea Level I am trying to concentrate on my energies on my grey brain to come up with ideas that might work.
Some of what I can think of are as below (in real time)...
1. One of the most potent ones, that has yet to be fully exploited in India, is a movement in favor of gay love and marriages, although this is a chewed to rubble idea in the western economies. It will definitely attract the press, politicians and numerous poets; hell, half the men from glam world underbellies would be instant poets chanting for the cause. The only problem is that in India it would be very difficult to find historical context that would encourage the philosophical association. Then there is also the fact that with lack of religious context, such pursuits can become life threatening with some political leadership taking fanatic contradictory views. I am scared of the RSS ad affiliated Shiv Sainiks.
2. With a background in the study of Business Administration, I think an economy cause can also bear fruit. Consider acting in the interest of poor farmers (this is not very niche but might work if followed by a season of poor monsoon) or counteract export or import or both to reduce cost impact or price impact on small scale businesses and the middle class consumer, respectively. This one is actually a nice idea assuming the filtering criteria and the needed audience. The only shortcoming is if you are, by sheer bad luck, challenged on a public forum by the expert. The preached rational in chaos will be decimated point by point and this might actually screw up all future prospects. Will however keep this one on hold for a bit - might work with some modifications.
3. The cause for supporting the environmental cause is a good one too. In fact it might actually get some response in actions that could do some good! And I even like it from the moral perspective. To get this to work I need to find some park or forest being decimated by a corporate entity somewhere and that shall be my point of origin. This is a definite yes from the point of view of a good idea.
4. I cannot help but coming around to the religious angle in this endeavor and I do believe that the elimination of religious violence and conflict. That one is good, although dangerous an has to be timed perfectly. This could be the high stakes deal that might even get me into the parliament. But there is a gestation involved, essentially waiting for the right incident to crop up and catch sufficient fire in the press storms.
I think we are descending at the moment And I should summarize to down selecting the last two ideas, of course the second idea isn't too bad but needs some rework in terms of articulation. Any further ideas are appreciated with cognizance to the end game - quick money, mass popularity and little or no consequential outcome.
Speaking of food, as I finish the horrible nightmare comprised of dinner served by American Airlines, my thoughts get diverted to the fact that not very long ago, inspired by the modern Indian sages (Babas of the day) with websites, FB pages and massive estates, of beginning a fast as soon as I could finalize on an agenda to rationalize my attention deficit disorder and some seed capital, viz. about 50 or so followers with a mixed combination of skills and qualities. About 10 moderately rich people with about two women to finance my idiosyncratic views of politics and the fate of the world, and in the process make it look good to the PR bees. About 10 followers need to SEO and Social Community experts to ensure sufficient buzz gets generated around the buzz to attract the 4 Ps of becoming a Baba - Press, Politicians, Poets and Philosophers (people with only perspective and never a solution). The remaining 25 to 30 followers need to basically be people who are in search of non-productive and non rewarding employment. And last but not the least, a lawyer and an accountant are a must have.
Once the stepping stone to becoming a successful sage or Baba is crossed, viz. gathering seed capital, the most difficult part of the planning and execution follows. This comprises of the critical path activity of deciding and finalization of the agenda. The followers will need a message to follow and spread and this is where I am currently stuck. I have a list but then I also have a three point filter list and most of my ideas so far have failed the "Three Point Idea Test for Successful Ascension to Baba Stature".
1. The idea must be niche and yet be able to strike a moral/economic chord among the Middle Class and the rich who have taken to philanthropy. Without the middle class backing up the idea preached, it will never gain popularity and thus not be profitable. However, in our age of information overload, it has to also be niche to be able to achieve a high Signal to Noise ratio in the great and powerful press and thus seek important corners of the right politicians hearts.
2. The idea must necessarily be such that can be linked to a derivation of ancient or not so ancient historical context so that it can be referenced back to "our cultural, historical, literary and/or philosophical root" in some form or manner. This is almost as important as the first filtering criteria since the ancient or not so ancient historical context will be the nectar of the philosophers and also therefore the subject of editorials and commentaries. Without the gift of the Philosopher's perspective and encouragement, generating positive reviews will be a steep mountain to climb.
3. The idea must have the romantic equity and intellectual appeal of poetry in the modern context. It is very important as this appeal is what captures the mind of the young (the quintessential follower) and allows the intellect to be mesmerized to follow the rational of absolute chaos. It is this group that I call the 'poets'.
Some if the ideas that I have thought about over the last week have somehow not been able to sieve through the filtering or gating criteria that I have put together after very detailed study of some of the recent and not so recent activist, who have taken to fasting as a means of attaining mass popularity, money and absolutely no constructive outcome (key success criteria).
The first ideas that came up were anti-corruption, world peace, anti-racism, oppression by the powerful, etc. were almost immediately ruled out since these are almost cliché and will not attract more that one of the 4 Ps and are bad ideas for a start up Baba. Of course, if you are established and already have the ability to go through with Conflict Theory, these might work; definitely not for me.
Sitting at 33000 Ft above Sea Level I am trying to concentrate on my energies on my grey brain to come up with ideas that might work.
Some of what I can think of are as below (in real time)...
1. One of the most potent ones, that has yet to be fully exploited in India, is a movement in favor of gay love and marriages, although this is a chewed to rubble idea in the western economies. It will definitely attract the press, politicians and numerous poets; hell, half the men from glam world underbellies would be instant poets chanting for the cause. The only problem is that in India it would be very difficult to find historical context that would encourage the philosophical association. Then there is also the fact that with lack of religious context, such pursuits can become life threatening with some political leadership taking fanatic contradictory views. I am scared of the RSS ad affiliated Shiv Sainiks.
2. With a background in the study of Business Administration, I think an economy cause can also bear fruit. Consider acting in the interest of poor farmers (this is not very niche but might work if followed by a season of poor monsoon) or counteract export or import or both to reduce cost impact or price impact on small scale businesses and the middle class consumer, respectively. This one is actually a nice idea assuming the filtering criteria and the needed audience. The only shortcoming is if you are, by sheer bad luck, challenged on a public forum by the expert. The preached rational in chaos will be decimated point by point and this might actually screw up all future prospects. Will however keep this one on hold for a bit - might work with some modifications.
3. The cause for supporting the environmental cause is a good one too. In fact it might actually get some response in actions that could do some good! And I even like it from the moral perspective. To get this to work I need to find some park or forest being decimated by a corporate entity somewhere and that shall be my point of origin. This is a definite yes from the point of view of a good idea.
4. I cannot help but coming around to the religious angle in this endeavor and I do believe that the elimination of religious violence and conflict. That one is good, although dangerous an has to be timed perfectly. This could be the high stakes deal that might even get me into the parliament. But there is a gestation involved, essentially waiting for the right incident to crop up and catch sufficient fire in the press storms.
I think we are descending at the moment And I should summarize to down selecting the last two ideas, of course the second idea isn't too bad but needs some rework in terms of articulation. Any further ideas are appreciated with cognizance to the end game - quick money, mass popularity and little or no consequential outcome.
Posts
I would probably add this to the criteria:
ReplyDelete5 ) The idea should be ideally be vague , already well publicized and impossible for the ruling politicians to accept .
Why vague : The mass public should not know what exactly needs to be done in order to get the idea done. Ex: Millions would have liked the anna hazare page on facebook but very few would actually know what needs to be done for the Lokpal bill to pass
Why well publicized: You as a startup baba would not have enough resources to publicize a new idea, use a myth or a propaganda that someone has already done for you Ex: Everyone already knew about the assets abroad, or everyone already thought Obama was not born in the US
Why impossible for politicians to implement : This is perhaps the most important criteria, your fast is over before it starts it the already paranoid government passes a bill to effectively end your agitation . For Ex: If your fast was to save the environment, they could very well pass a very vague law to screw you.
After the long criteria herego some of my ideas:
1) Fast to re-open dance bars in Mumbai (I am sure you would get a lot of anonymous donations)
2) Fast to force the government to tax anyone who has a private jet (or a Ferrari )70 % of their income
3) Fast to get Kashmir back or even Arunachal Pradesh back from China (practically impossible but great public reach )!
4) Force the government to pressure US to allow unlimited immigrants from Bihar (read Canada and Punjab as well )