Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

15 May 2021

 

LAW PROPOSES BELIEF DISPOSES

They say that ‘Man proposes, God disposes.’ Wikipedia presents its origin as follows:

[Man Proposes, God Disposes is an 1864 oil-on-canvas painting by Edwin Landseer. The work was inspired by the search for Franklin's lost expedition which disappeared in the Arctic after 1845. The painting is in the collection of Royal Holloway, University of London, and is the subject of superstitious urban myth that the painting is haunted.]

To my mind the above is superstitious to those who lack belief in the absolute, but use the name – including science at base level. It is belief to those who are driven by their conscience. Recently we had this conversation within a Tamil Diaspora group in which the word ‘labile’ in relation to my article ‘WINNING THE WAR AND LOSING THE HIGHER MIND :

 

Tamil Diaspora Leader(TDL) 1: about the Sri Lankan Government - If they had a higher mind there would not have been a war ,  they would not have indulged in looting, raping killing other human beings, Lord Buddha's first precept was" DO NOT KILL "

TDL 2 (A Medical professional) : Not once but repeatedly. "They" say all this because of LTTE. They have forgotten when looting and raping started and when  LTTE started. Is this analysis or being apologetic? 

Gaja: Each as per their mind. You also said that LTTE were terrorists. They were certainly more orderly than the government forces. But their fault was they wanted total control and hence killed those whom they saw as their opposition. Now China is using the space created by them

TDL 1: I always considered them as Freedom Fighters, it was the Govt that branded them as terrorists 

Gaja: To me they are armed rebels. When presenting outside the community I add my contribution to ‘freedom’ and present them as Freedom fighters. What the government says does not affect me at personal level. It is not different to what certain idle members of this forum do when they label me.

TDL 2: Gaja, instead of beating round the bush say what exactly your stand is on the tamil fighters? Somewhere you said that they were more disciplined than the army? So now you are coming down. Are you safe to say so? That is not what you are expected to say.

Gaja: As I have said repeatedly, I speak the truth I know. How you receive it is as per your truth. I do not think of ‘safety’. There is risk from both sides. My truth guides me to express as needed by the group that I am part of through my feelings. So, as an opposition your entitlement is to express as per your belief. It is not to make a junior of others. When you do so – you act like the current government as well as LTTE

TDL 2: Then why it keeps changing? A labile mind or any other extraneous reasons

At this point I had to look up the exact meaning of labile and that confirmed what I thought it meant.

Gaja:  There you go again judging me to be mentally unstable. You have the habit of using special jargon to express this in this group that would have difficulty understanding it and are too lazy to look for the meaning. This is why I said I would take action against you. It is abuse of knowledge. It demonstrates lack of professional ethics on your part.

Truth is One but it takes many forms due to time and place changes. When you eliminate these – you would identify with the truth.

TDL 2: That is why I mentioned "labile". Did I say unstable. You just modify a turban into a cap and then put it on your head and scream foul.

Gaja: So you agree that that was why you used the word "labile". Given that this is a lay forum why did you not use ‘changing mind?’ You probably do not know why you do what you do. If you are conscious of your past status and you want to have fun – you become secretive through your language. This is why you use such language and this is why you wanted to shrink the forum. When was the last time you published a research paper on this in the language of the society you are part of?

Had I used the word ‘labile’ blindly, I would have been superstitious. Had I known its meaning without looking up, I would have been a misfit in this particular lay group, but would have effectively become a junior in medical group. Some members of the group promote seniority of TDLs 1 & 2, and become their juniors and then try to ‘tell’ me what to do. This is the problem when intellectuals become politicians.

To my mind, this was why Mr Wigneswaran uses the Justice label to ‘get’ juniors and at the same time refer to the LTTE leader as a junior brother. This is confirmation of bipolarism. Belief is a natural cure for this. Pathway of Common knowledge would also take us to Common thought  structure so the victim of Bipolarism is cured by believing minds.