Tag: conflict

training day; denzel; confucius

~ Tanmay ~ Leave a comment

Training Day is a cop movie set in downtown Los Angeles. Ethan Hawke plays a rookie cop- Jake Hoyt who is assigned into Denzel Washington’s unit. Denzel plays Alonzo, a crooked cop working in the narcotics department.

Alonzo believes in maintaining the status quo of a criminal world where cops are dirty and are in on the action. As per his own needs he chooses to arrest or murder anybody. He tells Jake to do the same, to follow his lead and one day become a detective who makes actual change. We can see that Alonzo is trying to manipulate Jake into becoming a dirty cop.

Jake resists and says this is not what he signed on for (of course the blue eyed white guy says that). However he is embroiled in a staged shoot-out and is used as a pawn by Alonzo who is also under pressure from his superiors.

The Master (Confucius) sighed, “Would that I did not have to speak!”
Zigong (a disciple) said, “If the Master did not speak, then how would we little ones receive guidance from you?”
The Master replied, “What does Heaven ever say? Yet the four seasons are put in motion by it, and the myriad creatures receive their life from it. What does Heaven ever say?” – Excerpt from Analects Confucius (Edward Slingerland)

I can see a parallel between what Alonzo tries to tell Jake, to let the status quo be and to observe him and learn. Of course I’m sure Confucius didn’t advocate lawlessness and murder. But if a value system is corrupt and validates what we consider immoral or criminal, then a large part of wisdom and a pattern of virtuous conduct could be adopted in the corrupt society. It’s as if the society won’t believe it’s corrupt and it’s just normal to be looted and killed.

But we don’t live in such a society right?

-Tanmay

screaming subconscious

~ Tanmay ~ 2 Comments

Sometimes I don’t understand the origin of the pain that seeps into my poems. The knowledge that there have been terrible experiences is not enough to explain why there is pain still. Why is there hurt hidden beneath, or is it in the air around me?

I attribute it to a subconscious that is still screaming. It is still reeling from the jolts that erupted years ago. The subconscious is screaming because it has no one to talk to- but only me to talk through. Manifesting its active pain into my passive actions. The silence that I prefer hides the screams of the void within.

The pain is too romantic to go away. It’ll cling for as long as it can. It’s a struggle to get it off and whether you like it or not there’s going to be a lot of self correction and learning then unlearning and learning again. But it’s a harder struggle per se, so I resorted to numbing myself, and making myself immune to the world, keeping my pain guarded closely in my arms, feeding its ego and nurturing it further. Till life itself became unsustainable and I was on the brink of losing a lot of what wasn’t mine to lose. I had to take charge of myself through the loneliness and the tough nights and work on my mind.

Taming the mind is a long process requiring practice and discipline, repeated a million times only to reach a point much below any semblance of excellence. Life itself is that process. The way you navigate your life is your process, and that navigation is in your hands only when you’re aware of yourself. Deciphering the meaning of the world and the purpose of existence is nothing but an attempt to understand your own life. The process requires many attributes- such as controlling impulses. I react too quickly to impulses rather than analysing how they might affect my time ahead. Reactions might trigger a fall of a long chain dominos that is nothing but a recipe for disaster. Analysing choices offers insight that will add to better judgment in the future. It sounds easy to say all of this, but the truth is we as human beings falter too much for our own good. Sometimes it’s not under our control either; but if you adopt an attitude of servitude to yourself you might lessen the negatives.

Your mind should work for you.

-Tanmay

china china china

~ Tanmay ~ Leave a comment

It is disturbingly weird that all our attention for a day has been on the ban of Chinese apps. In my understanding it is a strategic move by the government who have selectively blocked those apps which had raised privacy concerns earlier. However there still remain many other applications especially money handling apps like Paytm and other “Unicorn Startups” that have substantial interest of Chinese investors. Which further confirms that it was a move to leverage China with whatever we have.

Wars have changed drastically (they did a long time ago, but I started giving a fuck only recently). The bottom line is I don’t want to live in a time which is not peace-time nor do I wanna be drafted in the defense. I’d saw my leg off to get out of it.

Peacetime is all my generation has known, and I get scared sometimes.

-Tanmay