Factory of The Mind

"No one is even listening, forget acting on it. It's so important for them that they ought to stop anything else they're doing and pay attention. It is in their interest."  Sound like coming from parents, teachers, artists, philosophers and activists, isn't it?  Contrast this with people who have been super-successful at not just gaining their attention, but influencing, even directing the actions they take - religious leaders, politicians, marketers, film-makers and others, who don't care much about the interest of the target audience. It's their own interest that supercedes everything else. Why is it the way it is? Take the case of ecology activism. It isn't social service in the sense of charity. Doing what is right for the ecology is for one's own good (as well as collective good). Time and again, we get shocks of natural calamities, pandemics and repercussions of placing financial interests above environmental interests. But nothing places act...

Market is a system of interdependence. When you buy food from a farmer, the price you pay him helps him buy what he needs from someone else. So, let's look deeper and discover the dynamics. You, the urban elite needs good, organic food. You are willing to pay a premium for organic. He buys clothes, education, a concrete house, a motorcycle, medicines, cooking gas and numerous other needs. It is interesting to note that many of his purchases (not all) are for needs, which were craftily 'created' so that he participates in the market. Let's understand this through a story. A particular tribal community lived outside our market system few decades ago. Some good Samaritans noted that there were too many avoidable deaths. They helped the tribals avoid deaths due to infections and complexities during pregnancy and childbirth with basic medication and precautions. So far so good. Then they felt that these people were uneducated, not well dressed, ill-equipped to live in the ci...