Digging for Meaning

Average faces in different countries , CC 2.0 I often see people staring blankly 'in' the face of a beautiful person...  They aren't 'leching'.  They aren't even conscientious of their act. It is as if they are not there. Their vacant gaze seem to come from the wall behind,  as if they have merged in the background and they are nothing but a pair of eyes, the only connection between here and a world inside their heads. uncanny. Why does a person fly away momentarily out of the real world when their gaze land on the face of a beautiful person? It is as if their gaze is always in search of a portal to their inner world. And it gets unlocked only by the sight of a beautiful face. Why else does one compulsively checkout faces of others in a crowded subway? We are forever in search of the key to our flight. The conventional wisdom is, Conventional beauty = aggregate of different visages .  An average face in the  sea of variety.  A plateau in the hills.

1. Food as love "Jevan zala?  Kay khallas? " (Did you eat? What did you eat for dinner?) Phone lines across the world are clogged with concerns of lovely people. In absence of real intimacy,  families and lovers resort to questionnaire of food intake and bowel movements. In absence of touch they want to ensure the mortal vessels of the their loved ones are well taken care of.  The questions are  not an exercise in inanity. They are expressions of love.  2. Food fetish Idle chat at office lunch tables,  conversations with acquaintances... Across the world, (perhaps the upper middle class world that is not currently being destroyed by wars and proxy wars) people are filling the space between burps and bites with conversations of food and restaurants.  Incessantly.  The virus of foodieitis is spreading faster than Ebola. Everybody see themselves as foodies. A virus that hollows out the brain of thoughts about anything but indulgent excesses. For the afflicted

"There's no business like show business".  Said Irving Berlin.  And it echoed across the show business and its customers - bored people in search of entertainment. It became an acknowledged and accepted truth. And then I wonder,  what if an accountant says "there's no business like accounting business" in all earnestness.  What if all the accountants say that to themselves.  I imagine they will write it down at the margins of their ledgers and as password to their excel sheets. "There's no business like plumbing " on pipes. "There's no business like farming " in the soil. " There's no business like  thrashing the poor" on standard issue batons. There's no business like living " on every breathe.

1. -isms as wish fulfilment   People on earth followed/ believed in many different '-isms'. Communism, hinduism, capitalism, secularism, dadaism and so on.  These -isms were short cuts . They allowed for the believer to accept solutions without having to engage in empathetic discourse and recognition of an individual as a free yet malleable agent. They allowed them to accept solutions without a clear understanding of assumptions or use of consistent reason. Now we know that it is prudent to be sceptical of all -isms even if one agrees with most wishes that these -isms propose to fulfil. (and now one should not say that everyone should be sceptical, because that will turn into another -ism.) 2. A divided planet In a lazy intellectual divide (because you must divide) people on the planet earth were divided as either 'left wing',  'right wing' or 'fence sitters'. Right wingers were assholes who benefited from the status quo and prevailing inequality. Th