Danger of You vs. Me: Buddhist — Muslim conflicts in Sri Lanka and Myanmar

Our Biggest Global Challenge: Separation or Connectivity?

by Dr. Stephen Long - Mar 18, 2018

( March 18, 2018, Los Angeles, California, Sri Lanka Guardian)  Even though it is very disturbing, I’m not really shocked or even surprised by the current Buddhist/Muslim conflicts in Sri Lanka and Myanmar; we’ve seen it all before – many times. To be fair, conflicts like these are not only in these two South Asian countries.  Everywhere you look around the globe you can find similar clashes – some rooted in race, some in religion, some tribal, some based on ideology.  Conflicts are abundant, and the US is no exception; just read our headlines on any given day and you’ll find plenty of them.  So why are there suddenly so many hot-spots on our small planet?  It seems that no one feels secure; so many feel threatened and/or marginalized; and no one feels relaxed or comfortable anymore – including my immigrant friends in our peaceful “sanctuary city” of Los Angeles.

The ubiquitous, hurtful panoply of conflicts are expressions of Separation, the prevailing paradigm and worldview that envelopes the planet today.  The world is enshrouded in divisive rhetoric, violence, prejudice, and hatred, and it’s become a trend, which is picking up momentum with each new national election.  Political leaders in several countries (e.g. Trump in America, Duterte in the Philippines, Kurz in Austria, Babis of the Chech Republic, and several others) are getting elected that embrace this view of Separation.  Xi Jinping is just about to be dubbed “President for Life” in China, and no one doubts his designs of conquest, which will put China first and every other country somewhere below it.

Separation is expressed as nationalism, jingoism, wars, economic sanctions, disparity of wealth, trade tariffs, military parades, immigration bans, refugee crises, and the building of Walls and increased border defenses.  All of these are bi-products of Separation, which is based on the belief that it’s a country’s duty and a mark of national pride to look after “Us before Them,” or think “There’s not enough for all of us,” or “We were here first,” or “We’re the masters that deserve to hoard all the wealth,” or “This is a Buddhist country.”  Symptoms of the Separation paradigm are myriad and cross all national, state, and provincial borders and cultural divides.

So if the worldview of Separation is the cause of all of this grief, then how did it become so? What is its source?  Is it sourced in religion, politics, ideology, or the so-called culture wars?  In the case of Sri Lanka, the Buddhist/Muslim conflict is not borne of the teachings of either religion; fundamentally, both doctrines preach peace and co-existence. On the surface, Sri Lankan politics upholds the lip-serviced notion that all religions are tolerated and protected by the Constitution, and the idea that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country is not so much an ideology as it is a fundamental element of programming in the fabric of the collective Sinhalese zeitgeist.  To my knowledge there is no evidence that countries have religions, and as a matter of fact, the idea that countries even have borders is nothing more than a geopolitical agreement.  The notion that America is a Christian country is just as ludicrous, and the jingoists who want to keep Muslims out and build walls to protect us from Mexican gangs and rapists are nothing more than ignorant, racist, self-centered bullies.

As the Buddha taught, all conflicts arise with the idea of “Me,” “I,” and “Mine.”  These false identity beliefs start the ball rolling toward Separation, and they prevent people from seeing their inherent connectivity with others.  Not just with other people, but with All That Is – including the animals, the Earth, and the Universe.  The natural world is exploited and polluted because people don’t see that they are fouling an actual part of themselves.  Connectivity is something that cannot be refuted; even cutting-edge science informs us that all there is is energy – that all we are is energy.  If everyone is made of the same thing, then how can we distrust, persecute, kill, or burn the homes and shops of another?  How can we not look after one another, and create societies where all are included and all apparent differences are respected?

Over the years, Connectivity has become the centerpiece of my work.  I recently completed a new book entitled “The Connectivity Principle: Healing the Wounds of Separation.”  The Principle in question states:

”Everything in the Universe, including all living beings, is energetically related to everything else because of the inherent Connectivity of all things to the same Source.  This principle invalidates the notion of “separation,” and reinforces the universal mandate for human beings to be mindfully tolerant, kind, loving, compassionate, and supportive towards each other, the Earth, and all that is, at all times, with no exceptions.” 

This message of Connectivity is crucial if we are all to survive on this troubled planet.  We have to learn to connect with our fellow man – especially if we are confined within natural borders (like an ocean in the case of Sri Lanka) or man-made borders (like the United States, which mercilessly wiped out its previous inhabitants).  Right now none of us really have time to indulge ourselves in ridiculous tribal wars based on religion, ideology, or out of date belief systems.

From my book, “To demonstrate how crucial the message of Connectivity is for these strange, transitional times, I will quote Dr. Ervin Laszlo, a gifted futurist, philosopher, and twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize:

“We live in a crucial epoch – an epoch of instability and change.  The future is open.  We could go down in chaos and catastrophe, or pull ourselves up by our bootstraps to a peaceful and sustainable world.  The choice between extinction and evolution is real.  We need to understand how it came about and what it entails. 

“The first thing to understand is that the choice of destiny before us is not accidental; the way the world in which we live develops has a logic of its own.  This logic is the logic of evolution, in nature as well as in society.  Its hallmark is the alteration of periods of relative stability with epochs of increasing, and ultimately critical instability.  When instability reaches the critical point, the system either collapses or shifts to a new state of dynamic stability.  These critical ‘tipping points’ constitute Macroshifts, which involve all aspects and segments of society:  the rich and the poor, the economic and the political systems, the private as well as the public sector. 

“We are approaching the threshold not only of a local or national but of a global Macroshift, driven by the cumulative impact of the unreflective use of potent technologies.  Shortsighted power-and profit-hunger coupled with powerful technologies has triggered climate change, is producing famine and water scarcity, and is leading to coastal flooding as well as to a host of related and equally threatening process in the ecology.  Within the structures of civil society it is producing growing gaps between rich and poor, with attendant frustration, fundamentalism, and terrorism, triggering crime, violence, and war. 

“The threat of extinction is real, but it is avoidable.  At the critical phase of a Macroshift fresh opportunities open, including the opportunity to evolve.  In this case the opportunity is not to evolve genetically, for we are not merely a biological species, but to evolve socially and culturally, to a new society and a new culture – to a new civilization.”[1]

“Dr. Laszlo’s words are disturbing, and, at the end, they offer a cautious note of optimism.  They also contain a clear warning that we had better get it together quickly – or else.” 

My advice to the people of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, to the people of America, and to people in any other country that will listen is to quickly get it together, broaden your View, understand that Separation is a myth, and embrace the sentiments of The Connectivity Principle as your prevailing Moral Compass.  I truly believe that time is of the essence, and none of us have the time to indulge ourselves – either individually or collectively – in the nonsense games of You vs. Me.

[1] Ervin Laszlo, Quantum Shift in the Global Brain: How the New Scientific Reality Can Change Us and Our World, Inner Traditions, 2008, pg. 17-18

An acquiescent Buddhist clergy, an inept government

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Mahatma Gandhi working out a miracle in Calcutta

by Rajeewa Jayaweera-March 17, 2018, 6:14 pm 

Much has been said and written of the recent tragic and unrelated events which took place in Ampara and Kandy.  Mobs of Sinhala Buddhists attacked Muslim citizens, their homes, businesses, and mosques. A few retaliatory attacks by Muslim mobs too have been reported. The trigger mechanism for the outburst in Ampara was supposedly ‘vanda pethi,’ sterilization pills mixed with food and served in a Muslim owned restaurant to reduce Sinhalese community in numbers. In Kandy, it involved a Sinhalese Buddhist lorry driver who died of injuries inflicted by four Muslim men under the influence of liquor, possibly a case of road rage.

The following narration is a case of communal violence which took place over 70 years ago in neighboring India and the way, Mahatma Gandhi, a true believer of nonviolence, armed only with compassion and moral courage, was able to subdue violence, rape, arson, murder and enforced conversions.

Because of communal violence, Gandhi decided to spend the period August 13 to September 7 in 1947 at the Haidari Mansion in Beliaghata aka Belighata, a neighborhood in Kolkata. These 25 days are considered some of the most intensely heroic days of his life. Beliaghata was a locality where Hindus and Muslims had lived side by side in harmony for centuries. Rioting, arson, rape, and murder had erupted in Kolkata in the run-up to independence. Gandhi’s arrival stopped the violence, temporarily, and both Muslims Hindus celebrated Independence Day together. After two weeks of peace, trouble flared up again. On August 31, Gandhi began a fast-unto-death. Appeals made in person by his closest associates, Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel besides Governor General Mountbatten (former Viceroy) to give up his fast due to his failing health, was stubbornly refused. His act shocked and shamed the people of the city, who came around, slowly. On September 4, a group of representative Hindus and Muslims met him with a written promise "that peace has been restored in Calcutta once again." The undertaking added: "We shall never again allow communal strife in the city. And shall strive unto death to prevent it". Gandhi called off his fast, and two days later left for Delhi.

In the Kandy district, a minority community was subjected to violence by the majority community in the city which is home to Lord Buddha’s tooth relic, considered sacred by Sinhala Buddhists and other Buddhists the world over. Tragically, mayhem was taking place, so to say, in the backyard of Malwathu Maha Viharaya and Asgiri Maha Viharaya, the seats of the Mahanayaka Theros of the Malwatte and Asgiriya chapters of the Siam Nikaya.

The Chief Prelates of the Amarapura and Ramanna Nikayas are not based in Kandy.

Disturbances commenced on Friday night, March 02 in Udispattuwa during the transfer of the body of the deceased Sinhalese driver to Ambala and finally brought under control on March 9, after seven days.

Had all four Chief Prelates, along with as many Bhikkhus they could muster taken to the streets as Gandhi did, and positioned themselves amidst members of the Muslim community in their homes, mosques, and businesses, violence could have been contained. The rioters, so-called Sinhala Buddhists, accompanied by those wrapped in saffron robes, would not have dared to harm such a group of prominent Buddhist clergy and their entourage.

The failure of the Mahanayakas Theros, to try and bring to heel, Buddhists involved in acts of racial injustice, at variance with the teachings of the Buddhist philosophy, is a sign of moral weakness unworthy of their exalted status in the Buddhist order.

March 02 found the government in Colombo in a state of paralysis, following the Local Government elections and the setbacks suffered by the constituent parties of the Yahapalana government. The President was trying to make up his mind whether to continue with Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and his UNP or to go it alone with a working arrangement with the SLPP led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister was fending off a No Confidence motion in Parliament and a leadership challenge within the UNP.

It is pertinent to examine the government’s response time beginning with the initial disturbances on the night of March 02 in Udispattuwa and then spread rapidly to Teldeniya, Digana, Tennekumbura and other areas.

Its paralyzed state prevented the government from doing its duty. The recent disturbances were sufficient for any sensible government to swing into action. A Security Council meeting should have been convened late in the night of March 02 no sooner reports of disturbances began to come in. Inputs could have been called for from civil administrators, Police, intelligence agencies and other relevant state bodies. Most importantly, the first set of instructions should have been issued primarily to Police and STF before lunchtime on March 03, to bring the situation under control.

Government action is evident only from 3 pm on March 05, with the deployment of the army, followed by imposition of districtwide dusk to dawn Police curfew. The President declared an island-wide state of emergency on March 06.

Though unrelated, incidents in Ampara a few days earlier should have been considered an early warning. Initial disturbances in Udispattuwa and Teldeniya had been on a small scale. Rioting had commenced in earnest and spread to other parts only after the subselquent arrival of outsiders in Kandy. An immediate clamp down in the morning or evening of March 03 would have prevented outsiders from joining and aggravating matters. It would probably have put an end to rioting.

One of the primary responsibilities of any government is to ensure the safety and security of all citizens regardless of caste, creed, race or religion. In this instance, it was the safety and security of the Muslim community, their property, and Mosques in Kandy district.

In its paralyzed state, the government failed to do what it takes to bring rioters under control. The inaction of the then government during the Darga Town violence in 2014 and lessons learned should have been a guiding light.

The government’s failure to declare curfew till March 05 evening amounts to criminal negligence.

The government should take responsibility for its inaction between March 02 evening and 3 pm on March 05 and the resulting tragic deaths and events until March 09.

Violence in the Kandy area resulted in the death of three people besides 22 persons sustaining injuries. Over 200 Muslim-owned houses are in ruins. According to Police spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara, in the Kandy district, 19 religious places have been damaged, and 60 cases of vehicle damage reported. He has also confirmed the arrest of 280 suspects, 178 persons from Kandy and a further 102 persons from elsewhere.

Some Muslims have accused the Police and STF of inaction. Elements in the Police force may have done so due to prejudices. However, the STF is a well-trained highly disciplined paramilitary force even though they are members of the Police force. A more plausible reason for their inactivity, if true, may have been the absence of clear directives from the political leadership in Colombo.

Meanwhile, it has also been reported, on March 5, a mob rioting in Digana had retaliated by hurling projectiles at the Police who had used tear gas and water cannon to control those rioting.

Minister Rauf Hakeem is on record requesting the government to issue a ‘shoot at sight’ order. It is understood, the President had declined to give instructions to fire at rioters. Making difficult yet necessary decisions is a part of governance and duty of an Executive President. If the President is unable to rise to the occasion when required, he should heed the advice given recently by Ven. Dambara Amila Thero in an address which has gone viral receiving many endorsements and call it a day.

A Police curfew on March 03 backed by a directive to ‘shoot at sight’ curfew breakers would have prevented isolated incidents developing into a full-scale riot as well the arrival of outsiders.

Several Buddhist priests in the Kandy district, together with a group of youths have walked through villages from dusk to dawn, dissuading rioters and preventing violence. Some other priests have given refuge to Muslims in distress, inside their temples. Heroic acts indeed, worthy of emulation by all Sinhala Buddhists. If these monks were not harmed, there is no reason to believe the Mahanayaka Theros involved in similar acts would have been harmed.

The Chief of Defense Staff is on record, quite rightly, branding rioters as ‘traitors,’ given the many Muslim men who provided invaluable services in military intelligence during the civil war due to their proficiency in the Tamil language.

It is but also correct to remember the likes of Capt. Shahul Hameed Nilam, Lt. Col. Tuan Nizam Mutallif and many others formerly of the Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP). Nilam and Mutallif had been the commander and deputy commander of the unit. The former with his family has disappeared without a trace while the latter and nearly 80 operatives and informants were systematically murdered by LTTE terrorists, some including Mutaliff in broad daylight in Colombo. The unit’s existence and identities became public knowledge after their safe house in Athurugiriya was raided by the Police. The then government, who believed the group was planning to assassinate high-level government leaders including the Prime Minister (the allegation was later proved to be false) did nothing to prevent the raid, the arrest of LRRP operatives and disclosure of their identities. The PCoI Report concluded the raid "illegal and immoral" besides "total betrayal and absolute treachery to the nation." Those who did nothing to prevent the debacle in 2002 occupy the office of the first among equals and Ministerial, Ambassadorial and Advisory positions today.

The CDS will no doubt agree, rioters in Kandy, the Athurugiriya raiders, and leaders who did nothing to prevent the raid all belong to the same group of traitors.

Are You One Of Them Or One Of Us?

By Alavi Sheriffdeen –MARCH 17, 2018

Dr. Seyed Alavi Sheriffdeen

I was disturbed by a phone call today. Someone called me in the morning and was talking about the Sri Lankan situation with lots of concern. I was very sympathetic and was appreciating his concern about our country of origin. However, while he was talking to me he mentioned the term “your people…” I stopped him and sought explanation as to what he meant by that. He told me “Muslim people”.

I told him the following in very clear and simple language:

My friend, listen very carefully to what I’m going to say to you. I’m a person who believes in the multiple identities of any modern man. I am a human universally, multilingual, religiously Muslim, ethnically south Asian and onwards. My identity may not be static and it could be volatile as days pass by. Please do not judge me from what you see externally as I may have possess something else within my mind.

I categorise people in Sri Lanka Into three categories: 1) those who are peace loving people who want to do their daily routines in their lives and who want to continue to live in their peaceful country. 2) those who want to create violence by creating suspicions and planting conspiracy theories in the heart of innocent young generations about other religious communities. 3) those opportunists who want to use current situations to manipulate and to gain short term benefit them.

My friend, listen carefully… I continued further.

You will find all these types of people from all communities including Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians. So, my friend, wrong doers do not just belong to one race or religion. Out of the above three categories there, two groups are formed: Peace lovers and Trouble makers. None of the religions preaches terror, violence or hatred. If anyone does this, they cannot be religious people as most of the religions attempt to solve the problems humans face on earth, not the opposite. The problem we find is there are people who misinterpret religious text or act contrary to the teaching of their own religion. This is exactly what is happening in Sri Lanka. In the past few days we have seen some young people involved with violent riots and hate campaigns.

It is unfortunate there were a few racist Buddhist monks among those people who were damaging the properties of innocent civilians, attacking Muslim places of worship, and harming Muslim civilians for no reason other than the fact that they are followers of the Islamic faith. This is nothing other than pure racism. He cannot claim to be a Buddhist while he is committing these crimes against other human being. That was not what Buddha taught. If a Muslim does the same I would say the same thing as he is a racist and he cannot be a Muslim while he is doing it.

So, my friend, accept my statement in very clear language. I as a human, do care about the well-being and security of each and every human being on earth I do not care what religion or race they come from. They could be rich or poor, they could be from a village or from a big city. My concern is that every human being has dignity which must be respected by everyone. His honour, wealth and family must be valued and protected from any harm. No one has the right over anybody to harm them by any means.

So, out of these two categories of people, I would call those people causing trouble, inciting violence and hatred the terrorists of 2018. These evils do not belong to any religion other than the religion of evilness and terrorism, they must be wiped out from the earth so the world can live peacefully for the next generations. Please do not tell me “your people”.

Read More

Cabinet and meritocracy Meritocracy Must for good governance

A wish of the entire majority in this country comprising of the honest citizens would be that there would truly be “Good Governance” in the country 

Selections to important positions should be purely on their own merits

With all due respect to President and Hon Prime Minister, they may require some honest, competent apolitical advisers to suggest the composition! 

2018-03-17 

A leading newspaper, which is 100 years old, quotes in its March 13 edition on page 5 that a minister had said that “Scientific Cabinet reshuffle after President returns.”

During the recent past the topics of much interest, discussion and debate have been on Constitutional Amendments, National / Unity Government, Electoral Reforms, investigations on abuse, bribery and corruption, Cost of Living and Local & National elections,!

Cabinet and meritocracy Meritocracy Must for good governance.docx by Thavam on Scribd

Governance and the short-term focus of the financial sector

Paul Friday, 


16 March 2018 

Polman, the Global CEO of Unilever – theworld’s largest consumer goods company – toldus recently about his personal mission to be a force for good instead of just making a profit and how Unilever is able to serve all its stakeholders as a result.

The challenge we face now is that we are today impacted by the short-term focus of financial markets and political systems. Therefore we need serious reform in the financial system, with greater focus on serving long-term needs of society and as Polman rightly says, “I’m a capitalist at heart and there’s no reason to give up on capitalism. It still is probably the most efficient way of doing business. But there are some fine-tunings that need to happen.”

Often we hear business people complaining that banks make too much profits (see table). Bank bashing is something of a national pastime but, far from being driven solely by envy at their success, there are sometimes sound economic argument to think the big four or five in Sri Lanka make way too much money given the state of our SMEs and the quality of our rural infrastructure.

This is nothing new in most markets.However not all banking is bad — obviously a modern economy needs access to credit, safe savings and transactions mechanisms and other investment products and advice.

A bank or NBFI board’s key duty is to create and deliver sustainable stakeholder value through setting strategy and overseeing its implementation.In doing so, a board needs to give due regard to matters that will affect the future of the bank or the NBFI, such as the impact the board’s decisions may have on employees, the environment, communities and relationships with suppliers.The board also must ensure the management team achieves the right balance between promoting long-term growth and delivering short-term objectives.

Members of the board are also responsible for maintaining an effective system of internal control that provides assurance of efficient operations and for ensuring that the top management team maintains an effective risk management and oversight process across the company especially because the financial sector is constantly being buffeted by waves of capital issues, talent, regulatory and technological challenges.

Moreover, the increased regulatory burden and related costs impact every financial institution in both the approach to doing business and the expense of doing business.

Challenges for the sector 

The banking sector is in transition, with many challenges ahead. For most banks profitability continues to be hit by rising impairment charges and provisions, the loss recognised on loan books to account for NPLs and other impaired assets.

This process started few years ago on the Central Bank’s instruction to clean up balance sheets, and was a major cause of the sector’s profit reduction. The exercise will continue for some time. As a result, there has never been a greater need for well-functioning, informed and upright boards of directors.

There has also never been a more important time for board members to keep in mind that their responsibilities go beyond the institution they serve. To achieve long-term value for shareholders bank boards would need to look for ways to strengthen their institutions, to do that they need to strengthen themselves as a board. One way of doing that is to adopt the practices of effective boards-getting competent and credible directors to their boards.

Well-performing companies on many occasions have been destroyed by bad governance.Almost always it is the board and the top management of these companies that ruin these firmsand take them rapidly down. These are classic examples of boardroom and top management failure in discharging their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders and their failure to ensure the long-term health of the company.

Leadership 

Themost challenging and distracting governance issues a board can face are those related to its own members. These issues typically arise in connection with conflicts of interest between board members and the institutions they serve, or when board members experience financial difficulties of their own.

A board can also lose its effectiveness when there are personality clashes in the boardroom or when one or more board members seek to dominate the deliberations. The best time to avoid such issues is during the selection process for new directors. Compromise in the selection of directors will almost always dilute the effectiveness of the board as a whole. Therefore a group of good, solid and dependable board members could be far more effective than an all-star line-up of directors.

A board is far more effective when it acts as a group, where all members can voice their opinions, and where difficult questions can be asked. Dominant shareholders and board cultures in which constructive debate never occurs have contributed to the demise of many financial institutions. Therefore careful selection of new board members, keeping in mind the strengths and weaknesses of the other members of the board, is well worth the time and effort involved.

The board of a financial institution that runs on public deposits is accountable as a group, since their functioning is essentially collegial in nature, and is expected to promote a shared point of view about what decisions the firm should make to create lasting value.

The composition of a boardand the interpersonal dynamics among its members are critical for the success of a financial institution.A bank board is like any other working group can be heavily influenced by members who dominate the conversation, or by members who actively discourage discussion or dissent. A board is not intended to merely rubber stamp the proposals of management.

If the responsibilities are to be effectively discharged, it is important that the composition of a board, and the interpersonal dynamics among its members are right. While integrity is an essential pre-requisite, this alone is not sufficient and directors must be people who are alert and have the capacity to understand the inherent risks taken on by an institution and objectively analyse the proposals submitted by management on various aspects of a firm’s operations.

However, it is equally important that the board has competence within it which embraces other disciplines such as law, economics, marketing, human resource management and technology, so that a multidisciplinary approach is taken to managing risks and growing the bank business.

Role of independent non-executive directors

Most codes now insist that one-third of the number of directors are independent non-executivedirectors. However, independence is not about ‘no-shareholding’, and it is more about how independent the director is in his thinking beyond and his ability to challenge proposals at the board meeting.

Non-executive directors are the ones who really should perform the real role of independent directors,since executive directors are often left to defend decisions and proposals in board meetings. Also, most codes now require nomination committees to recommend the appointment of new directors.

The main purpose of having a nomination committee is to ensure that there is a transparent appointment process, which is not under the control of the chairman or the CEO, and to ensure that the right balance of skills, experience and independence is brought to the board table and the directors appointed properly understand the business they are overseeing and also have the competence to get under the skin of the institution and follow up on things that don’t seem quite right while giving due consideration to shareholder demands.

Directors are now required to educate themselves to ensure they have the competence to identify and-understand the risks that needs to be managed, as well as the key drivers that most influence a bank’s performance.

In the final analysis, directors are now expected to provide oversight and perspective to the executives running the institution to help the institution to make better quality decisions and to help build a sustainable banking business. If they fail to do that they will surely face the wrath of the depositors and employees and also face legal action.

(The writer is a former bank chairman.)

Modern Science, Materialism and Society

Part II: Psychology yes; but does avant-garde physics have a bearing?

Kumar David-March 17, 2018, 6:19 pm 

This is the second of a two-part essay on Marxism and science. In Part 1 last week, I focussed on Darwin’s and Marx’s common methodology and concluded that the latter was as much science as natural selection. Darwin too left many questions unanswered, most important, the mechanism of inheritance. The gap was closed when genetics arrived. Furthermore, statistical mathematics made quantitative reasoning possible. Natural selection plus genetics now goes by the name Neo-Darwinism and is pretty much the most proven theory in science today. The emergence of ecology located natural selection within a larger framework and turned it into a holistic systems-theory. Other advances in natural science are in medicine, genetic-engineering and climatology but these are more applications oriented and do not fall within the epistemological focus of this essay.

Apart from psychology and crowd psychology which have obvious relevance to sociology, one would have to be extremely careful before suggesting that twentieth century physics (relativity, uncertainty and chaos theory) have had an impact on political-economy, sociology or Marxism. It is true that, in a loose way, people do mention one or the other as illustrative of this or that socio-political theory or religious philosophy, but this is just analogy and illustration. I have been warned by my ever-vigilant tormentor Dr Gamini Kulatunga as follows:

"You need to go slowly and tread softly as most readers will have wrong ideas about what these terms mean. The common understanding of chaos is utter randomness, uncertainty has the same connotation. Relativity is mistaken for ‘everything goes’. We are used to reductionism to explain complex systems by diminishing them into simple parts or laws. Chaos arises from small changes in the initial conditions but there is order, and uncertainty arises from emergent properties of complex systems. All these have a higher order which is beyond the common grasp".

Mass psychology

The relevance of mass psychology to socio-politics, however, is more direct. Freud’s lexicon is embedded in our everyday vocabulary – the unconscious, ego, repression, libido and neurosis. He founded psychoanalysis to explain behaviour and treat mental illness and thus opened an immensely controversial can of worms; latter-day psychologists question some of his theories. Relevant to this essay is mass political culture; collective psychological factors that influence group behaviour, for example race, religion, colour and language. The earliest study of mass psychology predates Freud; Scottish journalist Charles Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841). Mackay says the crusades reflect mania in the Middle Ages and economic bubbles. Mississippi Company, South Sea Company and Tulip Bubble fall into the same category.

‘Group hysteria’ transmits collective illusions through a population as rumours, fears and threats. Freud saw order even in this disorder, there was "reason" in the crowd’s madness — the arousal felt in being part of a crowd is real. Recall Nietzsche’s remark "Insanity in individuals is rare, but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule" and Carl Jung’s "The masses are a breeding ground for psychic epidemics". In 2010 Lawrie Reznek asserted "Whole communities can be deluded and driven to madness". We in Sri Lanka have witnessed it often; for example, the 1983 riots and the recent anti-Muslim pogroms which exhibit maniacal mass psychosis while at the same time social media is filled with vituperation and hatred. Overseas the world saw many-sided genocide in former Yugoslavia a few years ago and right now genocide of Rohingyas in Burma.

Political analysts including Marxists have learnt the importance of understanding crowd pathology and collective psychological disorder, not least in dealing with fascism. The refusal of the German Socialist and Communist Parties to heed Trotsky’s desperate pleas to understand inter-war German fascism and unite to stop it by every means possible, contributed to the Nazi rise to power. The rise of neo-populism, to which topic this column will return on 1 April, underlines the importance of taking account of mass political psychology in these times.

Herbert Marcuse, a Marxist, is known for his writings on ideology. The titles of his books indicate their scope: One Dimensional Man, Eros and Civilisation, Reason and Revolution. Other important figures were Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Eric Fromm and the so-called Frankfurt School in general. None of them, to the best of my knowledge were working scientists but deserve mention under the general rubric of this essay. Of current relevance is the Annual Review of Critical Psychology (2010) devoted to Marxism and Psychology. This introductory quote is intriguing.

"In the wake of the near total collapse of the global financial system, we are witnessing activists, scholars, and practitioners who have begun to reflect on the relationship between certain academic disciplines and dominant economic and political structures. Yet for those working within the discipline of psychology, the connection is anything but transparent. What are we to make of an article on the front page of the American Psychological Association website that, at the height of the global recession, urged psychologists to brace for recession or depression?"

[https://thediscourseunit.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/arcp9.pdf]

Modern physics and socio-political theory

The first question is whether quantum mechanics is materialist.

Einstein was the loser in the debate against the Copenhagen School about the nature of physical reality. The issues: Wave-Particle Duality (quantum objects are waves and particles at the same time), Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle (it is impossible to simultaneously measure with exactitude the position and velocity of a quantum object) and a very funny thing called Quantum Entanglement (if you do something to one member of a quantum pair, its companion, even if far away, is affected instantaneously – information seems to travel faster than light). Einstein, of deterministic bent, called this "spooky" and was never reconciled to the end of his life. Hard materialists hope that one day, a new theory will reveal a deeper reality behind subatomic particles, in the same way as the discovery of electromagnetic radiation explained the nature of rainbows.

Quantum Social Science, a book by Andrei Khrennikov and Emmanuel Haven [Cambridge University Press, 2013] seeks to apply the logic of quantum theory to social systems. Written by experts, it attempts to apply quantum principles to decision-making, inter alia, in finance, economics etc. Some may find the book informative but few will find its prescriptions persuasive.

What of mathematical chaos theory? Chaos arises from small changes but there is order in the unfolding. Ambiguity is an expression of emergent properties of complex systems and has a higher order pattern. Chaos in mathematics is a fusion of disorder and order, as it is in society. Thus, I see no conflict with materialism.

The pseudo-subjective observer

You have no doubt heard of a great puzzle in the Copenhagen Interpretation (CI), of certain quantum phenomena, attributed to Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg and opposed by Einstein. CI says that certain phenomena remain undecided until a conscious observer intervenes and looks at it. It is crucial that readers grasp what is being said. It is not being said that the state of affairs inside a box, for example, is not known till we look inside – Einstein would have been quite happy with that. What is being said is something bizarre.

Let me make it schoolboy-simple. CI says that, say a quantum-cat*, inside a box can’t make up its mind what it wants to be (black or white, dead or alive) until a conscious observer takes a peek into the box. Let me repeat. It is not that we don’t know the status inside the box till we look. No, CI says that the state inside the box doesn’t itself know what it wants to be until someone looks. Things are suspended in uncertainty with a certain probability of going this way or that. Reality can’t "make up its mind" and decides what to be only when someone looks at it! The state of the system falls into place (the quantum-cat becomes dead or alive) only when an observer peeks. (*I use ‘cat’ because of a yarn known as Schrodinger’s Cat used by quantum physicists to explain this enigma).

To keep it schoolboy-simple let me do a reductio-ad-absurdum. After palaeontologists discovered and dated their bones (fossils), we reckoned that dinosaurs existed 60 million years ago – Einstein will be happy with that. But a CI-palaeontologist would say that it was the discovery of fossils that made dinosaurs exist 60 million years ago and that whether fossils would exist in the past was mathematically probabilistic. Sounds nuts, but it is this indeterminateness that has driven some to assert that quantum phenomena are subjective, not objective, and that therefore quantum physics is not materialistic.

That individual quantum events are probabilistic, not deterministic, is not open to dispute. But here’s the funny thing; it is not subjective, it is pseudo-subjective. What I mean is if you change the observer he/she will not report different findings. The results will be the same whoever the observer; all observers are the same. In the subjective world, Vellupillai Prabhakaran and Gunadasa Amerasekara claim quite different things about the same observation. That’s what we mean by subjective. But both Quantum-VP and Quantum-GA will report exactly the same conclusion about an observation though neither would know beforehand what it would be.

Therefore, CI is pseudo-subjective; it is independent of the specific observer. Indeed, at an aggregate level (millions of repetitions), nothing in physics is as precisely deterministic as quantum. This is why quantum-based gadgets are utterly reliable; optical devices, LED products, chips, integrated circuits, and all the paraphernalia of modern digital technology. The utter predictability at the macro level of a physics based on probability at the micro level is, epistemologically, hard to digest.

Thus, the question whether the subatomic world is probabilistic is irrelevant for macro-technology, society and political-economy. Quantum entanglement is irrelevant to the materialist interpretation of the macro universe. Do you recall this? "Whether objective truth can be attributed to human activity is not an abstract but a practical question. Man must prove the truth and ‘this-sidedness’ of reality in practice. The dispute over reality or non-reality in history, sociology and political-economy, isolated from practice, is scholastic". (Abbreviated).

Wave-Particle Duality, Uncertainty Principle, and Quantum Entanglement do not disturb the materialist conception of society, human history, geology or the world of nature, one jot.

Israel demands loyalty from Palestinians in Jerusalem

New law allows Israel to deport, cancel residency status of Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Mahfouz Abu TurkAPA images)

Tamara Nassar-16 March 2018

Israel passed a law on 7 March that would permit the revocation of people’s residency status in occupied East Jerusalem if they should be found in “breach of allegiance” to Israel.

The law, sponsored by the Israeli government and ratified in the Knesset, allows the cancellation of residency permits on three grounds: for betraying Israel’s “trust,” for being granted residency status on the basis of false information, or for posing a danger to public safety in the eyes of the interior ministry.

It is clearly aimed at Palestinians, since Jewish residents of Jerusalem have Israeli citizenship. Under international law, however, it is illegal to impose on Palestinians “an obligation of loyalty to the occupying power, let alone to deny them the permanent residency status on this basis,” according to legal advocacy group for Palestinians in Israel, Adalah.

Israel occupied the eastern side of Jerusalem in 1967, but is effectively in illegal possession of the whole city since it was originally designated an internationally administered corpus separatum under a 1947 UN partition plan.

The law “is intended to result in the illegal expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem” and is a “severe violation” of their basic rights, stated human rights groups HaMoked, Adalah, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israelin a joint statement.

Since 1967, Israel revoked the residency status of more than 14,000 Palestinians from East Jerusalem – usually because they have temporarily moved elsewhere to study, work, be closer to family or get married, or sometimes as a punishment for their relatives’ suspected actions.

It is unprecedented that Palestinians can now legally lose their residency on the basis of disloyalty, however the interior ministry should define that.

The law would also apply to Palestinians who attack Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli newspaper Times of Israel.

Attacking soldiers, including stone-throwing, is considered a “terror offense” under Israeli law, but it is completely legal under international humanitarian law for an occupied people to resist against their military occupation, even violently.

Permanent residency

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in June 1967, and formally annexed it in 1980. There are about 420,000 Palestinians living there.

Israel gave Palestinians already living there “permanent residency” identification cards and started treating them as foreign immigrants, rather than an occupied people that Israel violently imposed itself on.

Permanent residency holders are not citizens of Israel, and often carry no other citizenship or passport. They are essentially stateless.

The new law allows Israel to both cancel their residency status and deport them.

Collective punishment

The new legislation comes after the Israeli high court accepted a petition against the residency revocation of four Palestinian young men accused of breaching “allegiance to the State of Israel” in September 2017.

The four young men were accused of stone-throwing and armed attacks.

The petition to revoke their residencies was filed by Interior Minister Silvan Shalom, but was later rejected under the premise that there was no law that granted the interior ministry authority to revoke residency status for breach of loyalty.

Interior ministers have long revoked the residency of Palestinians in East Jerusalem for other reasons, especially those suspected of attacks, as well as their relatives as a form of collective punishment.

Thus it was for relatives of Fadi al-Qunbar, 28, for instance, who was shot dead after he ran a truck into a group of Israeli soldiers at the East Talpiot settlement near Jerusalem in January 2017, killing four and injuring 13.

Israel revoked the Jerusalem residency status of 12 of his family members, including his mother. They also filled his home with concrete, filed a $2 million lawsuit in damages against his family, detained some of his relatives and is still withholding his slain body hostage.

The policy of revoking the Jerusalem residency of Palestinians is blatantly discriminatory, and is never applied to Jewish suspects or their relatives, no matter what crimes they commit. Jewish residents of the city are Israeli citizens, not holders of the “permanent residency,” therefore the law cannot apply to them.

Palestinian Motorist Rams Group of Israeli Soldiers, Kills 2

Israeli security forces and forensics experts inspect the destroyed vehicle that was used by a Palestinian assailant in a ramming attack targeting a group of Israeli soldiers near Mevo Dotan in the north of the occupied West Bank, March 16, 2018.

Last Updated: March 16, 2018 8:29 PM

Israeli’s army says a Palestinian motorist rammed into a group of troops Friday in the West Bank, killing two soldiers and injuring two others.

A military spokesman said the Palestinian driver intentionally ran over the soldiers and called the incident a “terror attack.”

The military said the soldiers were on duty securing routes near the settlement of Mevo Dotan, close to the Palestinian city of Jenin, when they were attacked.

It said the Palestinian driver was arrested and taken to an Israeli hospital, where he is being treated for injuries. The military said the driver, identified as Alaa Kabha, had previously been jailed for security offenses.

Palestinian protesters evacuate a wounded person during clashes with Israeli troops on the Israeli border with Gaza, east of Gaza City, March 16, 2018.

Israeli military officials in the West Bank said in response to the attack they had rescinded the permits of 67 of the assailant’s family members to work in Israel.

The Islamist militant faction Hamas welcomed the ramming attack but did not claim responsibility for it.

The incident came as Hamas called for a day of rage in the West Bank and the Gaza border to mark 100 days since U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as their future capital and view Trump’s decision as siding with Israel in the Mideast conflict.