mirror of the mind

capitalism is about profiteering. there really is no point in it if you are not going to make any profit out of it. it is a system of self-derived satisfaction derived from making profit, grossly generalising.

and it is in this mindframe that the economist came into my mind. do you think people read the economist because those writing it are all professors, doctors, dons and emerituses of economics and fields involved in it?

well i don’t think so. what i would like to think quite on the contrary is that these are all merely tastemakers, well disguised in their claim to excellence in their fields [measured merely against experience] . and those at the bottom in this field, i.e. the hoi polloi of the economic-related arenas [corporate etc, whatsoever name you might glitter it in] are really just following these tastemakers’ words.

i therefore cannot see any difference of this phenomenon to any other less ‘intelligent’ (note the ” - sarcasm intended) acts of mimickry- the simplest and most manifest of which is the pop-culture, the wear what ur celebs wear, do what they do.

i might be very, or even far too rudimentary  or gross in my approach of stripping such a complex superstructure [of economics-conundrum] and equating it to such seemingly unsophisticated sociological behaviour. but in their most basic appearances, i believe the two are philosophically of a similar trend.

what do you think?

Burke had a point in his letter in the wake of the Revolution that his concerns would be on the practice of such a state created out of silent conspiracy, that he reserved his congratulatory extensions. now the question in the political scene is whether really we are being ruled by us, as given in the famous cry ‘ by the people for the people’ labelling itself to egalitarianism or is it just another form of exclusive elitism of a certain ruling class, while may be of different composition [now no longer under the rule of the Divinely appointed, rather by the first group of political elitists] but in effective terms, still the same. is it really just a replacement of the old regime with a new one, so well clad in various claims of abstract philosophies of rights and egalitarianism, exalted in the high altar as the carrier of glad tidings to the masses in general?

Burke certainly had a point. even after 200 years, his concerns are really coming back and haunting us.

who can forget the sweetness of the enlightening experience of coming out understanding a piece of literature?
it
is a sense-invoking experience, both internal and external, and it
feels just as pleasant as how Columbus felt upon finding the Americas,
or Curie, finding her scientific genius.
it is the joy of discovery.
pops of joy.

on to Rahman Shaari, his canon of sajak is personally of a very
likable nature. a Malay laureate who is critical but again cunningly
evasive in his  non-confrontational approach by taking on the cloak of
symbolism.

feast upon this one, named Kebebasan

Kebebasan memilih
telah kau ajukan aku ke sini
meyakinkan akalku mengerti
makna diri.

tapi bagaimana
perjalanan panjang lorong-lorong bersilang
sedang pergikah aku atau pulang?

Jalan ini katamu jalan semalam
tapi likunya berganti
dan sungai beralih haluan
aku jugalah kurang sedia
memahami perubahan.

biarlah aku di sini berhenti
berteduh mengeluh di bayang kebosanan
sambil menghitung waktu lepasku
dengan ingatan yang dilelahkan
oleh kebebasan.

i am positive that there are many strands of interpretation to this one. but what i should like to highlight is the tone of the sajak, in that it is to me a critically written by Shaari to not denigrate, but rather, to form an independent critical assessment of the Westphalian conception of the human rights and all that comes with it. this persona is not a stupid lembu yang dicucuk hidungnya, suka dan bangga memeluk erat dan memuja dan menjaja pemikiran barat, which is consciously identified by the persona to have had an effect of trying to persuade and coax himself via the use of ‘reason’.
at the end, what surfaces is a feel of apathy and the sense of unimpressed-ness by such bogus conception. yes he has come to learn it and know it. but the ’so what’ element is rendered across vividly, so clear that the reader comes to side and empathise with the persona’s perspective.

you are telling me all this.
well yes it sounds so right to me.
but i reconsidered my problem at hand.
owh sorry that does not work.
and it does not interest me.

a partial miscognition may arise in the middle part.
it is open, so open that some may come to believe that this problem at hand he is facing may be of a posthumous nature, when there are signs to show that the concern is more of a contemporary nature, a physical one.

but therein lies the beauty of sajak. it is open to interpretation.
it is a unique beauty. for in its comprehension, the human experience is exported into the equation.
it is a unique beauty Allah has given us to appreciate beyond what is physical.

cynicism is surely evident in this sajak.
and it is to me really liberating to know of such rich flavour in a Malay literature.

it is a long but enriching process to come to the realisation that we are not to take things for granted.
and to even actually rediscover our great heritage that we have and to be proud of it.

and i have just come to terms to the fact that I have a long and rich heritage.
me, the son of a bangsa called Melayu, which is coyly struggling on the verge of survival.

i am making a resolve call to the inner me to embrace and appreciate the heritage and make great use of it while i still can.

i wish to be able to appreciate the depth of al-attas, to embrace the flair of pak samad and to engage with the genius of ungku aziz.

and i wish that i can be their student at some stage in my life.

May Allah not let me fall into despair with this love of mine.
and may he guide me to Him.

wallahua’lam bissawab

writing is not easy as what you end up writing may not be what you mean.
well there are two types of writing: from the head and from the heart.
the first one is easy, as it is a contrived process, and gains momentum through practice.
but with practice, comes not perfect but habits.
ol’ habits die hard.
and so when you try writing, it is more of an intelligent exercise than a process of sincere expression.
now i am going to have to be able to separate and divorce the two so that i can write what i mean more while not be affected by the flair of the brain.
mean more.

why is it that i find no lust or appetite in contract law?
well i always have a tendency to blame the pedagogy, since time immemorial when it comes to me under-performing in any subject
but really i think there is some hidden nature in this part of law which i think i have not yet figured out to suit the law which i signed up for…the law which is gray..the law..the law in which nothing is of absolute truth..

contract in its own self is a subject which is elaborate and a filed which has undergone serious and long thought in the common law tradition.. it is the hallmark of english law and tradition and its principles are almost altruistic in the common law traditions (subject to specific qualifications, both procedural: external and internal mechanisms)

the law, if you may, is reaching a point of maturity in that the effect is there is little room for further development and if there ever is it would certainly be marginal, or a remainder of the mainstream canon or in new instances (which again is not a daily occurrence).

while creative thought is not to be pursued without a solid foundation, i believe that given such a rigid milieu, the thought process is somehow heavily regulated to the effect that there is seemingly no incentive to speculate (here occupied strictly with the aim of the creative thought process) as it would come with great requirements, specifically a very detailed understanding of an intricately developed law itself, which might  prove against not only time but also efficiency.

again, i manage to categorise my course into two: the stable but rigid realm and the opposite. needless to say, as i prefer the creative process more than i do the innovative one, i consequently fall for the latter.
development. that’s the word and that’s what i hope to find.

the heart is a place of wish.a place where many of my dreams lie. dreams created from what i see in my life. things which i wish to experience. things which even now seem a remote possibility, insya Allah is not impossible. i wish to be able to experience other cultures. i wish to help the humanitarian cause. and i certainly wish to fulfill that divine enlightenment. that man is made differently not to hate each other but so that they get to know each other.
I pray this will come true.

u know what is unwise?
well it is when one draws conclusion from other’s observations, without a prior effort by one’s self to discover a subject matter himself. and this is pertaining to matters of indefinite truth i.e. matters of normative nature or those that are subjective.

i was in the middle of a research for a paperwork regarding Islamic law in my WLO course. and i found it rather hard as there is no one big online authority which i can refer to. but therein lies the beauty of Islam i would say. we don’t want it to be, in K Murrad’s words a religion of the ‘church’.*
but i was wondering, as i browsed through, trying to get something from an authoritative academic institution such as the al-Azhar;
wouldn’t it have been a lot easier if there was one online English archive of all the rare documents of al-Azhar, accessible to at least the Muslim world?
and i was fantasizing to myself of the rewards God will grant to that person or the groups of persons involved in bringing that to reality…
God has thrown this into my mind but sad i m not yet endowed with all the equipments to be able to do so….Insya Allah one day a mujaddid will see that and try to sort that out.

*unable to understand the context? well ask me.

life as a judge certainly is not the one most theatrical type of life a sane mind would choose. this is nonetheless an invalid account for succumbing to orthodoxy and making life technical. in life there is life. celebrate it. the way many have and many will come to. just as Denning in [1975] 1 Ch 380, CA

"Today
we look back far in time. To a town or village green. The turf is old. Animals
have grazed there for hundreds of years. Nowadays they are pleasant stretches
of grass where people sit and talk. Sometimes they play cricket or kick a ball
about. But in mediaeval times it was the
place where the young men mustered with their bows and arrows. They shot at the butts. There might be stocks there where offenders
were put for their petty misdemeanours. In the month of May they set up a maypole and
danced around it. We have no record of
when it all began, but the poet tells us:

“On the green they watched their sons

Playing till too dark to see,

As their fathers watched them once,

As my father once watched me.”

[‘Forefathers’ Edmund
Blunden.]"

great effort it will require of one. to paint the world into a haven of joy. but listen to the whispers of life and alive shall thee be.