This post is both - a response to a post at http://vaibhavshintre.blogspot.com/ where ponderings over questions searching for humanity and the abominably difficult to find human spirit ( read dying or dead ) lead to rambling thoughts, and pardon my saying so, scrambled ideas.

Manipulation is a useful word though, I must say. It can be used to invalidate any plan or action very easily, and more importantly, with impeccable logic expressed, ironically, through feelings and perceptions.

And when that is done in response to observations which can in no way be even comprehensive, leave aside complete. Does this seem too mechanical or obscure a way of tackling tricky questions ? Or maybe this answer itself may be labelled as an exercise in manipulation.

Fair enough.

Immeasurability of intentions has often been as a proxy for unreliability. And one can argue that the proxy is as good as any. Its one of those convenient pieces of logic that can not be proved incorrect, though it may not be proved correct as well. So often in today's world do we come across examples of humans behaving in a way which we feel (and sometimes think also) is inhuman.

And human spirit, did someone say ? I was reading a book sometime back where the author has claimed (not suggested) that we have lost passion completely, and goes on to support his extreme opinion with saying that even our lovemaking today has lost passion. I dont blame him, as he is writing a book that must sell. But his assertion, like so many others made today, is one that some people would identify with, to varying degrees, and jump up and say "Oh yes! By Jove he is right!!!", and an exercise in generalisation of a statement which is neither an incomplete truth nor a complete falsehood begins.

One of my friends wrote a piece once, titled "Perceptions are illusions..." , and how aptly his title explains the phenomenon going on here. The danger, however, is that not just as individuals with varying capabilities and inclinations for carrying out logical analyses objectively, but also as groups we so often take the path of least resistance, relying on intuition and allowing it to dictate to us what is and what should be. How many times have new scientific theories, counter-intuitive and going against existing scientific thinking not been proved correct and gone on to become the new truths of the universe ?

Humanity has gone and human spirit has been crushed ?

Well... I would say go and look at a mother breast-feeding her child... Go and see a boy of seven on the streets carefully covering his sister of five with a torn blanket, himself shivering with cold, and still having eyes shining with hope and satisfaction that his kid sister is warm. Go and see old professors and teachers who, having spent 40 years shaping the thinking of young minds, still getting all excited when a naive youngster points out an apparent flaw in an accepted theory.

I can go on and on... But that is irrelevant here. What is of the essence is that till the day human race is physically wiped off the face of planet earth, ( and assuming they havent settled on some other planet by then ) humanity will always be there, not just mildly present in some dark corner and shrieking for becoming relevant and significant in people's daily lives, but being strongly overpowering... Enough to still make a student guilty when he cheats in exam... only, due to an acceptance of dilution of humanity and human spirit by people without due acknowledgement to the powerful spirit that is there within the critic himself, which actually made him ask the very questions I would have been tempted to answer here, but wont...

But I'll say one thing, in each and every individual I see today, I can definitely see both humanity and spirit, and I refuse to pass judgements on these, not because I have seen everything that is there to see, but because I haven't...