it happens when the viewer is not in the view. then a beautiful view is outside of the viewer's other senses of perception. there is a gujarati saying: 'from distance the mountains seem pleasing; from close, frightening.' relatives, and especially, the children of the famous and saintly people, do see from close how meritorious or hypocrites their elders are. and in reaction they even do nasty things in rebellion. the only people whose lives are like an open book earn people's genuine acceptance.

people travel great distances to glimpse beautiful places or famous people they have read volumes about. their viewing activates their singularly isolated sense to savor the described pleasure of perception of the place or person. in order to do that, their other sense organs must be laid dormant or made dull enough not to feel. it is thus that people enjoy their vacation travelling through places of abject poverty without empathy for the fallen lot. the same is also true with people's non material perceptions -- their ideas about everything including themselves, their heroes, god and fate, that altogether form their beliefs and ways of life.

as group dwelling creatures, the humans acquire much of that in their rearing process during their formative years by seeing how their adults live. this learnt behaviour then drives them to keep up with the joneses. this mono-sense culture is rather a requisite form for their place in the society, whatever its mandate. it is only in the feeding by design that the birds of the different feathers flock together to eat the grains sprinkled in yards; people of different ways of life work together in the same factory or cubicle. the u.s. has become a feeding ground for the birds of different feathers gathered to feed on the grains sprinkled in the american dreamland -- the various sects of christianity and all the rest of the word's religious and political ideologies flourish there, albeit, ultimately transforming their living into a great commercial enterprise called the american dream.

a u.s. medal of freedom is bestowed upon an entrepreneur who excels in any walk of the prescribed life, whether retaining it or destroying it, or even entertaining it in between the two. in developing the expertise in singular skill lies the danger of the ignorance of the rest; there is a popular anecdote on the famous archer arjuna. after winning the famous mahabharata war, arjuna was on his way to some place, and was caught by a gang of bandits, who demanded money or his life. still savoring his archery prowess arjuna laughed off the threat by saying, that the bandits did not realize that he was the famous archer, who could kill them all with his archery. the leader of the bandit said to him, that he, arjuna could, if he were free enough even to move his hand. until then arjuna did not realize that he was physically confined. it is thus, that profit focused pharmacy's american medical association approved one new treatment comes with the side effects, which, as advertized in a tv commercial includes even a possible suicide; defective products are rushed to the markets; the funds for the nobel peace prize were generated from mr. nobel's singular skill of developing the dynamite, much in demand by the warring nations.

the presidential medal of freedom is an award bestowed by the president of the united states, and is the highest civilian award of the united states. it recognizes those individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the united states, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors". here, in the list of the qualifications for the awards itself lies the conflict of interests created by the compartmentalization of the wholesomeness of the human being. when nations themselves are formed of separate identities and interests, no law abiding citizen can in all earnestness pursue both the national interest and world peace symultaneously. rather, the very root cause of any conflict between two persons or nations is this segregated perception of nature of things.

the practice of putting up the whole person on the high spot for his singular feat assumes the recipient to be equally versatile in all walks of life. einstein, who envisioned the fine interdependence among elements in his theory of relativity had troubled relationships with his spouses. several european artists, known for their fine sense of organization of colours on canvas led rather chaotic life that even hurt those connected with them. paul gauuin, in particular had early teen age girls as sex slaves in tahiti, and had infected them and other girls with syphilis. presidents and leaders lead double life carefully guarding what they know would cause their downfall.

the logic of the language implies that all other citizens of the u.s. who are not awarded the medal of freedom are not free. likewise, all other high sounding awards, the nobel prizes especially in the fields of non material aspects - peace, culture and theories of economies, etc. - seem to do more harm to the medium of communication that the language is. the problem is not just with the selection of the person to bestow the award, but also with the very narrowed, singular skill or act of the person selected. president obama receiving the nobel peace prize while being engaged in the acts of wars in many lands, or now obama finding it rather embarrassing to state that there is no provision to rescind the u.s. medal of freedom awarded to an entertainer who is now being prosecuted as a rapist. in fact, this medal recipient was even tried for similar offence some 30 years before he awarded the medal of freedom by president bush. the awards are not physically inseparable from the recipient, like a physical punishment or death sentence is. the u.s. had stripped the boxing champion mohammed ali of his championship awards for refusing to fight in the vietnam war. besides, with the adverse publicity, the public has already toppled this medalist from their high esteem, even in the field of tv entertainment. likewise, like the several past nobel peace laureates, obama, too, has added his unwitting share of making it public how absurd is this practice of creating idols from persons prone to hypocrisy.

president obama's nobel prize in peace was due to the wishful thinking of the nobel committee that the peace prize would inspire him to actively promote peace. but obama was not elected to create the nations united in peace. like all the previous presidents of the u.s., or for that matter most other heads of state, obama is using his singular skill of a commander in chief to lead the nation to wars, especially in times of economic instability, as wars provide employments in wars and weapons industry, and muffle opposition at home.

it is customary for the rich to set aside a token amount of their wealth for the charitable purposes to help the poor, not for the sake of humanity, but to retain the comparative worth of the rich. eliminate the poverty, and there exists no rich either in the absence of the economic apartheid. some well to do writers of the bible first observed the necessity of retaining the poverty by soothing the poor with the words: "blessed are the poor in spirit; for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven." except for the seers like buddha, who have knowingly renounced the comparative existence and promoted the simple living, most other religions have extolled the poor to be meek and seek happiness in the next world. that is the only reason why religion was created. and the rich built churches, temples and mosques for the poor to pray. otherwise as the poet ghalib wrote: "we know the facts of the heaven, but ghalib, it's not a bad idea to entertain the heart."

in a group dwelling species the cognition, and not recognition of an individual's particular ability is purely functional, and hence not static. when any group's motions of life begin to go in circles, it becomes mechanically repetitive and habit forming. in the animal world, the leadership is questioned when it is observed to be faltering. in the modern human world, the leadership comes with the strings attached as the real players are also the script writers, and they are aware that they are not 'of the people, for the people, by the people'. so they need a proxy to act on their behalf.

the modern human existence is by design interwoven with the mechanical components of motion. and the designers are busy with creating the tools to replace the rest of the human motions to mimic the robots. the search is now on for the artificial intelligence. and the searchers are competing to be the first to win a medal of freedom, not experiencing the freedom from the confining known that their staged, puppet-like existence has become.