Schools of thought

If you’ve marvelled at the real-estate advertisements that promise some gilded “lifestyle” and the geographical nowhere-ness we aspire to amid the landscaped gardening we like to surround ourselves with,you’ll especially enjoy the chapter on “Imagined Worlds”. This takes us on an excursion to the “heterotropia” of Ramoji Film City,“a mirage out of nowhere”,of mud villages,the Wild West,and Mughal palaces favoured for film shoots in the outskirts of Hyderabad.

In an arid,rocky land,rolling lawns and luxurious fountains are the most potent form of conspicuous consumption,points out Saavala. When one of her friends,who seemed indifferent to the spectacle,later professed great enthusiasm for it to her friends,Saavala observes that more than the excursion,she’d valued the consumption of indicators of the “West” — hygiene,efficiency,predictability,in a vendor-less,beggar-free environment. In other words,Ramoji Film City and your sparkly,new neighbourhood mall are “a huge stage… to be gazed at,and to prove [one’s middle-classness.”

None of this upward mobility and aspiration-fulfilment would be possible without modern capitalism or the free-market economy,as its tireless evangelist,French columnist Guy Sorman will remind you in Economics Does Not Lie (Global Full Circle,Rs 495). “During the current crisis,it’s especially important to remember the unprecedented benefits that free markets have brought mankind,” says the blurb. Accordingly,the book marches along to this jaunty neo-liberal tune,telling us how the best measure of a good economy is its growth,how competition is desirable and the welfare state ineffective,and how complex financial markets have ushered in progress.