what is an 'ecosystem'?

NRInatter.com  exposes the current scandalous system and proposes a better alternative​

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Click / tap here to download the PDF of this thought-provoking essay 
 

PREMISE

Ours is a two-fold premise.

1) We, the ordinary people, are not in good hands. We never were. But we (are led or tricked to) believe otherwise. That's because of the biggest, longest-running, most successful, most sophisticated, most subtle but unrecognized/unidentified con-game in human history perpetrated by the elites on the non-elites.

Typically, ordinary people believe bad/evil people are rapists, murderers, serial killers, indiscriminate shooters, zealots, anarchists, rowdies, goons, hoodlums, thieves, bandits, robbers, dacoits, pickpockets, gamblers, drug dealers, substance-abusers, alcoholics, lechers, wife-beaters, terrorists, extremists, bride-burning dowry-lovers, those indulging in female infanticide and neonaticide, street-side conmen, cheats, scandalous persons, scamsters, etc. Ordinary people also believe bad/evil-dark forces are also those openly corrupt, bribe-taking, uneducated, illiterate, unsophisticated, rural politicians and their ilk. That's how the ecosystem creates a facile, reductionist, make-believe narrative.

Seldom do ordinary people realize that they are actually sandwiched between two sets of bad/evil people in society. The first set has been described above. The second set -- the mainstream elites -- is hardly recognized. The second set, and the ecosystems they create, operate and perpetuate, are more dangerous and lethal to ordinary people than the first set.

But this fact is not easily recognized or grasped. The second set is not easily identifiable. Nor is its "crime" easily discernible. Ordinary people are cleverly, cunningly, led to believe by the glib second set that the latter, the smooth operators that they are, are the benefactors and saviors of the former (non-elites), whereas in reality the second set commits unthinkable or unconscionable crimes against humanity.

2) We, the ordinary people, have now reached a stage in human evolution where we can do away with the wretched elites altogether. We don't need the elites. Click/tap here to read about the four main or strong reasons that warrant putting an end to the elites' grip on human ecosystems / societies. We can survive, thrive, prosper and flourish without the second set (the mainstream elites). In fact, they are a threat to our very existence. They are intent on developing and propagating things, systems, processes, technologies, etc, that will likely cause extinction of non-elites, slowly but surely. Instead, to flourish in a genuine way, and not in a make-believe way, we, the ordinary people, the non-elites, can found, nurture, sustain and perpetuate new, elite-free, truly egalitarian and fool-proof systems and kill off the loaded, rigged, outdated, irrelevant and redundant systems of the yore. In other words, we can now build a new ecosystem that will stand the test of time. We must grab this once-in-a-lifetime, now-or-never opportunity with both hands. 'There Is No Alternative'. nrinatter.com champions this TINA factor.

INTRODUCTION, DEFINITION
 
The term "ecosystem" is used in this website's content to signify the sum total of natural forces combined with political, policy, ideological, religious, socioeconomic, cultural, societal, psychological, media, tech and other influences that shape, manipulate, command and control our minds, our perceptions, our values, our choices and preferences, our decisions and our actions/inaction.

The ecosystem also defines (or diminishes) who you are in the societal hierarchy; it gives you an ID (identity) that defines your standing in society, your stature, your self-image, and how you perceive yourself through the mental lens installed by the ecosystem. This is an insidious and invidious process achieved through sly means and stealthy practices that are usually imperceptible and subtle.

The ecosystem is a multi-dimensional construct conceptualized, designed, built, operated, fine-tuned and perpetuated by the elites; it towers over and subjugates its targets, the non-elites, through various established institutions -- religion, doctrines, ideologies, government, culture, traditions, customs, rituals, technology, "education", media, content (including false history, advertising messages, and myths, falsehoods and outright lies propagated through entertainment, propaganda, rhetoric), various "isms", "narratives", general discourse... All these forces and influences act in sync creating almost impenetrable, undecipherable dynamics and mechanics.

In another sense, "ecosystem" also refers to the physical environment, area, territory or geography where all these forces and influences combine to weigh on our minds.

IMPORTANCE
 
So, it is vitally important to recognize the importance of an ecosystem. In fact, it is essential that we ordinary people should take full responsibility for the ecosystem we would like to live in.

We have all been tricked into living in a hands-off manner so far; we've been manipulated quietly (and not so quietly) to outsource the responsibility of our ecosystem to the elites. We've watched on helplessly as the ecosystem degenerated, degrading us all in the process. In response, we, the ordinary people, adopted an approach characterized by indifference, apathy, helplessness and powerlessness. Now, we have reached a stage where such a hands-off approach is no longer in our interests. In fact, it would not only further disempower and zombiefy us but also harm/destroy us, potentially pushing us over the cliff edge. Make no mistake, that's where we all are now.

INDIA & NEIGHBORS

 

Look at our smaller neighbors Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. Being small, it was relatively easy to "manage" the recent (post-2020) 'revolutions', uprisings, anarchy, violence, arson and looting there. Given that the socioeconomic factors, societal dynamics and marketplace mechanics in India are not very different, and also given the simmering, long-festering discontents over issues like widening wealth gap, economic inequality, subversion of democracy, under-development and haphazard 'progress', it is not inconceivable that similar tensions and chaos could erupt in post-Covid India as well.

What then? Would a humongous nation, a developing economy and a diverse society like India be able to afford, withstand, shake off and shrug off such a global-scale disruption? Can we ordinary people continue with our same-old hands-off approach and the shameful stance of indifference, apathy, helplessness and powerlessness? Why would such an already failed response to a flawed system/ecosystem produce different and positive outcomes in the future?

The three recent episodes in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, and the world history of revolts, uprisings and revolutions, show that elites will EITHER escape in helicopters (or use similar scoot-away means), have secret services to shepherd them to safe-houses, secret luxury bunkers or find sanctuary in some foreign lands OR get killed my mobs, vigilantes, et al. Or, they might infiltrate the rebels and non-conformists to break the movement from within. Or, they will likely sneak in through the backdoor somehow into the new regime, like it had happened in India after centuries of foreign rule by Mughals and West European colonizers.

So much about the elites. What about ordinary people? Well, look around in India's neighborhood and it won't be difficult for you to figure out the plight and the double whammy that befalls ordinary people: they suffer when they choose to remain mute spectators or onlookers to authoritarian, corrupt, dictatorial, theocratic or dystopian regimes; and they suffer again when alternative regimes grab, or are given, power in the aftermath of revolutions but fail to deliver long-term stability, security, growth, development, progress and an egalitarian society. Look at Madagascar as well. Look at the countries that rose during the so-called Arab Spring.

VICIOUS CYCLE

The cycle repeats again and again, unless ordinary people study history, pay heed to sage advice (like what you get here on nrinatter.com), learn lessons and come up with / embrace a completely different, sensible and workable solution that's fit for our current times -- a cause that nrinatter.com champions.

 
An aside: We wish Prashant Kishor well and tremendous success, but deep within we at nrinatter.com think we know how his campaign and his party will likely fare and pan out in the coming months and years (presuming he will survive the murderous, violent, vindictive and retributive politics of Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, etc). For, we know a thing or two about the people who seek to reform an inherently flawed, loaded, rigged system from within. Typically, the flawed system sucks in and devours such wannabe reformers. We have seen Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal in recent times. We know what had happened to P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh earlier. And before them, we saw the effectiveness (or lack thereof, or limited effectiveness relative to the size, scale and nature of India's flaws) of Vinoba Bhave and Jayaprakash Narayan. And we know how post-Independence India reduced both Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda to no more than paper tigers and impotent icons worthy of just symbolic and ubiquitous statues, framed photographs in government offices, images on postal stamps and currency notes, lionized leaders in history books and false narratives, with roads, buildings, structures, government schemes and stadiums named after them. So, given all that, we at nrinatter.com know a thing or two about "ecosystem" when we claim that our proposed model is the ONE and ONLY solution -- panacea, if you will -- to all of India's, and probably the world's, problems.

 

WORLD'S WORST ELITES?
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There is another despicable, arguably unique, aspect of the ecosystem in India. No, we are not referring to the problem of the so-called caste system, which, we believe, is universal and can be discerned in every society, nation, country, culture and civilization in one form or another, in one name or another (like class, race, religion, sect, denomination, etc). What we are referring to is the relative under-performance of the Indian elites compared to the elites elsewhere, especially in comparable countries and economies (like China, which is equally populous and bigger in terms of physical size), as well as in developed/advanced economies of the Western world.

To be sure, the corrupt elites outside of India exploit, subjugate and zombify their respective non-elite masses or the ordinary people; but, crucially, they deliver on the developmental front. They don't deliberately deprive their subjects of the fruits of sci-tech in the context of development, especially in terms of world-class infrastructure, top-quality roads and highways, adequate electricity, convenient and comfortable public transport, decent housing, useful and up-to-date urban amenities, etc. In India, however, deliberate, intentional or wilful deprivation of development has been a secret weapon or policy of the local elites. We could only speculate about the reasons thereof. The elites, it appears, believe that delivering world-class development to the Indian masses will weaken themselves (elites) while strengthening the latter (non-elites). Stated differently, Indian elites are cheats: they have been short-changing the Indian masses for ages. From the elites' perspective, India is a land where it is possible to have the cake and eat it too.

PONDER THESE POSSIBILITIES

So now, should we, the ordinary people, the non-elites, simply watch on helplessly from the sidelines of a globalized world as multi-billionaires, mega capitalists, politicians, twisted-crooked policymakers and their ilk decide, unilaterally and arbitrarily, what kind of technologies (read dangerous tech like AI, etc), drugs, pharmaceuticals, media, media content, processed foods, transport systems, educational institutions' curricula, what have you, will enter our society?

Why should it be like this, especially when the progress of the last century, even if lopsided and inadequate, actually enables us ordinary people now to evolve better systems of governance and better ecosystem using the currently available capital and technologies?

Have you ever realized that "democracy", a lofty concept that has been misused, abused and made a mockery of, can be completely recast, and made totally effective and 100% participatory, transparent and accountable at a mass level using technology?

Have you ever thought about having a say on what is/should be taught to our children in schools, colleges and universities?

Have you ever imagined an ecosystem where entertainment content -- films, TV serials, TV shows, live-streamed content, video sharing apps, etc -- enhances society by being wholesome, and does not hyper-stimulate or titillate senses, numb mind, corrupt intellect and waste precious resources?

Have you ever considered that it is entirely possible to create and sustain an ecosystem where we, the ordinary people, can determine what kind of products, goods, commodities, services, technologies and content enter our society?

Have you ever wondered about co-creating a decent 21st-century "ecosystem" for ourselves through cooperation and collaboration, instead of simply complying with a (flawed, failed) system you were born into and have been thoughtlessly, mindlessly and helplessly conforming to it ever since?

Do you even have a clear vision, or mental contours, of a 'better' society or ecosystem -- your "dream world", "ideal" world or "utopia" -- that we need? Are you aware of the better alternatives that are possible to be created at the present juncture? Have facile and hollow criticism of the existing rotten system, exasperation, a sense of resignation, wilful acceptance, lack of resistance and apathy brought us any positive results so far?
 
IMPASSE
 
How on earth did we, the ordinary people, reach this impasse in the first place?
 
US Senator Bernie Sanders' wow opinion piece in The Guardian of Sept. 24, 2025, which provoked more than 435-odd considered reader-comments in quick time, starkly exposes the flawed, dangerous and anti-people ecosystem in the US, which, by the way, isn't very different from the degenerate ecosystems elsewhere in capitalism-defined economies, be they private- or State-led (including the so-called socialist and Communist states across the world as well as the fake or subverted democracies like India, the UK, Canada, ANZ, etc).

ELITE VILLAINS
 
So, it's important to get an overview of the ecosystems spawned by the corrupted free market (or laissez-faire) economic systems. Let's identify the five main villain groups:

1) The political class and their minions (bureaucrats, policymakers, regulators, law-enforcement agencies and even the judiciary);

2) The capitalists -- the "multi-billionaire class" and their key accomplices (assorted businesspeople -- business owners, industrialists, CXO-level executives, and stock, securities and money market entities);

3) The guru community (religious fundamentalists/zealots, evangelists, fake spirituality peddlers, self-help and motivational writer-speaker class). The guru community also includes numerologists, astrologers, mediums, psychics, fortune-tellers, palm-readers, forehead-readers, 'naadi ' shopowners, crystal ball-gazers, zodiac interpreters and their ilk. Besides, the academia, the so-called experts, specialists, super-specialists, and authors of questionable books, monographs, theses, research reports, 'papers', peer reviews, fiction writers, filmmakers, proponents of theories . . . they can be considered gurus as well. The term "guru community" or "guru/gurus" used on this website also encompasses opinion-builders, thought-leaders, influencers, or anyone at all -- psychopathic or manipulative parent(s), older siblings, teachers, elders, bosses, what have you -- who, abusing his/her position of power, authority and/or trust, attempts (and usually succeeds) to manipulate your mind 1) to control your perceptions, the way you view reality, and 2) to ensure your impressionable mind and disabled/corrupted intellect do not see the reality as it is but instead perceive and accept only the subjective or colored superimposition placed on the reality by the guru(s).

4) The sci-tech sickos (scientists, technologists and their ilk who misuse or misinterpret objective knowledge and abuse the power that comes with domain knowledge that others may not have access to or may not understand fully); and

5) The celebrity circuit (iconic figures / "influencers" from sports, entertainment, media, arts and cultural industries who are individually worth hundreds / thousands of millions of dollars, thanks to their connections, allegiances or associations, and their ability to convert fame / popularity into money and power, via income-multiplier awareness of business acumen, investment prowess, media and event appearances, and brand endorsements). 

 

IT'S ALL RIGGED

Now let's understand how these villains -- the elites -- prosper. The ecosystem you live in is "loaded". Meaning, it is flawed and rigged -- designed in a way where all the efforts and exertions of the vast majority (95-98 percent -- the ordinary people or the non-elites) end up enriching and empowering the minuscule minority of the elites. We, the ordinary people -- middle-income groups, salaried class, professionals, neighborhood traders, merchants, vendors, retirees, home-makers, scholars, lower-middle-class, worker class, etc -- literally funnel our sweat, blood, wealth and power into these groups.

As Bernie Sanders' article shows, in these rigged ecosystems, we, the ordinary non-elite people as citizens and voters, funnel our power (and money, through taxes) into the political class; we as mindless consumers funnel our money into the business class, which converts that money into power; we as devotees or followers funnel our mental and intellectual abilities (as well as money, through donations, purchases, tithes, etc) into the guru community; we as comfort-addicts and patients surrender our mental and physical health at the altar of the sci-tech, medical, healthcare, biotech, Big Pharma and related industries, which again involves loads of money, which in turn is converted into power by the latter; we as diminished individuals gift away our most precious resources -- time and mind's attention -- to the celebrity/influencer circuit by consuming the skilfully created myths and halos around their personalities, skills, giftedness, talent, charisma, magnetism and superhero status.

The ordinary people, the non-elites, are EITHER unaware and ignorant of these rigged ecosystems they live in because their respective ecosystem does not allow them time at all to think, ponder and discern OR wilfully resigned, apathetic, indifferent, professing helplessness, powerlessness and the futility of individual resistance.

Both these responses have helped create and perpetuate the flawed, anti-people ecosystems in the first place. If continued, these 'strategies' will further disenfranchise and disempower the non-elites, potentially ruining and destroying them.

Have you ever wondered why, in spite of the global resentment, frustration and anger of the non-elites against economic inequalities and concentration of wealth, the elites are so smug and even brazen about their methods, and almost cocky about their invincibility, as if cocking a snook at who they perceive as "losers" (ordinary people, the non-elites)? This phenomenon is not without reason. 

Over the decades, as the non-elites got blindsided and distracted by falling into various traps -- temptations, addictions, distractions -- carefully and skillfully laid out by the elites, and allowed greed, fear, insecurity, uncertainty, anxiety and individual ego -- hyper-individualism, meaning selfishness and self-centredness in place of unity, community spirit and collective action -- to get the better of them, the elites quietly focused on their background activities, while putting up attention-grabbing acts, dramas, make-believe narratives and cock-and-bull stories in the front end for public consumption.

For example, if you take the opposition-versus-ruling party/coalition drama/narrative literally, at face value, then you must consider yourself a stupid, idiot, simpleton or ignorant fool. For, at the end of the day, the entire political class is one, united, against the non-elites, the ordinary people or aam janta. So, don't focus on, and get swayed by, the front end; it's what happens in the invisible back-end that's real, you stupid.

UNLIMITED POWER
 
As a result, the elites today command unthinkable, unimaginable amount of power, authority, wealth, knowledge and control over sci-tech and content (content-production and distribution entities, systems and processes). By investing trillions of dollars over the last few decades in secret research in psychology, neuroscience, biochemistry, biology, physiology, subatomic physics and other such fields, the elites now have access to inner workings of not only the human body but also the human mind, especially the egotistical, under-evolved,  wakeful-but-unconscious "Lower Self" as it exists across various age-groups, genders and sexual orientations. It has, therefore, become so easy now for the elites to manipulate, remote-control and command the Lower Self (egotistical, under-evolved human mind) across various age-groups, genders and sexual orientations -- FROM the point of conception and even before that TO death and even afterlife, so to speak. Suffice to say they, the elites, have figured it out, all of it, and now they have us, the ordinary people, by our balls, to put it bluntly if inelegantly.

Since the elites have total control over the ecosystem, they can, and do, flood it with various stimuli (junk food, audio-visual content, stress-inducing situations, so forth) that target the under-evolved, manipulable, egotistical human mind across various age-groups, genders and sexual orientations (teenagers, young adults, adults, middle-age people, seniors, so forth) 24x7 (yes, even during sleep hours).

The advent of social media, short-video apps, video-sharing apps, inane, mind-numbing entertainment (including tech-enable entertainment like violent video games, gaming platforms, e-sports, so-called talent shows, vulgar or hateful standup comedy, etc), and the sudden eruption of trends like sexual transitions, fancy gender identifications and LGBTQ ... these are all attributable to the behind-the-scenes orchestration by the elites.

No one among the ordinary people knows what kind of experiments and research are being carried out secretly in labs by biotech companies, Big Pharma, subatomic physics organizations, private space firms, medical enterprises, psychological associations, processed food and beverage companies, etc. The advertising industry, known for its mastery over powerful, effective dark arts like subliminal messages and mind manipulation, is now considered Satan, Devil, Demon, Dark Force all rolled into one. And one thing we can be sure about is that not all of those experiments, R&D activities and carefully crafted content have human welfare and human flourishing as their intents and goals.

BREAK THE CYCLE
 
The cycle has to be broken; and it has to be broken sooner than later, given that the ecosystems have already pushed the ordinary people to the cliff edge. Read the rest of the content on this website, reflect, connect the dots, and you will get the 'Big Picture'. 

Let us remember and not forget that we the ordinary people also have immense knowledge and experiences gathered over millennia. We are also aware of issues like sustainability, climate change, global warming, environmental meltdown due to capitalist-consumerist societies, mental health problems, diseases, pandemics, etc. We can combine all that with insights into how over-reliance on the elites has not only disempowered, disenfranchised and zombified us but also pushed us all to the cliff edge now.

The phrase "cliff edge" is not an exaggeration. It is not used loosely, indiscriminately or for dramatic effect. Both nrinatter.com, and the essay on EventBrite.com that leads to our invitation for you to join our Sunday ZOOM sessions, are replete with hundreds (probably thousands) of links to relevant content, including videos, that offer solid, hard evidence of the abysmal state of our current ecosystem. Connect all those dots and you'll surely 'get' the Big Picture, an overview of the ecosystem that envelopes us now.

That apart, ask yourself how much power do you really have (not in theory but in practice, in real life) as an individual citizen, voter, taxpayer, consumer (of goods, services, products, brands), employee, tech user and consumer of content (news, entertainment, propaganda, information, data, fiction, non-fiction). Do you get good, efficient, courteous, personal and timely customer service (from humans) anymore? Does your employer treat you well and fairly? Is your privacy violated, your data stolen and your peace of mind disturbed due to constant, ubiquitous surveillance in the name of security? Compare today's reality with that in the year 2000 and even earlier -- say, 1975 and 1950. You'll then understand how under-served, disempowered, disenfranchised, intellectually emasculated and zombified ordinary people are today.

CONCLUSION

By now, we should be able to figure out what is really important in life and for future generations, the difference between wants and needs, and all that discourse. We, the majority non-elite ordinary people, must, therefore, venture forth to co-create the right kind of ecosystem ourselves, without depending on the minority evil elites, using the currently available resources, systems, technologies, knowledge and capital.

 

In doing so, we, the majority non-elite ordinary people, need to be cautious, careful and smart in our fight against the evil elites. For, the latter are notorious for their use of dark arts and dirty tricks in their pushback tactics. Typically, the evil elites employ violence, blackmail, false cases, smear campaigns, propaganda, etc, against their opposition. In addition, they are the masters of divide-and-rule strategy, which they deploy to break up opposition and preempt unity among opponents. They stoke ego, fear, greed, uncertainty, anxiety and other middle-class maladies. They distract and blindside. And they recruit saboteurs from within the non-elite class, besides unleashing Trojan horses. This is just a sample of their capabilities, inclinations and preferences.

Yet, we can still take, and must take, a U-turn from the cliff edge. Else, we will be pushed over it sooner than later. Beware!

 

What's the alternative anyway? None! Or status quo. To sum up, we need to embrace the 3Cs as our mantra: Cooperate, Collaborate and Co-create. Let us all realize what we are staring at now (as of the last quarter / Q4 of 2025):

1) Status quo, which won't produce the positive change we need and crave. Doing the same thing over and over again, even when it has failed over and over again, will not produce different, better results. It will merely continue to further disempower, disenfranchise and zombify us under the existing model.

2) Status quo might also lead to further deterioration in the current situation (like ever-widening wealth gap, socioeconomic inequalities, benign dystopia/idiocracy), which will likely result in sudden, uncontrolled explosion of violent, anarchic unrest, revolution, etc. This, in turn, would not only result in the destruction of almost everything we, the ordinary people, helped create assiduously so far, but also create long-term uncertainty and instability.

3) Remaining noncommittal, indifferent, apathetic or 'neutral', or sitting on the fence like opportunistic, hands-off onlookers or spectators, would merely strengthen the elites to impose change that they determine and shape, which would yet again benefit them alone at the expense of everyone else (non-elites).

4) Inaction or cluelessness on the part of non-elites, especially the educated ordinary people who still command considerable resources (collectively, not individually), would embolden the evil elites to consider perpetrating unconscionable things on non-elites (extreme forms of digital dictatorship, techno-feudalism, dreadful dystopia, or even use of biotech to inflict man-made pandemics via designer viruses that can obliterate vast swathes of populations in precision strikes on specific DNA, RNA and genes).

5) Big-Positive-Lasting Change engineered by enlightened, emboldened, proactive and action-oriented ordinary people on a glocal-to-global scale, a cause that nrinatter.com champions. 

Which is to say, the fifth and final option is actually a Hobson's choice, from the perspective of ordinary people. It's the one and only solution. There Is No Alternative (TINA). If we don't embrace the TINA factor urgently, now, we might as well kiss our future goodbye. As simple as that. 

 

So, JOIN US. Let's rewrite the script.

 

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​Note: Only the first 15 minutes or so of this recommended video are worth watching and very insightful. The rest of the video has a lot of repetition/duplication. The first 15 minutes, however, give an excellent overview of how an "ecosystem" manipulates its constituent masses the wrong way.​​

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