Hypocrisy

"Indian Politicians should be shot dead" reads a facebook status mssg.
It is quite easy to complain, to point out errors and feel helpless, especially if you are an Indian.

"Why the hell did he spend so much on the wedding? Couldn't he give it to the poor?"
Another one of my aquaintances, regarding LK Mittal's expenditure on his daughters wedding.

This is an all too common attitude of hostility towards those in power or those who are rich.

You might say they are right, sit with them in a room, frown along with these fellows and vent out your frustration a little bit on the system(the favourite passtime of an Indian male trying to justify the miseries of life).

I want to ask you, what gives the average man, the champion of the political parties and the star of Gandhi's talisman, this divine right of judgement?

Just because he is average and exists in billions of numbers around the country?

Getting into college has been a very educational experience for me. Sure, learning about Mechanics of Solids has been somewhat satisfying(har har) but i am talking about 'EA117 human nature'.

It has been intriguing to see people slowly moulding themselves into what they are going to become. The personality types slowly being etched out on their demeanor and after awhile you are shocked to see that how different people can be from one another. How their tendencies as children are morphed into their choices and how they evolve rapidly, solidifying their moral demographic profile overtime like a fractal.

This metamorphosis can be best observed in college, when a person sheds his shell of innocence(a false facade in some) as a child, and makes his own decisions. When he becomes responsible for his actions.

Flaws appear, cracks widen and ugliness surfaces. Tendencies which were hidden in the personalities of these people as children, bloom and unfold.

And now, you can see clearly, the puzzle has solved itself... the dirty politicians, the greedy businessmen, the corrupt IAS, everyone.. everyone you can think of, in one small college campus. Another microcosm of society sprouts around you.

I too fall under some demographic or the other, I too am not untouched. But I am not passing judgement on those in power or those with wealth.

On a side note, what is unfortunate is that the person who wants those politicians dead, himself is a person of deceit, a politician in the making, a cunning craftsman of words and the quite an accomplished sadist. Yet, he does not realise these qualities within himself.
Irony far out, isnt it.

So, what am i trying to say here?
Stop Complaining! The society is the way it is because there are people like us. People in power do not drop from mars. They are what we may become. If you ever thought about exterminating politicans.. question yourself, apart from the fact that they are in power, how different are you from them?

How often have you made decisions that do not directly benefit you, and how often have you thought about 'the greater good'?

To those guys who disliked the expenditure of LK Mittal, have you tried to find out how much it takes to sponsor a child for education? Gone to any NGOs?
What about all the Marlboros that you buy, why did you not save it and spent it on some poor kids meal instead?

It is quite easy to be a part of the faceless crowd and find reasons to justify your sloth, greed and disregard of fellow human beings.
Survival CAN be more elegant and more humane that what we make it to be.
But once you get more than to fulfill your needs, what do you choose to do?

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
Bullshit

Humans are inherently corrupt and power just gives them an oppurtunity to exhibit their animalistic tendencies.
We all are like that. But we are wrong in not recognizing that our individual characteristics combined gives shape to the society, and we are going to carry out roles and do things that we now, as powerless, faceless citizens hold responsible for all the ills of the world.

Blaming a section of the society and not doing anything about it is just an impotent display of hormones that will not get us anywhere as a race.

If you want to find a reason for all the miseries of life, look at yourself and then around you. If you are lucky you will find solutions of the problems tucked beneath your personality and your conduct. And though it may do little or nothing to improve your conditions, as an individual, you will be a part of the solution and not the problem.