Corruption!

Thought by John Steinbeck :

‘The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the product of the second.’ …

Such clarity and such conviction...

So where does one go from here …

Does goodness honesty and understanding really make for failure of a system. And do those that are sharp and selfish and mean, filled with ego to the brim, provide just the opposite ?
Somewhere moralists and those that pursue the pure, shall have great objection, but study has proved that the belief is not entirely wrong. In a society that is still evolving from a state of great deprivation and want, the ‘have’s’ shall always be looked upon with disdain and a sense of mute disgust. It is not the trait of a country such as USA, that, through a very long period of time, has emerged as one of the most prominent nations being closely watched in all walks of life, the same has been experienced in other parts of the universe as well. After all, conditions were made such that an evolving economy, a generous liberalisation, has given rise to millions that now have a fulfilled dream. But the percentages still weigh against all those that have chosen the path of wealth and richness, unable, as is often assumed or spoken of with immense glee, to so much as give some attention to the ‘have nots’ !

The assertion of those disgruntled with the system, has been vociferous in recent times, on the streets of the under develop countries like Pakistan, Venezuela. And I do believe that apart from the main accusation of the corruption of our ethics, one must and should give credit to the fact that most such out pouring of emotion against certain incidents, in peaceful and restrained manner, have been inspired by  conscious of some good men. There are endless examples to prove this point.

The only fault of such men is the absence of unity and the construct of collective spirit. The unity and collective spirit has been garnered by forces that these people have succumbed to, whether political or any other. Its own worth and value has not been channeled by us, it has by others, and at a gain ! But … and this is still a but … some of us have had the creative liberty to freely portray conditions, faults, and the wrongs of the system, guided and controlled by state formulated censorship …

The lack of unity when such a threat appears, has weakened us and made us dependent or vulnerable bystanders, who cannot take the stand or risk of commercial loss, in not just protecting, but remaining unshakeable in the hour of need.

The so called ‘keepers of the faith’ preach to us how we should, use its effective potency of 
influence, by projecting values and ethics. But what if values and ethics have been corrupted in our social structure. What then ? Will the system still wish us to project the realities of society, or would it then turn a blind eye and push us to delays by asking us to take recourse in the courts of law. After all the law of the land is supreme  … for ‘Brutus’ as you know ‘was an honourable man’ !!

Creativity in a developed or developing society, in a free democratic world, has been given the believed freedom of expression. But the only freedom, it seems, that we can ‘proudly’ boast of, is the freedom of external and otherwise controlled freedom. So damn realism, and lets get back to our much criticised escapist fantasised theatrics ! And be conscious and aware of each spoken word, expression, dress, language, location, depiction, form …. which does not hurt the sentiments of any community !!

Intolerance moved mountains in our fight for freedom. Intolerance in any independent country can also move mountains. The anger and disillusion among the youth is saying something. Somebody needs to listen to them, and fathom rather rapidly, its whys and wherefore !

Our struggle for an independent sovereign state was determined to prevail, to win, to make conditions for us to not live in fear. Our fear should be towards our indiscipline and the subsequent strong action against it. Our fear should be of the wrong done and its eventual deliverance in the law of the land. Our fear should be the misrepresentation of one beautiful nation in the eye of the other. Our fear should be the lack of fearlessness in doing what is right !

Good night...

DiL