Good to hear from you, Santanu. Don't see you much these days.
While i agree with you in principle that if the system of governance is very good, most things work out fine, i think there are other issues as well. I feel that for a country to function well, it has to have good governance, regulations, rules on one side and a population that has principles, not susceptible to corruption, and takes active and healthy interest in the general well being of the country. And about the 'I' and 'you', even if it is not specifically written, there still might be a tendency to preach, like you and I and many of us here and elsewhere do. One does not necessarily need to go to Lanka to become Rabon, you can find Rabon all over the place. Do people have to compromise on principles and morality because the system is so corrupt and put the blame on the system and succumb to taking bribes and what not? If the answer is yes, what does that tell us about our society? On a side note, my Bor-Deuta, as a young man, worked as a Supply Inspector for a couple of months and quit the job in disgust, because of large scale bribery. He didn't die a materially rich man, but he kept his principles and morality very high up thoughout his career and life. In those days, he was not the only one, of course, to do that. BTW, I understand how the proverb goes. But it is unfortunate that people forget that Ravan had high principles. > From: s...@mail.smu.edu > To: assam@assamnet.org > Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:21:59 +0000 > Subject: Re: [Assam] The Rorschach Effect in Indian Politics > > Nice piece. It is always so easy to view the problem of corruption & related > ills as one of personal morality; that it happens because the people who have > discretionary power, particularly politicians, are fundamentally "bad" > people. If they are replaced by "good" people, the outcome will be > fundamentally different. It is this view that gets the urban middle class so > excited about the Hazare-like premises. > > I have tried to understand why this seems to be a collective social view, > though individually almost all of us have the basic intelligence to > understand the time immemorial adage that "one who goes to Lanka, shall > become a Ravan". Quite apart from the fact that reforming Lanka is nowhere as > entertaining or appealing as burning Ravan, it reflects a fundamental desire > in us to differentiate ourselves - "they " are the bad guys so they bring > misery, "I" am good, if "I" were there, "I" would perform differently; "I" or > someone like "I" can do it. By saying this, "I" exult my moral superiority. > It is so easy to sell this creed to "I". "You?", well I am not so sure about > "you" :-). > > Santanu. > ________________________________________ > From: assam-boun...@assamnet.org [assam-boun...@assamnet.org] on behalf of > Altaf Mazid [altafma...@gmail.com] > Sent: Friday, April 22, 2011 8:31 AM > To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world > Subject: [Assam] The Rorschach Effect in Indian Politics > > The Rorschach Effect in Indian Politics > > By Amit Varma > > http://in.news.yahoo.com/blogs/opinions/rorschach-effect-indian-politics-053923332.html > > _______________________________________________ > assam mailing list > assam@assamnet.org > http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org > _______________________________________________ > assam mailing list > assam@assamnet.org > http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
