Riiiight !
So, I guess there is no escape from it, is there :-)?
The fallacy here Alpana is that you are so stuck on the good people, bad people
mantra, you cannot
divorce yourself from the notion that a few or perhaps a lot good folks is all
you need for salvation.
The fact is that people are mostly the same, all over. Generally, they are
mostly good. But the rigors
of survival, selfish instincts, absence of societal and personal ethics and
other factors push them
to temptation. If such temptation is not discouraged by say:
Ethical qualms
Laws of the land and institutions of state that will punish bad
behavior and support good behavior
then the slide down the path of bad behavior becomes perpetuated, like in
today's India.
Americans or the British or the Germans or the French or the Norwegians or the
Chinese or the Russians--they all
are good and bad. But those societies that have succeeded in fostering ethical
behavior in conjunction with
an effective system of governance with trustworthy and functioning
institutions, have by and large been
able to prevent such wholesale descent into a corrupt state.
So, it is NOT the Kharkhowas' innate badness that has caused its descent into
what it is mired in now, It is India's
make-believe democrasy and its dysfunctional state institutions, compounded by
an absence of knowledge
about what they ought to be, that is at the root of its profound malaise.
Therefore, even if you get a half dozen saints imported from far off, saintly
lands to run Assam, never mind AGP+BJP, vs Kongress
or Akhil + Anna or even ULFA, will make any difference, UNLESS it is coupled
with a complete overhaul of its failed governmental
system. That simple.
On Apr 22, 2011, at 11:36 AM, Alpana B. Sarangapani wrote:
> But the system is made of the (local) people only.
>
> I might be acting like - 'gorur aagot tukari baai, mur jukaari ghah khai' to
> your argument of just blaming the system, and not taking responsibility of
> one's own greedy behavior, but I know for sure that It is not written in
> Indian book of law that taking bribe is mandatory.
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chan Mahanta <cmaha...@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:02:58
> To: <assam@assamnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [Assam] The Rorschach Effect in Indian Politics
>
> Allow me to butt in here A.
>
> No one is questioning the need for personal integrity. Your Bor-deuta is a
> good example. Question you should be asking
> is why HE had to QUIT? Where is the institutional support system that should
> reward good behavior and punish
> bad? It is THIS absence that breeds more and more behavior. There is no
> DETERRENCE.
>
>
>> 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
>
> *** As long as such preaching does not go unchallenged, it is for the good.
> It makes people pause, think, look deeper into issues, instead of
> merely jumping onto this bandwagon or that, seeking easy answers and simple
> fixes. But if we are to dismiss or devalue Santanu's analysis
> as yet another set of preachings or attempts at self-aggrandisement, then we
> would be missing the point.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Apr 22, 2011, at 10:31 AM, Alpana B. Sarangapani wrote:
>
>>
>> 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
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> assam@assamnet.org
>>> http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
>>
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