I take out my bike in scorching summer and head out on the road. It's been barely 2 minutes and there is a red traffic signal. I switch off my bike and wait the signal to get green while observing endless melee of riders jumping traffic signals from all directions. There was a time when I used to get infuriated and angry when I saw people throwing trash on the roads, defacing public property in various ways or just inconveniencing other people with least regard for fellow citizens. But I was naive and optimistic that some day things will change. Year after year passed but those who cared about country eventually turned their attention to their own lives away from the endless chaos that India is and those who got a chance to move abroad did it without a second thought.
The traffic light turned green and I moved on, only to find myself stuck on another stop light. But on this one I see 2 motorists fighting, one on bike and another one on scooty. Both of them had co-passengers. The fight ensued because the young blokes on scooty were pressing horn despite there being a red traffic signal and the guy on the bike was with his family but argued that he wouldn't move as the signal was red. When the light turned green I caught up with the imbeciles and asked them why they weren't wearing helmets and whether the guy on the bike was being unreasonable. They said it doesn't matter, we do what we want. I told them politely that they wouldn't don the same attitude if the traffic police caught them, they smiled and said our fathers are in police, rules don't apply to us. My father is also in police and I was never taught to act like this. But it seems a large number of people have a botched value system. Perhaps it was my father's excessive honesty that led me to be labelled naive in real world as I assumed this is how people genrally are and those who raise hue and cry about corruption and other issues are cynics with little touch with reality. When I went out in society away from the protected world of university I came across various facets of society that parents guard children from and it involved among other things renting to abusive, uncouth and not surprisingly feudal minded landlords to bribe takers and traffic rules breakers.
I used to believe in many idealistic things but it seems that each society has certain theoretical values that they claim to uphold and then there is the real face of society where it actually practices certain things which hardly has anything in common with what society imagines itself to be. But there are few points and things that can be generalized. It's true that no society is entirely corrupt and there are honest individuals with good values but a society gets labelled on the basis of the behaviour of majority of people and it is sad as well as unfair for those individuals who are different from the 'sheeple' of their country. The developed world has a large number of its citizens following certain rules and norms because they understand what it means to be human and where their interests lie. But sadly in the developing world a large number of people are driven by anything but education. Their sentiments can be swayed by fake news, provocation, religion, community, gender , class etc. They fail to understand that in order to have a better future for a society as a whole people need to look beyond just their selfish interests.
It's quite ironic that 'collectivist' societies criticise 'individualism' without even understanding its true meaning. Individualism is not selfishness and those societies which claim to think of the nation and community are most often found to be practicing selfish actions. India needs to radically change its modus operandi if it has to progress and get rid of hypocrisy for having a real shot at joining the league of the first world. If it needs to take strict action it must be taken against backward practices and mentality and we seriously need to rise above religion, whether it be of minorities or majority. Societies can be moral without following inane practices of religions and instead just embrace good teachings. If that is done, the people would not reply on being questioned of brazen behaviour ; 'we do what we want'.
The traffic light turned green and I moved on, only to find myself stuck on another stop light. But on this one I see 2 motorists fighting, one on bike and another one on scooty. Both of them had co-passengers. The fight ensued because the young blokes on scooty were pressing horn despite there being a red traffic signal and the guy on the bike was with his family but argued that he wouldn't move as the signal was red. When the light turned green I caught up with the imbeciles and asked them why they weren't wearing helmets and whether the guy on the bike was being unreasonable. They said it doesn't matter, we do what we want. I told them politely that they wouldn't don the same attitude if the traffic police caught them, they smiled and said our fathers are in police, rules don't apply to us. My father is also in police and I was never taught to act like this. But it seems a large number of people have a botched value system. Perhaps it was my father's excessive honesty that led me to be labelled naive in real world as I assumed this is how people genrally are and those who raise hue and cry about corruption and other issues are cynics with little touch with reality. When I went out in society away from the protected world of university I came across various facets of society that parents guard children from and it involved among other things renting to abusive, uncouth and not surprisingly feudal minded landlords to bribe takers and traffic rules breakers.
I used to believe in many idealistic things but it seems that each society has certain theoretical values that they claim to uphold and then there is the real face of society where it actually practices certain things which hardly has anything in common with what society imagines itself to be. But there are few points and things that can be generalized. It's true that no society is entirely corrupt and there are honest individuals with good values but a society gets labelled on the basis of the behaviour of majority of people and it is sad as well as unfair for those individuals who are different from the 'sheeple' of their country. The developed world has a large number of its citizens following certain rules and norms because they understand what it means to be human and where their interests lie. But sadly in the developing world a large number of people are driven by anything but education. Their sentiments can be swayed by fake news, provocation, religion, community, gender , class etc. They fail to understand that in order to have a better future for a society as a whole people need to look beyond just their selfish interests.
It's quite ironic that 'collectivist' societies criticise 'individualism' without even understanding its true meaning. Individualism is not selfishness and those societies which claim to think of the nation and community are most often found to be practicing selfish actions. India needs to radically change its modus operandi if it has to progress and get rid of hypocrisy for having a real shot at joining the league of the first world. If it needs to take strict action it must be taken against backward practices and mentality and we seriously need to rise above religion, whether it be of minorities or majority. Societies can be moral without following inane practices of religions and instead just embrace good teachings. If that is done, the people would not reply on being questioned of brazen behaviour ; 'we do what we want'.
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