Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Mediocrity, antagonism, irresponsibility, servility
Mediocrity, antagonism, irresponsibility, servility…..these gloomy words are the Indian Ethos. Unlike other countries that have done away with their social ills like witch hunts, slavery, institutionalized inequality of the sexes, and institutionalized racism, we have kept mediocrity, antagonism, irresponsibility, servility close to our heart.
We love to be mediocre. Observe a transaction in any rural market. A woman asks the price of veggies, the vendor quotes. The woman is flabbergasted and then goes on to criticize the state of the produce and their absolutely low quality. She will then proceed to use that information as a bargaining chip. Now if the produce is so damn bad, how come you are buying rotten tomatoes! So this is an ingrained training at the grassroots of how “mediocre” isn’t so bad as long as you buy it a good price.
How does this tie into the ethos? Look at every product created in this country. From a bar of soap to a car; none of these can be used in other countries as is. They have to be modified in some way or the other – even when we export ourselves sometimes. The question is why? Why do we like to live in posh areas – adjacent to slums, why do we like to drive our Hyundai Sonatas – over pot holed roads, why do we drink Scotch whisky – and then have a swig of hepatitis infected water? Is it because we are still getting “there”, because we have only been independent for 50 years, because we have a large population, or is it because we just don’t know any better? The effort involved in properly tarring over a road is nothing! Just have teams working 24 hour shifts and finish a road in 2 days flat! To make sure drinking water not contaminated with human waste, build a casing, eliminate hutments, shoot the bastards who shit in your glass of water! Enough of the excuses about all the problems we have. We have enough examples around us to show us the way to live properly. But you see no one here will do it because no one can see the problem. Hepatitis will come and go, there may be a few accidents but before elections the roads will be done up, and slums – well they make for good domestic labor! So, eventually the problem will go away but if comes back, we can always blame that most famous edict of cow worshippers – destiny – and we can’t change that even if we wanted to.
And what happens to the people who call for change? Antagonize them and say that they are anti-Indian and elitist. These are not the responses of vested interests but of the regular citizenry. When we developed nuclear weapons instead of creating power generation units, the world laughed while our population celebrated. All we wanted was to show the world that we were also grown up….Think about another scenario. Try and criticize an Indian on an aspect. What do you get? “Can you do any better? What? You think you are so great or what?” I say “No, you stupid shit, I am telling you how fucked you are. Now do something about it!”
Authorities are irresponsible, industries are irresponsible, people are irresponsible, and the list goes on! Manish Khatau, ran through a police blockade, injured a cop, and when caught said. “Jaanta hai main kaun hoon?” Now, he is sitting at home watching TV, daddy paid the cops, and the injured cop is probably just out of the ICU. No doubt he will be warned not to pursue the case.
We don’t care about the environment because….well we have to make money right? And that is what we respect more than anything! So cut down the trees, put plastic in the drains, poop on the streets and when the city floods, blame the government for jaundice, on there not being a ban against plastic bags, and on floods that fill basements.
Finally, servility…have you ever seen how we turn into mush in front of cops, foreigners and film stars? It is this very attitude that allowed us to be colonized in the first place. Whereas in places like China, when colonizers got too close to the government, bang comes the Boxer rebellion and out goes the invaders. The fact is that we need masters. One can safely say that without Gandhi there would be no independence; however, if there was a Gandhi and the rest of the congress party wasn’t then we would have still been independent. We need a God, an idol, a god-man; somebody has to lead the cattle. An interesting fall-out of practicing cow worship for so long!
Mediocrity, antagonism, irresponsibility, servility…..these gloomy words are the Indian Ethos. Unlike other countries that have done away with their social ills like witch hunts, slavery, institutionalized inequality of the sexes, and institutionalized racism, we have kept mediocrity, antagonism, irresponsibility, servility close to our heart.
We love to be mediocre. Observe a transaction in any rural market. A woman asks the price of veggies, the vendor quotes. The woman is flabbergasted and then goes on to criticize the state of the produce and their absolutely low quality. She will then proceed to use that information as a bargaining chip. Now if the produce is so damn bad, how come you are buying rotten tomatoes! So this is an ingrained training at the grassroots of how “mediocre” isn’t so bad as long as you buy it a good price.
How does this tie into the ethos? Look at every product created in this country. From a bar of soap to a car; none of these can be used in other countries as is. They have to be modified in some way or the other – even when we export ourselves sometimes. The question is why? Why do we like to live in posh areas – adjacent to slums, why do we like to drive our Hyundai Sonatas – over pot holed roads, why do we drink Scotch whisky – and then have a swig of hepatitis infected water? Is it because we are still getting “there”, because we have only been independent for 50 years, because we have a large population, or is it because we just don’t know any better? The effort involved in properly tarring over a road is nothing! Just have teams working 24 hour shifts and finish a road in 2 days flat! To make sure drinking water not contaminated with human waste, build a casing, eliminate hutments, shoot the bastards who shit in your glass of water! Enough of the excuses about all the problems we have. We have enough examples around us to show us the way to live properly. But you see no one here will do it because no one can see the problem. Hepatitis will come and go, there may be a few accidents but before elections the roads will be done up, and slums – well they make for good domestic labor! So, eventually the problem will go away but if comes back, we can always blame that most famous edict of cow worshippers – destiny – and we can’t change that even if we wanted to.
And what happens to the people who call for change? Antagonize them and say that they are anti-Indian and elitist. These are not the responses of vested interests but of the regular citizenry. When we developed nuclear weapons instead of creating power generation units, the world laughed while our population celebrated. All we wanted was to show the world that we were also grown up….Think about another scenario. Try and criticize an Indian on an aspect. What do you get? “Can you do any better? What? You think you are so great or what?” I say “No, you stupid shit, I am telling you how fucked you are. Now do something about it!”
Authorities are irresponsible, industries are irresponsible, people are irresponsible, and the list goes on! Manish Khatau, ran through a police blockade, injured a cop, and when caught said. “Jaanta hai main kaun hoon?” Now, he is sitting at home watching TV, daddy paid the cops, and the injured cop is probably just out of the ICU. No doubt he will be warned not to pursue the case.
We don’t care about the environment because….well we have to make money right? And that is what we respect more than anything! So cut down the trees, put plastic in the drains, poop on the streets and when the city floods, blame the government for jaundice, on there not being a ban against plastic bags, and on floods that fill basements.
Finally, servility…have you ever seen how we turn into mush in front of cops, foreigners and film stars? It is this very attitude that allowed us to be colonized in the first place. Whereas in places like China, when colonizers got too close to the government, bang comes the Boxer rebellion and out goes the invaders. The fact is that we need masters. One can safely say that without Gandhi there would be no independence; however, if there was a Gandhi and the rest of the congress party wasn’t then we would have still been independent. We need a God, an idol, a god-man; somebody has to lead the cattle. An interesting fall-out of practicing cow worship for so long!
# posted by ☭ Comrade Nambiar☭ @ 4:01 AM 
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