I was talking to a friend of mine a few minutes ago, asking him for updates on the ramifications of the events of 22nd March. He sounded enraged, or frusst as kgpians would say. Random people with a lot of random opinions and little knowledge or action, letting this opportunity for reform, though created by a terrible tragedy, go to waste were the cause of his frustration. I, at some point, remarked that no matter how clichéd as it may sound, population was a factor here. The more the number of people, the more the opinions, the more the varied interests and disagreements on ways forward, and hence little progress. He didn’t seem convinced by this, commenting that we need more intelligent people rather than fewer people. I, in turn, didn’t seem entirely convinced by this. Which led me to think.
Intelligence. The Web defines intelligence as “the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience”. As opposed to instinct. Involuntary reflex versus conditioned reflex. Let’s talk in jungle terms here. The resources kept constant, the greater the population, the more competition among the inhabitants to survive. Now let’s talk human. When we have more resources than we need minimally to survive, the instinct to survive can be superseded by the faculty of reason, as survival is guaranteed here. In psychological terms, the basic needs are fulfilled, hence we can afford to need the higher needs, so to say. Recognition in peer group, social status, making the world a better place, and so on. On the other hand, consider the person who has to fight for his survival at every stage. Who has limited resources and knows that they may run out at any moment. What would his priority, rather instinct, be: looking out for resources to survive or dream of world equality and fight for justice for all? True, fighting for universal equality etc. does more good to him in the long run, but to reach there, he first has to survive the short term! Which is why survival is always a short-term strategy. Which is why adrenaline is the fight-or-flight hormone, not the use-your-cerebrum-and-strategize hormone. Which is why a mob flared by emotions can never be ‘intelligent’ and resorts to violence and vandalism, as seen in recent events in the campus, rather than stop and think whether their actions will actually do any good to anyone. As humans, we have the unique faculty of planning long term, but in stressful situations we reconnect with the primitive part of our brains, the very same that helped us survive from day to day when we were better known as the hairless apes of the jungles some tens of thousands of years ago.
But I was speaking about population. Simplistically put, a population burden leads to poverty. It is a fact, look around the nations of the world if you want. Poverty changes peoples’ priorities. Also, it is easier for a large number of people to be divided into a large number of groups, many a times with conflicting interests, than for a smaller number of people. The more the divisions, the dirtier politics can be played by self-serving men. The dirtier the politics, the worse leaders we have. The worse the leadership, the worse the policies and government, leading to little or no progress. Leading to deepened gulf between the rich and poor. And so the vicious circle continues.
So, does that make me look like a doomsday theorist? To be honest, I do believe that a difference can be made. Is being made. Good journalism, responsible citizens, empowered youth, fair elections- all these play a huge role in any civilized nation. But nothing can replace the drive of a generation to change the system. Really, the word ‘system’ has become such a fad. There is never a system, only passive people who continually make the same choices as their predecessors.
I also wanted to comment on the events of the afternoon on 22nd March, just like hundreds of others have done via gtalk status messages and blogs. “Vandalism is never justified”, said my aforementioned friend. I share his views on this. What good did destruction of public property do anyone? Who do you think will end up paying for the damages: the director whose house we plummeted with stones or we, the taxpayers of the country? The only good it did was probably to jolt the administration; to send them a strong message that such abysmal infrastructure and facilities will not be tolerated like they have been for the past decades. Could it have been done by other non-violent means? To ask that is to shoot straight through a honeycomb while stark naked. Who won India independence: Gandhi or the extremists? Unanswerable. Violence doing good is a never-ending debate. But, yes, mindless violence can never lead to anything good.
As for people worried about inaction on the part of the students, well, if you look around, quite some action is being taken, though, of course, it remains to be seen how effective it will be in the coming times. For people dissatisfied with the ‘action being taken’, ask yourself what more you would like to be seen done and go about trying to make that happen. For people with so-called inspirational status messages ruing the politics of KGP, either stand up to those “politicians of kgp” and refuse to support them or quit complaining and comply. Or even just stand by in suspended animation. It’s the squeaks that are annoying, really. For people bulk emailing people saying ‘Junta, let us do something.. we must stand united.. blah blah’, please stop once to think whether your plan of action will actually do any good or just go down as a miserable stunt. For people who don’t feel involved at all.. well.. to you I can say nothing. To each his own.
