We, the Self-Righteous!!!
Self-righteousness, most of us Indians believe is a laurel to be worn proudly around our (supposedly) moral necks. If there is one accomplishment that is unanimously common to most of our countrymen, it is this ‘holier than thou’ attitude. As far as I am concerned, nothing stinks more acutely than this attitude. The belief that any crime or any immoral act is the possession of outsiders and ‘my husband/wife, brother/sister, daughter/son’ cannot be touched by it. How can they be touched? After all, they are my family! And I raised them instilling the fear of God and morality and good manners in them.
Self-righteousness, most of us Indians believe is a laurel to be worn proudly around our (supposedly) moral necks. If there is one accomplishment that is unanimously common to most of our countrymen, it is this ‘holier than thou’ attitude. As far as I am concerned, nothing stinks more acutely than this attitude. The belief that any crime or any immoral act is the possession of outsiders and ‘my husband/wife, brother/sister, daughter/son’ cannot be touched by it. How can they be touched? After all, they are my family! And I raised them instilling the fear of God and morality and good manners in them.
Anyway, coming back to the subject – self-righteousness seems to be at its glorified best now with the vices of Rahul Mahajan coming out in the open. Apart from the media and our super efficient police who have been diligently thrashing Mahajan Jr with the sole aim to ensure that whatever sanity he still possesses is destroyed once and for all, even our moral fellow country men have been vociferously lashing out with lame inconsequential comments.
The focus of my discussion is not on whether what he did was right or wrong, I am not even getting into that, since more than it wronging any other person, any addiction is self-destructive and similarly Mahajan Jr’s addiction may not kill another person (like other famous films stars who kill roadside slum dwellers with their drunken driving binges and yet get out on bail, in style). And besides, I am least interested to pass any judgement on his or anyone else's personal doings.
I was shocked to read comments on various news sites that criticised the clothes he wore on the day of his father’s funeral, his eyes that resembled a drug addict’s and one even went to the extent of accusing him of being disinterested to perform the last rites of his father, on the basis that he was being guided/led by the priest to do it. C’mon, what sort of narrow minded people these are I wonder who can think so pettily? Grief is an intensely private affair, which cannot be conducted in a professional manner. Can one acquire enough practice or precision to mourn meticulously? And can such superficial elements such as clothes convey a person’s inner turmoil? I seriously wonder about the parameters we use to judge another human being’s emotions. Do we ever pause to think for a minute, ‘are we all flawlessly clean always?’ and ‘have we never erred?’
Self-righteousness appears to be super ceding all else, even the simple human emotion of warmth that is being mercilessly trampled in our excitement to brand another person as evil/immoral and the like.
The focus of my discussion is not on whether what he did was right or wrong, I am not even getting into that, since more than it wronging any other person, any addiction is self-destructive and similarly Mahajan Jr’s addiction may not kill another person (like other famous films stars who kill roadside slum dwellers with their drunken driving binges and yet get out on bail, in style). And besides, I am least interested to pass any judgement on his or anyone else's personal doings.
I was shocked to read comments on various news sites that criticised the clothes he wore on the day of his father’s funeral, his eyes that resembled a drug addict’s and one even went to the extent of accusing him of being disinterested to perform the last rites of his father, on the basis that he was being guided/led by the priest to do it. C’mon, what sort of narrow minded people these are I wonder who can think so pettily? Grief is an intensely private affair, which cannot be conducted in a professional manner. Can one acquire enough practice or precision to mourn meticulously? And can such superficial elements such as clothes convey a person’s inner turmoil? I seriously wonder about the parameters we use to judge another human being’s emotions. Do we ever pause to think for a minute, ‘are we all flawlessly clean always?’ and ‘have we never erred?’
Self-righteousness appears to be super ceding all else, even the simple human emotion of warmth that is being mercilessly trampled in our excitement to brand another person as evil/immoral and the like.
posted by Gayathri Varma @ 4:16 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
You have a point there, but I wouldn't call it self-righteousness, I would call it herd mentality!
When some one is down, the herd, till then, a mute spectator, suddenly becomes unanimous and violent in totally crushing him to the ground.
And they dont stop to think, thats the pity.
I seem to have missed the whole point in your ramblings! For average human beings (herd mentality you may call) the fact is like this. Possession or use of drugs is an offense and anyone who does it (a well know person like Mahajan or an unknown rich kid in Mumbai)must face trial. And you can not compare an offense with another one and say that is 'worse' offense. Every offense must be brought to justice. A film star was booked under TADA for possessing fire arms. He was torn apart by many media and people. Why? He did not kill anyone? But will you support him and brush it under the carpet saying it is a private affair? I disagree. And more than all that Mahajan has made a choice to be in politics and to 'serve' the country. He as long as is a 'public' figure must live a life fitting a public servant. If we start demanding that from all politicians and allow journalists to openly criticize anything otherwise, then only we have a future. And like in any matter there will be extremes of opinion (the comments by journalists on the way Mahajan was looking at funeral for example) and it is upto each one of us to process it.
Hi Anonymous,
Like you have rightly said, yes you missed the point completely. I was/am not at all supporting Rahul Mahajan's acts, which should be absolutely clear if you re-read what I have written. The point I am making is sometimes we tend to be sadly narrow-minded in our judgement of people. We tend to fleetingly judge people by their outward expressions or clothes. That's my point. Again, like you put it yourself, living in a democratic country, don't I have the right to ramble too?
I really enjoyed looking at your site, I found it very helpful indeed, keep up the good work.
»
Post a Comment
<< Home