The Good Vs. the Fit

Why is it that there is no movie with a smarter villain, capable of outdoing the hero at every turn? What if the story of the hero ends in despair, while the villain lives to conquer more? Isn't that closer to the truth of what transpires, particularly in India? Isn't it true that most crimes go unpunished, including corruption and rape?

So, why do we keep faith in the "forces" of "good" that might one day, possibly turn things around for us? The simple answer is that we do that instead of accepting that we don't have the strength in ourselves to fight all that is wrong. Our weakness finds solace in the feeling that we are on the "good" side. This way, we don't have to feel ashamed of who we are, even while we should. We have every reason to be appalled and enraged by the decay of moral standards, but we are perfectly all right expecting God to do the work we should be doing.

The morality cloud, with its labyrinth of philosphical perspectives, hides many layers of grey, and provides a nebulous sanctuary to avoid having to face the clearest of questions - are we willing to fight against evil even if it means having to kill? If answering to the dark side in us is the only way to sustain a victory of good over evil, are we ready to go there? Are we really on the good side, when we don't take pains to fight the smallest of crimes?

Good guys can win, but only when they are fit to win. Being good has absolutely nothing to do with winning, except that it might serve to give the individual an assumed sense of righteousness, strength and positive energy. Being perceived as "good" can in India, save you from the perhaps more honest perception of being "unfit". It is just the way we have twisted ourselves to believe that good and fit for us to trust are the same thing.

On a treacherous road to a religious destination, it is more important for a driver to have skill rather than belief in God, but our pilgrims winding through those roads will be happier if the car gets a timely pooja over a timely oil change. This is just who we are - fiendishly superstitious, and outrageously stuck to the idea of the good and the godly over the fit and the practical!

Is God truly on the side of all that is good? Oooh, big question! Honestly, I don't think God cares one way or the other, and a lot of weak rascals who are scared to talk about the need to be strong simply claimed God on their side in the name of being "good". So, how does all powerful God put up with villainy, deceit, untruth, and millions of other vices? Maybe God is on the other side, enjoying the joke? Personally, I'd leave God out of this equation, and do what we need to do.

It is hard to be good, no doubt. It is hard to be kind hearted, righteous, soft spoken, honest and caring. But it would be a lot harder if everyone was angry, cruel, loud, demanding, dishonest and uncaring towards us! So, we come up with this construct called civil society that all but ignores the natural "survival of the fittest" instincts we are born with. We have put in place every system where the sharpest of us can be kept down through the dullest in the collective, through a devious mechanism of rules and regulations. The dullest have subscribed to the idea of goodness and Godliness, so there is no way we will give leadership to the sharpest because they don't care much to look like God! See, we don't want leadership that challenges us. We want leaders that we can trash fairly quickly, which means they can't be that much ahead of us.

Thankfully, we do have the beginnings of a meritocracy when it comes to education and employment, however much of a farce both of these turn out to be for the average Indian. But when it comes to our cricket players, nothing but the best will do. If everyone in the country performs as well as our cricket team, we'd be a phenomenally advanced country. We ignore this fact, and give birth to icons, who must be "good" guys beyond all else. Abhinav Bhindra can never be as much of a "good" guy as Sachin Tendulkar, because SRT is an iconic influence who keeps it simple for the masses, but the gold medalist Bhindra is a more complex kettle of fish, capable of a sophisticated thought process, and some of his most insightful comments have been brought under the anti-national microscope! There aren't that many Indians who truly see Bhindra as being bigger than Tendulkar, even though his achievement clearly suggests unquestionable mastery. Bhindra will never be the icon the "little master" is, simply because he doesn't care so much about the patriotic tag while Tendulkar lives by it, much like Kapil Dev.

No matter what brings out our best and worst reactions, our politicians see through it all! That is how they maintain themselves above all law - after all, what kind of weakling would challenge a politician and his muscle power? If we really cared that much, we'd become a mob, raid the homes of our corrupt politicians, beat the crap out of them, and lynch a few. The security cordons that our leaders maintain have very little to do with any real danger from terrorists, but everything to do with the people they should and are scared of - us!

If we could shed our notions of being good, and simply took it upon us to become unabashedly strong in our support of what is right, we would be able to weed out the useless chaff fairly quickly, and make this country unpretentious and strong, clear in its ideologies as in its direction. That's an India all our Gods would be proud of.