The difference between 'them' and 'us'
What's the basic difference between people in India and other Western countries?
There may be lots of differences; cultural, political, et all. But there's one striking point in which we score over them and yet another striking point in which they score over us.
First, our praise. We score over them in individual morality. Just think of this: even the most corrupt politician in India is a good husband. He doesn't mind putting national goals at stake, but he'll try and put his son in a respectable position. Even the average railway clerk takes money as bribe, only for improving the financial status of his family. The national morality is gone; yet when it comes to individual morality, we score.
Second, their praise. They score over us in national morality. Just think of this: Bill Clinton was a great administrator, possessed excellent leadership and great organisational skills. He served his country with distinction. But as an individual, he failed. Got involved in lots of other stuff, the best of the them being the Money-akka Lewinsky affair.
We gotto learn national morality from them. And, they gotto learn individual morality from us. If it happens, there will be no more "we" and "they" - it'll be "us".
There may be lots of differences; cultural, political, et all. But there's one striking point in which we score over them and yet another striking point in which they score over us.
First, our praise. We score over them in individual morality. Just think of this: even the most corrupt politician in India is a good husband. He doesn't mind putting national goals at stake, but he'll try and put his son in a respectable position. Even the average railway clerk takes money as bribe, only for improving the financial status of his family. The national morality is gone; yet when it comes to individual morality, we score.
Second, their praise. They score over us in national morality. Just think of this: Bill Clinton was a great administrator, possessed excellent leadership and great organisational skills. He served his country with distinction. But as an individual, he failed. Got involved in lots of other stuff, the best of the them being the Money-akka Lewinsky affair.
We gotto learn national morality from them. And, they gotto learn individual morality from us. If it happens, there will be no more "we" and "they" - it'll be "us".
posted by Rim at 7:05 PM
3 Comments:
well Bill was caught, I am not defending him, but individual moralities? You are trying to globalize a small perspective..There are more politicians in India who have more than one 'money-akka', the media is a little afraid to reveal it. If something is hidden, it does not mean its not there. "Us and them" reminds me of a Pink Floyd song. Anyway there are scandals with JFK too, but they were not revealed that much(considering the backwardness of the media at that time). The Us and them gap is a gap of time, being a journolist you will know about the threats you will get in India if you are to write such a story about a political leader. I have been with "us" and "them", when it comes to politics its always dirty anywhere. India is good in a lot of national morality policies compared to 'US' and US also has lots of individuals whose morality is far better than some people in India. The US National morality fails in 'outsourcing' and the 'gulf war'. The Indian individual morality fails in "moral policing" 'discussion of pre-marital sex is considered crime'. If you are looking in terms of patriotism as national morality then the Indian soldiers are "die hard fanatic patriots when it comes to their country' there are a lot of soldiers in US who are 'unwillingly in the army in the gulf'...so we have to learn both national and individual morality from each other, I think you have overlooked this fact. I think I have been reading too much of your blog and commenting in everyone of them...hope you dont mind the positive criticism..:)....
Individually people here are more moral and there are very few incidents of "race hates" in US but come to India there is huge series of communal riots on religion, caste, sex etc...these are reflections of individual morality in a national level. Just one person does not prove an exmaple too..Bush scores real bad when it comes to National morality ( he is more interested in his oil), individually he might be a good husband and father, but as a national leader he is a failure. Ok my comment seems to be exceeding you post itself...so stopping here :)..
Navin:
Good argument u've made da. And no probs in positive criticism da...no probs @ all. I wanna b a gr8 journo and I'm just 20 yrs old; so gotto learn a lot. All this helps.
Well, politicians here do have 'money-akka's but as i said, they take care of their family even though it hurts national pride.
Hi there...
Read this entry the other day and have been thinking about it all weekend. Not going to pick apart the details, but here's my liberal arts, post-everything perspective:
I would be careful in imagining that there are universal morals. If you are going to make this argument, you need to be quite specific about what you mean by "individual" and "national" morality. What constitutes a nation? How are individuals defined? Is an individual conceived the same way in the "West" (I speak, of course, from a strictly American perspective) and in India, or in Japan, or anywhere else? Why do you see India in opposition only to the West? What about morality in Africa or Central Asia or Eastern Europe? Where do we draw the boundaries? How do we circumscribe such ineffable concepts?
Granted, along this line one gets caught in a bit of a jam -- if you deconstruct everything, break it into little bits, nothing is left. Theory becomes inconsequential. I don't know that there is a happy medium, and I don't know which is more useful -- generalizations or highly specific, situated knowledge.
But these are really important issues to keep in mind. Try to see from as many perspectives as possible. Do you find me lacking individual morality, because I am an American? Have I done anything to suggest that I don't try and live my life with dignity and ethics? And do you find George W. Bush to be a figurehead of so-called national morality, when New Orleans flooded and he remained on vacation?
As a journalist, there are always going to be more questions than answers.
TF
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