It is said that you can know a lot about a country by looking at the way its people act collectively in public. Indians as far as I can see, are very good as individuals but when it comes to collective action they lose all their goodness. In fact they become totally indifferent and apathetic to each other.
Try getting a group of ten or twelve people together to act for their own collective needs and you will know what I am saying. I am talking about group action required by residents of an apartment complex, housing colony, parents of a school, citizens of a country. Anything as simple as getting a garbage bin on your road, getting a new bulb on the street lamp is quite a task as most residents would show complete apathy for such action. Just when you want to bring people together, they would act in the most selfish and egoistical manner. They would suddenly become too busy with their own personal problems.
I recently experienced this while trying to do something for my own small community. It was just about trimming some tree branches around our area. It was not an emergency but it was just a preventive action taken in anticipation of the rainy season. And yet by the time the deed was done, individual egos were coming out as ever. People were simply not interested as it did not involve their personal property or space. The collective good or the long term benefit was just ignored.
I think what Indians need something more than just good politicians or good systems. We desperately need something called "enlightened self-interest".The origin of this phrase goes back to 1835. It was used by a French political thinker, Alexis de Tocquiville. What is interesting is that he used this phrase while describing the democracy in America back in 1835. He explained that it was the heightened self -regard that Americans had for themselves that made them act in a mutually beneficial manner. In other words people evaluated their own gains from the collective action. The question of ego does not come into the picture.
Each time we are faced with a traffic jam, a strike or a petrol crisis we just need to have some 'enlightened self-interest' to patiently solve the problem. There is no point in blocking others or making others' lives difficult as it indirectly affects the quality of our own lives. This is the more philosophical way of looking at things too.
Try getting a group of ten or twelve people together to act for their own collective needs and you will know what I am saying. I am talking about group action required by residents of an apartment complex, housing colony, parents of a school, citizens of a country. Anything as simple as getting a garbage bin on your road, getting a new bulb on the street lamp is quite a task as most residents would show complete apathy for such action. Just when you want to bring people together, they would act in the most selfish and egoistical manner. They would suddenly become too busy with their own personal problems.
I recently experienced this while trying to do something for my own small community. It was just about trimming some tree branches around our area. It was not an emergency but it was just a preventive action taken in anticipation of the rainy season. And yet by the time the deed was done, individual egos were coming out as ever. People were simply not interested as it did not involve their personal property or space. The collective good or the long term benefit was just ignored.
I think what Indians need something more than just good politicians or good systems. We desperately need something called "enlightened self-interest".The origin of this phrase goes back to 1835. It was used by a French political thinker, Alexis de Tocquiville. What is interesting is that he used this phrase while describing the democracy in America back in 1835. He explained that it was the heightened self -regard that Americans had for themselves that made them act in a mutually beneficial manner. In other words people evaluated their own gains from the collective action. The question of ego does not come into the picture.
Each time we are faced with a traffic jam, a strike or a petrol crisis we just need to have some 'enlightened self-interest' to patiently solve the problem. There is no point in blocking others or making others' lives difficult as it indirectly affects the quality of our own lives. This is the more philosophical way of looking at things too.
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