{"id":2131,"date":"2010-05-02T22:07:20","date_gmt":"2010-05-03T05:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2010-05-02T22:07:20","modified_gmt":"2010-05-03T05:07:20","slug":"the-new-moral-police-people-are-suffering-dont-enjoy-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2010\/rights-and-freedoms\/the-new-moral-police-people-are-suffering-dont-enjoy-yourself.html\/","title":{"rendered":"The new Moral Police: "People are suffering – so don't enjoy yourself!""},"content":{"rendered":"

We all know of the overt moral police. Loonies who try and impose their notions of sexuality and decency on the rest of us by force. But since they’re out in the open, we have something to fight against. And since their arguments are stupid, we can find the weapons to put them down.<\/p>\n

But there’s another moral police at work. They don’t get reported in the news media as the subject of headlines, but they’re there. And their biggest weapon is guilt. A blog post in the TOI<\/a> by Shobhan Saxena is one such example. Here’s a passage:<\/p>\n

\n

“While you were glued to your flat screen, with your eyeballs popping out every time the ball was hit for a six….bunch of them surrounded a Dalit house and set it on fire…she and her father were\u00a0engulfed and consumed by the fire”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And here’s another:<\/p>\n

“Even as you were glued to TV, watching the IPL drama…more than 100 people died in the cow-belt areas as mercury touched 43 degree mark”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This post has attracted almost 200 comments, almost all of them agreeing with the author’s premise that India is going to the dogs because people are more interested in the IPL instead of…what? Feeling miserable that 100 people died because it was hot? Feeling miserable that caste violence still takes place?<\/p>\n

Are we supposed to walk around with our heads hanging down and suffering due to events we have little or no power over? Do the people who watch the IPL cause the caste discrimination? Or cause the heat?<\/p>\n

No one is insensitive to the difficult realities of a large part of India’s population. But does that mean the life of others is any less real? I’m sitting in my air conditioned room, with a full stomach and having quite a good time. Am I supposed to scorn it all because many others don’t have what I do? Will that help them a jot? Of course not. With all the misery in the world, one would think that people must snatch whatever little pleasures come their way – otherwise what’s the use of it all?<\/p>\n

Trying to inject some sense into the debate, I left a comment on the post saying that not all is gloomy. A new UN report has shown that India and China have lifted 125 million people out of poverty<\/a> in the last decade alone. In India, slum prevalence has fallen from over 40% to 28% in the last two decades.<\/p>\n

I pointed out that we live in the most prosperous time in human history and in India, health indicators such as child mortality, life expectancy, purchasing power and those living below the poverty line have improved faster than any other country in the world barring China. Hans Rosling has presented<\/a> an awesome picture of these developments in his TED talks.<\/p>\n

Here was one response I got:<\/p>\n

“This is definitely INCORRECT stats – here in India we don’t even have true figures of population, true poverty figures, true records of life & death, and true crime rates. How can western countries produce accurate analysis about us? The fact is in front of our eyes – millions are starving, and there is NO ABSOLUTE DEVELOPMENT in past 60 years, only an ILLUSION.
\nIndia is near a total internal collapse if this situation is unchecked.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This response opened my eyes. It dawned on me that there are people in India and outside<\/a> who don’t want<\/em> to believe things are getting better. In spite of evidence to the contrary, they would like to be able to trash their country and praise the rest of the world. It’s like clutching an inferiority complex to their chests and refusing to let go.<\/p>\n

And such people want to take the rest of us along with them and feel guilty over things we cannot directly influence. I don’t watch the IPL myself, but I can imagine the number of jobs it creates. Graphics designers, clothing manufacturers, security men, cleaners, advertising agents, television crews, commentators, lawn specialists, equipment manufacturers, stadium owners and so many more I can’t possibly list them all. And for a harmless activity of throwing and hitting balls. It’s difficult for me to imagine that anyone<\/em> can possibly<\/em> find anything wrong with this.<\/p>\n

And yet they do. They want us to stop having fun and enjoying ourselves. Instead of realizing that in this world, you take the chance to snatch little pleasures yourself whenever you can since your life is short and limited, they try and guilt us into giving it all up and thinking of how horrible life can<\/em> be for others<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Such people are eagerly listened to and agreed with by those who want to jump onto the “bashing India” bandwagon. Instead of actually coming out with solutions, they dictate what we should or shouldn’t feel good about. This is merely a disguised moral police masquerading as social commentary. Pessimistic people who always find fault and don’t see the good around them. It’s time we took these people to task as well, and show them that their reasoning is as<\/em> loony as the traditional moral police who try and stuff their<\/em> morals down our throats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India is full of people who see only the worst in their country. They close their eyes to all the good that is happening and insist that the rest of us always feel guilty over what we can’t control<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rights-and-freedoms"],"yoast_head":"\nThe new Moral Police: "People are suffering - so don't enjoy yourself!"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"India is full of people who see only the worst in their country - closing their eyes to all the good. 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