Intellectual Weak Sauce

Not infrequently, we run into arguments that can be stretched to a point where persistence / loudness decides the winner, not the rationale.

As a country with both claims as well as aspirations of greatness, it is important for us to be able to spot weak logic and overcome it to focus on results. Here is how I spot them.

• Recommendations of inaction or delay. e.g., 
• "let's wait for some more time, I'm sure X is doing something about it", 
• "this is not the solution, let's find an alternative", 
• "we need all the facts, let's get them first", etc.

The dead giveaway here is that a timeline or specific replacement action is missing. Often, the action is also someone else's responsibility (who is not present there) or better still, a collective responsibility!

• Role-playing someone else (esp., the judiciary or police)
• "we need proof.. where is the proof?"

• Shifting the responsibility
• "Let someone take the lead, I'll support",
• "It's not our job, let's mind our business", etc.

• And finally, the cost of action / benefit of action pseudo arguments
• "We can't change everybody" (huge effort / impossible),
• "This whole system is corrupt, there is no use of even trying", etc.

These actually sound reasonable since they are valid in certain other circumstances. They assuage any guilt feelings and avoid immediate unpleasantness. This is why they're so difficult to spot as well as overcome.

This is a follow up on what I wrote a few days ago - on the wrong kind of tolerance.

The post evoked a lot of strong responses. Mostly along the above lines.

The wrong kind of tolerance

This is about the recent violence we've witnessed in the context of the Jat Reservation Agitation in Haryana. Clearly a lot of the vandalism, looting, arson and raping was done by people and for reasons that have nothing to do with Reservation for Jats.

Who are these perpetrators?

Are they not someone's sons, brothers, fathers, husbands and neighbors? If they are, then how are they able to get away with such behavior? When they return to their homes and villages, doesn't anyone know or censure what they did?

That brings me to the topic of silence. Of tolerance of the wrong kind. 

For far too long, we've tolerated and rationalized bad behaviors from people too close to us. It's only youthful energy. How could we complain about our neighbors or their sons when the rest of their family are close friends? What if they come and attack our own family? We should mind our own business!

The reasons are many. As we shake (or nod) our heads indulgently, these perpetrators grew up among us, continued in their evil ways and have now come to shape the brand of Haryana.

This is a deep-rooted malaise.

It cannot be rooted out by mere police action, even though such action is required as a corrective measure. If we are to prevent recurrence at some time, we need to re-examine our values and systems that have shaped the lives of the perpetrators as well as entire societies that have allowed them to go this far. We need to make fundamental adjustments in aspects of our social fabric. We need to learn to consciously and actively discourage anti-social behaviors.

Meanwhile, there is a price to pay. Everybody pays it, not just the perpetrators. This is the price of the wrong kind of tolerance/indulgence. The price of being silent - either out of fear or indulgence.

Some people will move out. Some will remember their scars for life and let those scars influence their decisions. There is a "Global Investor's Summit - for Haryana" being planned in a few weeks. How many investors will reconsider their plans for Haryana?

Haryana will pay for what its sons did. 

It is unfortunate that ordinary Haryanvis should pay, but it is the only long-term sustainable way to mobilize the society to apply long-term corrections.

Haryana has been close to my heart for many reasons. Yet, today I have decided to withdraw from all things Haryana. It is likely to hurt me more than Haryana - at least in the short term. But I'm not going to stand by and watch silently. I'm not going to rationalize away the sufferings of the victims - they're not my relatives or friends; but they're fellow human beings. I'm not an activist, but I'm not going to let that stop me from expressing my distress in a material way.

Will you join me? Will you express your intolerance of this in a material way (not mere words)?

How many more shops should be looted and burned before you will be moved to act? How many more daughters and sisters should be raped before your heart will move sufficiently for you to express more than mere moral support?