Sometimes we fail to realize that we have been conned; but when we do, after the initial dismay, we are on guard not to be fooled again. But what if we stubbornly refuse to do the needful and willfully get fooled again and again?
Poets through the ages have a name for this : chivalry. But for any worldly wise person that would be mulish foolishness.
Sometimes, we wake up to a form of en mass fooling, and we are in it all together, enjoying the damn thing. I am sure when you see it described here, you will also most likely agree to my submission. The trouble is this: we blind ourselves to the fact that this is a rip off, and, as is said in Hindi or Gujarati, slap oneself on the face and keep the cheek red (let the show of every thing being fine go on).
Now consider the following statements and see for yourself:
What is the value of the smile on your child's face? Priceless? What is the value of that child's intelligence? Based on his marks of-course, isn't it? Is that any measure at all?
What is the value of your spouse's beauty, and what is the market value of the same? How do you quantify your spouse's beauty? By vital stats, by weight, by color of the eye, by height, how? If your spouse's eyes are blue and mine's are brown, whose spouse is more beautiful, yours or mine?
If you are on your way to purchasing a fourth country-side villa, and I am satisfied with a one bedroom- hall- kitchen-flat, who is more valuable, you or me? Why?
If both of us can make the next person smile, whose effort is better?
Can you imagine putting a value on tomorrow's sunrise, or, putting a comparative value on the sunrise where you live and the sunrise where your friend lives across the Atlantic?
But then, where is the rip-off in all this?
It is this: those qualities or things or attributes that need never have been quantified have undergone quantification. And then this quantification is used, like in a game of Monopoly, to elevate a person or a place in comparison to others. There are two levels of deception here: one you are hardly made aware that a quantification that need never have been there is being done, and, secondly, now that it is done, you are needlessly made to feel elevated or depressed in comparision to someone else. You are not participating in the race and yet you are given a score, a rank, a position! Would you accept this, if in a game where you are a happy spectator, you are ranked as a player- against your wishes- for a game someone else is playing? If not, why do we continue to do so in our lives, made un-real by quantification.
How is a B.A in History any better or worse than MS in Aerospace Engineering? How did this get rated? In the end all of us are business-men/women who somehow got into the habit of putting a price on everything and perhaps ended up not knowing the value of almost anything. This is where the actual rat-race is. Are we willing to be human again in this sense?
I am tempted to suggest a solution to this, but I am even more (see, quantification is now hard-wired in all of us) eager to see what readers think of this- and perhaps compare (!) whose suggestion is better- just joking. Your views are most welcome.
Poets through the ages have a name for this : chivalry. But for any worldly wise person that would be mulish foolishness.
Sometimes, we wake up to a form of en mass fooling, and we are in it all together, enjoying the damn thing. I am sure when you see it described here, you will also most likely agree to my submission. The trouble is this: we blind ourselves to the fact that this is a rip off, and, as is said in Hindi or Gujarati, slap oneself on the face and keep the cheek red (let the show of every thing being fine go on).
Now consider the following statements and see for yourself:
What is the value of the smile on your child's face? Priceless? What is the value of that child's intelligence? Based on his marks of-course, isn't it? Is that any measure at all?
What is the value of your spouse's beauty, and what is the market value of the same? How do you quantify your spouse's beauty? By vital stats, by weight, by color of the eye, by height, how? If your spouse's eyes are blue and mine's are brown, whose spouse is more beautiful, yours or mine?
If you are on your way to purchasing a fourth country-side villa, and I am satisfied with a one bedroom- hall- kitchen-flat, who is more valuable, you or me? Why?
If both of us can make the next person smile, whose effort is better?
Can you imagine putting a value on tomorrow's sunrise, or, putting a comparative value on the sunrise where you live and the sunrise where your friend lives across the Atlantic?
But then, where is the rip-off in all this?
It is this: those qualities or things or attributes that need never have been quantified have undergone quantification. And then this quantification is used, like in a game of Monopoly, to elevate a person or a place in comparison to others. There are two levels of deception here: one you are hardly made aware that a quantification that need never have been there is being done, and, secondly, now that it is done, you are needlessly made to feel elevated or depressed in comparision to someone else. You are not participating in the race and yet you are given a score, a rank, a position! Would you accept this, if in a game where you are a happy spectator, you are ranked as a player- against your wishes- for a game someone else is playing? If not, why do we continue to do so in our lives, made un-real by quantification.
How is a B.A in History any better or worse than MS in Aerospace Engineering? How did this get rated? In the end all of us are business-men/women who somehow got into the habit of putting a price on everything and perhaps ended up not knowing the value of almost anything. This is where the actual rat-race is. Are we willing to be human again in this sense?
I am tempted to suggest a solution to this, but I am even more (see, quantification is now hard-wired in all of us) eager to see what readers think of this- and perhaps compare (!) whose suggestion is better- just joking. Your views are most welcome.
2 comments:
Dear Tusharbhai,
I enjoy reading your blogs and I frequently visit this site.
The 'deceptive Rip-off' is an excellent article. The questions you have raised are very good. (It is common to say 'That's a very good question' when one doesn't know the answer!!, isn't it? :)
I cannot think of a solution. Instead, I can think of a possible reason. Probably, the reason for our tendency to (willingly or unwillingly) quantify everything has to have something to do with the way we perceive ourselves (or wish to be perceived by others) in certain manner/form. Strangely enough, this manner or form keeps changing, doesn't it? May be, this is the very cause for the existence of the ever changing demands(to and from ourseleves) terminating in the deceptive rip-off.
I would like to know the solution that you were tempted to give, though.
Regards,
Harshal
Dear Harshal,
Many thanks for your kind words.
It is indeed difficult to get free from this tendency though you may realize that you are in the trap.
As a starting point, it would perhaps help to halt every once in a while and take a note of what one is doing and why. If what one is doing, if the way one is living is not conducive to inner peace and a sense of healthy fulfilment, then perhaps one needs to seriously review what one is doing and why.
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