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| Issue 07 | February 2006 | ||||
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SUCH stories are becoming common and indicate the type of stresses the families and individuals are undergoing, as the world is turning increasingly self-centered and materialistic. People listen to such stories, entertain themselves and go about their work. They know that it is risky, distracting and dangerous to take sides in any conflict. And in a society where almost everyone seems to be breaking some law, rule or convention there is also a fear that taking a morally upright position could have a rebounding effect There are elaborate rules, guidelines, laws and conventions for civil behavior but generally these are rampantly broken. Often, the stressed individuals are found to take the law in their hands. Anger management is an art, which is not taught in any university. Threatening behavior on part of even highly educated individuals has become common. Threatening behavior includes any statement or conduct that may cause a reasonable person to believe that his/her personal safety is at risk or that property is at risk of damage, destruction or loss. In the rapidly transforming society, humans are getting estranged from fellow humans. Friends turn foes overnight. Gentlemen turn into villains at a drop of a hat. Fights take place in families over division of the property or assets and the estranged members belatedly realize that they have passed on the undesirable legacy of the hatred to their innocent children. Happiness is sacrificed on the altar of greed. A stressful society finds it hard to get a leadership immune to stress. It is the law of survival of the fittest, which is in action. This is a story based on a recent incident from a highly educated neighborhood in urbanized India. It would be narrated here as a flashback using crude stylistic imitation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. There are two characters the Dostoevskian anti-hero and his neighbor. From behind his door he confirmed that his neighbor’s wife had left for her work in the morning. That was the time he was waiting for the grapevine says that he might have drawn some inspiration from Fyodor Dostoevsky after pondering the whole night, over the steps to be taken to teach his neighbor a good lesson. The choice of moment and the speed of action were important. There would not be any witnesses. It would have rather complicated the matter. He went to the neighbor’s door, pushed the door bell button. Then retreated a few steps. He had enough time to mentally rehearse these steps. The unsuspecting neighbor opened the door while rubbing his eyes. That was the moment to deal the blow. He raised his voice and said - "You are not going to make any inquiries with the people who visit my house." He waited for a few seconds to verify the impact of these words. Then he contorted his face, clenched his fist, made a threatening gesture and said -"You would have to face serious consequences". He was happy that the words, which he had chosen, and the dramatic emphasis which he had added had the pre-planned effect on his neighbor. Before the shocked neighbor could respond, he rushed back to his house as planned and banged the door shut. He had successfully accomplished his mission for that morning. That would give him a hormonal high, which would have probably lasted the whole week. Later he would be free to don the mantle of an intellectual calmly and go about his work as if nothing has happened. After all, he knew very well that he had taken extreme care to issue the threat without anyone hearing it in the indifferent neighborhood. He recalled that his neighbor was agitated over a matter, which he considered relatively unimportant. He had visitors every Sunday who would park their bicycles next to his neighbor’s vehicle in a narrow parking space. Initially his neighbor had not noticed it. But on a particular Sunday, the neighbor heard a crashing sound as if metal had banged on metal and had then come out to inspect the cause. The neighbor had then noticed that the paddle of one of the parked bicycles had put a dent on the front door of the vehicle besides scrapping the car paint in a few places. The neighbor’s wife also came out to inspect the damage. She was shocked and unhappy because she had taken utmost care to maintain the vehicle for four years. She had then rung his doorbell, had informed him about the damage and had requested him to warn the bicycle owners. A few days later in his absence the neighbor had spotted the same bicycle owners outside his house and had questioned them about the damage. Besides, the neighbor had also taken the liberty to ask them about purpose of their visits every Sunday. He was infuriated because he thought that it was improper on part of his neighbor to question them about the damage or the purported visits. He was not used to such inquiries. He contemplated his line of action. If he were to react immediately the neighbor and his wife would have closed the front and defended themselves. If he were to confront the wife then that would have complicated the matter-he knew it almost intuitively So the only way open was to catch the neighbor unaware and give him his special shock and awe treatment. He waited till Monday morning. From behind his door he confirmed that his neighbor’s wife had left for her work. The flashback needs to end here and it raises several simple questions which would be excellent and thought provoking assignment ideas for the students of Indian or western philosophy, literature, logic, ethics, human ethology, social psychology, or criminal jurisprudence de pending on the morale of the incident. A threat causes verbal injury. In the incident narrated above what was accomplished through the verbal injury? Was issuing a threat the only way to ventilate the anger and displeasure? It is said that words are more injurious than the weapons. But the stressed society, stressed professional lifestyles, the rush to make some extra easy money, the indifference about the consequences of one's impulsive actions on others-all these and many more factors are leading to avoidable conflicts. Was the threat issued out of some unknown fear? Are such threats going to become a part of the new cosmopolitan civil society in India? Basically the question is not about the emergence of threatening behavior but its' absolute tolerance by the stressed society. We need real heroes who make sacrifices for the society and not Dostoevskian anti-heroes indulging in threatening behavior-a rising social evil.
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