The Good and The Strong

Hi folks! Happy New Year and all that. My first blog this year- 2015. Sorry to be a damp squib but this new year feels old and soiled already. To quote somebody(?): Same old, same old. The same religious disputes, the same problems, the same life. Sigh! The same humankind. Rabid, tearing each other to pieces, gunning each other down. Humor is also becoming costly. Might cost you your life. Ask the French. Anyway today I've a question for you. Have you noticed how we always prefix "poor" before addressing anyone we deem good? Why do you think that is? I had a lesson in Hindi once. It was titled" Bechara Bhala Aadmi" which literally translated into English means "poor good man." It is a lesson which I will never forget. The writer raised the same question I've asked you. Why does goodness only evoke our contempt and sympathy while evil become synonymous with strength? Why does the good man never get a pat on his back and even if he does he also secretly invites our sympathy because he's weak? You don't believe me? You think this is not the case? Tell me what would you call a person who has been through hell and back because one of a particular person and when is in a position to retaliate desists from doing so? What do you call him- a hero? Do you revere him? Do you admire him? Do you look up to him? No! You call him a fool! All you feel is contempt. You think he is weak. You don't think he is strong to resist retaliation. See? 

There are two categories which are mutually exclusive. The Good and the Strong. The good cannot be strong. They can be pitied. Never admired. The saint who turns the other cheek is a fool who has no place in our world; the man who has the power to strike a blow does. The saint maybe right but it does not matter. Because strength as we know and revere it has nothing to do rightness. Intellectually we might admit that it takes far more strength to stand up and do the right thing but emotionally and secretly we admire the strength of the man who strikes back. Our heroes are not the persons who turn the other cheek; they are people who are not afraid to do the wrong thing to right a wrong. Our perception of strength then comes not from forbearance and tolerance but a show of power. We may hold up Gandhiji to the world and to ourselves as an example but none of us are prepared to go down the same path. Tolerance is only a word in the dictionary; ahimsa the language of the fools. Strength is synonymous with power and always will be. Sad but true. The right and the good have no place in our psyches. For therein lies another dispute. Who decides what is right and who is good? Yes. It takes so little start a dispute doesn't it? This is what I think. What do You think?