A. Srinivas Rao
Icarus in Greek mythology was given a pair of wings by his father the first great engineer Daedalus in attempting to simulate flight. Daedalus also put on his pair of wings and they began with level flight off a cliff on the Agean coast. Daeldalus however cautioned Icarus not to soar too high as his wings were designed only for a limited range. Iracus despite the warning tries to reach for the sun which melts his waxen wings and hurtles to his death. Our abilities and our equipment enable us to perform some of our tasks very well and meet their limitations beyond a certain point. Often success in one field or enterprise is no guarantee of a midas touch elsewhere.
Overreach was a term used when a horse struck his front hoof with the back hoof. It also means trying to defeat one’s own self by trying to do too much. Now you have all kinds of overreaches these days. This is the flavour of the season. Overreach is a kind of boundary bashing (across functions, domains, areas, geographies, disciplines) and claiming competence in another person’s area of work and then actually believing what you say. Earlier in organisations, bosses used to overreach the levels to pull up people and get work done; just that the guys who were responsible stopped after a while as they believed that they had no authority. Likewise judicial over reach, the civil society overreach etc. It is the subversion of institutional mechanisms, not by intelligent and participative dialogue to examine the problem and work through a solution. It is when we believe that we can reform the system from the ‘outside’ and not respect constitutional mechanisms and cavalierly ignore all caution. It is what the NAC does, it is what the so-called civil society does, and it is what Ramdevji does. But then this is also the age of impatience where we think that to do anything we must have “dus ka dum”.
It means someone is tempted to set right things not in ones territory but in someone else’s. Just see the array of the same. One guy who teaches yoga now wants to teach the government a lesson, some civil society now wants to teach the government another lesson when it was preventing the first. A college which was supposed to teach students now wants to do social work. A news channel was distributing solar lamps as a green idea. Though debatable it wasn’t the Navyseals who were doing overreach into Geronimo’s compound in that strange sounding city Abbotabad; it was the US using ‘overreach’ deep into Pakistan’s soul or soil. This propensity do something other than what one is expected to do is called overreach. It is quite a phenomenon in India. We seem to excel in it. It makes everyone self righteous and has a propensity to take quick offence at any perceived injury to fragile self identities. It gives everyone the joy of doing something for the country at cross purposes, even though it is in furtherance of ones own self.
What is strange is that they never join forces. Like the civil society is disgusted of the saffron colour and thus will not deal with anyone wearing it (unless he is called Agnivesh). Each one is trying one-upmanship over another. My commitment is pure not the other guy’s which is tainted by self seeking. Claiming primacy e.g. I thought of the idea first and my organisation must be on the forefront, not others. We all believe that we are all doing something commendable; the only catch is that it was not what we were supposed to be doing. We are contributing to the nation building process and are selfless. Not just that I am selfless, but the other guy who is close is suspect. We have like George W Bush all the best ideas and either you are with us or against us. This pursuit of narcissism in the name of service ails our age. Social responsibility is what we do in our spare time after rendering shoddy output in our working hours.
The first social responsibility is doing our work with competence commitment, honesty and dignity. Imagine if every babu came to his office in time, did his work efficiently, and honestly, every teacher taught her students well. Every policeman upheld the law with impartiality and compassion. Every manager performed his tasks effectively. Every politician governed with good judgement and foresight. That is what the Good Society is all about. It is when our personal work and lives are shoddy or tawdry that we seek meaning outside in activity that legitimates our selves and compensates our lack. When we walk on the road and don’t think that a stone that is lying around must be picked up lest it hurts someone, then it betrays our ideals. It is in the small things that character is revealed not in the grand and the glorious. We wish to save the whales, the planet, the rainforests, the vanishing tribes, the duck billed platypus, the mangroves but it is somehow extra curricular. It is volunteerism when we think that meaning lies out there and not in our here and now. It gives us a new sense of value and worth and self esteem (if we take ourselves so seriously).
“Speak of non violence only when you are confident of bringing a thousand angels to easy victory”, thundered one man in saffron 'Vivekananda' a hundred years ago. Else it is the virtue of the coward, the lazy and the inept. Our causes are suspect when we have poor quality in our work, petty personal lives; shallow understanding of our society and polity, our virtue manifest only if the press is around. It is not that there is no genuine scope for change and reform, but we participate in the narcissism of a spectacle. The candle light vigils, the Facebook contagion, the twitter/sms solidarity also reveal an inability to work hard with real details and understand the process. Merely venting outrage and frustration over the nature of our economy and polity is shabby sympathy. Then we have ‘five star’ protests and huge pandals; flying in and flying out of problem stricken places with our agenda substituting for an understanding and our recommendations taking the place of action. We behave like dull but suave consultants hoping that our briefcases and their laptops are like Alladin’s Magic Lamp. Reforming and bringing change is a tediously long process and not for the faint hearted nor the impatient nor the unimaginative. It is not done through blackmail, it is not done overnight, it is messy, it is dull and boring and terribly long and arduous and often a solitary trudge that begins long before the press flashes its lights and ends long after they have fled. Real reform begins with the self (I am not being solipsistic). Without insight into ones own self how can we have clarity about the ‘other’ (whoever they be who needs saving)? After all narcissism is mistaking our causes and their objects as extensions of ones self.
Icarus in Greek mythology was given a pair of wings by his father the first great engineer Daedalus in attempting to simulate flight. Daedalus also put on his pair of wings and they began with level flight off a cliff on the Agean coast. Daeldalus however cautioned Icarus not to soar too high as his wings were designed only for a limited range. Iracus despite the warning tries to reach for the sun which melts his waxen wings and hurtles to his death. Our abilities and our equipment enable us to perform some of our tasks very well and meet their limitations beyond a certain point. Often success in one field or enterprise is no guarantee of a midas touch elsewhere.
Overreach was a term used when a horse struck his front hoof with the back hoof. It also means trying to defeat one’s own self by trying to do too much. Now you have all kinds of overreaches these days. This is the flavour of the season. Overreach is a kind of boundary bashing (across functions, domains, areas, geographies, disciplines) and claiming competence in another person’s area of work and then actually believing what you say. Earlier in organisations, bosses used to overreach the levels to pull up people and get work done; just that the guys who were responsible stopped after a while as they believed that they had no authority. Likewise judicial over reach, the civil society overreach etc. It is the subversion of institutional mechanisms, not by intelligent and participative dialogue to examine the problem and work through a solution. It is when we believe that we can reform the system from the ‘outside’ and not respect constitutional mechanisms and cavalierly ignore all caution. It is what the NAC does, it is what the so-called civil society does, and it is what Ramdevji does. But then this is also the age of impatience where we think that to do anything we must have “dus ka dum”.
It means someone is tempted to set right things not in ones territory but in someone else’s. Just see the array of the same. One guy who teaches yoga now wants to teach the government a lesson, some civil society now wants to teach the government another lesson when it was preventing the first. A college which was supposed to teach students now wants to do social work. A news channel was distributing solar lamps as a green idea. Though debatable it wasn’t the Navyseals who were doing overreach into Geronimo’s compound in that strange sounding city Abbotabad; it was the US using ‘overreach’ deep into Pakistan’s soul or soil. This propensity do something other than what one is expected to do is called overreach. It is quite a phenomenon in India. We seem to excel in it. It makes everyone self righteous and has a propensity to take quick offence at any perceived injury to fragile self identities. It gives everyone the joy of doing something for the country at cross purposes, even though it is in furtherance of ones own self.
What is strange is that they never join forces. Like the civil society is disgusted of the saffron colour and thus will not deal with anyone wearing it (unless he is called Agnivesh). Each one is trying one-upmanship over another. My commitment is pure not the other guy’s which is tainted by self seeking. Claiming primacy e.g. I thought of the idea first and my organisation must be on the forefront, not others. We all believe that we are all doing something commendable; the only catch is that it was not what we were supposed to be doing. We are contributing to the nation building process and are selfless. Not just that I am selfless, but the other guy who is close is suspect. We have like George W Bush all the best ideas and either you are with us or against us. This pursuit of narcissism in the name of service ails our age. Social responsibility is what we do in our spare time after rendering shoddy output in our working hours.
The first social responsibility is doing our work with competence commitment, honesty and dignity. Imagine if every babu came to his office in time, did his work efficiently, and honestly, every teacher taught her students well. Every policeman upheld the law with impartiality and compassion. Every manager performed his tasks effectively. Every politician governed with good judgement and foresight. That is what the Good Society is all about. It is when our personal work and lives are shoddy or tawdry that we seek meaning outside in activity that legitimates our selves and compensates our lack. When we walk on the road and don’t think that a stone that is lying around must be picked up lest it hurts someone, then it betrays our ideals. It is in the small things that character is revealed not in the grand and the glorious. We wish to save the whales, the planet, the rainforests, the vanishing tribes, the duck billed platypus, the mangroves but it is somehow extra curricular. It is volunteerism when we think that meaning lies out there and not in our here and now. It gives us a new sense of value and worth and self esteem (if we take ourselves so seriously).
“Speak of non violence only when you are confident of bringing a thousand angels to easy victory”, thundered one man in saffron 'Vivekananda' a hundred years ago. Else it is the virtue of the coward, the lazy and the inept. Our causes are suspect when we have poor quality in our work, petty personal lives; shallow understanding of our society and polity, our virtue manifest only if the press is around. It is not that there is no genuine scope for change and reform, but we participate in the narcissism of a spectacle. The candle light vigils, the Facebook contagion, the twitter/sms solidarity also reveal an inability to work hard with real details and understand the process. Merely venting outrage and frustration over the nature of our economy and polity is shabby sympathy. Then we have ‘five star’ protests and huge pandals; flying in and flying out of problem stricken places with our agenda substituting for an understanding and our recommendations taking the place of action. We behave like dull but suave consultants hoping that our briefcases and their laptops are like Alladin’s Magic Lamp. Reforming and bringing change is a tediously long process and not for the faint hearted nor the impatient nor the unimaginative. It is not done through blackmail, it is not done overnight, it is messy, it is dull and boring and terribly long and arduous and often a solitary trudge that begins long before the press flashes its lights and ends long after they have fled. Real reform begins with the self (I am not being solipsistic). Without insight into ones own self how can we have clarity about the ‘other’ (whoever they be who needs saving)? After all narcissism is mistaking our causes and their objects as extensions of ones self.
hello Sir! I did not notice that this is your own Blog!! Great.. will be coming back again.. and go through..
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