I have been 'watching' cricket these days like all the cricket-crazy Indians, and there are a few things that strike me- can't resist putting them down:
1) Fabulous tournament-the CB series; some great cricket and a 'David' team beating the Goliaths of cricket at their home despite the habitual sledging and the like. Kudos to Dhoni for spearheading from the front, for placing trust on the freshers and for also being a thinking captain- tough call, for example, to continue with Sreesanth at the end and to give the ball to Praveen at all the right times. Moral victory for Harbhajan- humbling Hayden and Symonds on the cricket field instead of in the 'ring' in both the final matches. Tendulkar's great hits in the two matches when India needed them the most (for a change!). I would like to check though, if Tendul (without taking away any credit from his undisputed greatness) currently holds the record for the greatest 'nineties jinx' in the world- looks like he has as many nineties in ODIs as he has centuries.
2) There is much noise about the IPL, resurgent India's colonial revenge. And honestly I can't understand it. Yes, there is a lot of money involved in it that some would rather, goes to balance the great socio-economic divide we are infested with. Yes, there is a threat that a lot of this money from Indians goes into the coffers of 'outsiders'. And yes, of course, there are a few lucky young guys getting much more than the seasoned senior record-breakers. So, what is the big deal?
Firstly, I am all for a socialistic society, at least as far as the ideal is concerned. But the sad fact is we live in a society which is market-driven. As T.S. Eliot says, "Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act, falls the shadow". You can't suddenly expect Shahrukh Khan to start donating his money to do public good just because he is the highest paid Indian actor and make him feel guilty for not doing such social service. I really believe that a lot of this money that is doing the rounds will settle at various places and in a few years, if the IPL succeeds, things will improve on the lessening-the-gap socialistic ideal. Ditto for the money-going-outside cribbers. It is a global village- you can't expect to take everything from the world outside and fret and fume when it is time to give back to the world. Wait guys!
And as for the 'unfair' pricing of players, it is a MARKET- those who are perceived to be good on the field and off it (for glamour) will be paid more even if the whiners think that some highest paid budding players are merely 'flavours of the month'. With time, things will settle and wherever there is lack of reason- things will be rationalised. Things (oops- that makes three 'things' in two lines!) take time- to make noise even as a great experiment is being made is to be a crybaby. We need to grow up, don't we?
Showing posts with label T S Eliot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label T S Eliot. Show all posts
16 Jan 2007
Dangerous is the lie we tell ourselves
“O Sancta Simplicitas! How strangely simplified and falsified does man live! One does not cease to wonder, once one has eyes to see this wonder”- Friedrich Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil)
We all agree that we are always deceiving others, and as T.S.Eliot said, we ‘prepare to meet the faces that we meet’. Even Shakespeare has compared life to a stage and people as merely actors continuously acting roles. But the story of deception doesn’t end here. Some of the greater deceptions we practice are subjected against our own selves.
We are constantly telling ourselves lies that suit us; lies that make life convenient for us and lies that help us feel nice and happy. A chain smoker I know seems to need cigarettes like we need oxygen to breathe. He refuses to believe that every cigarette is cutting his life short and protests that he would die if he didn’t smoke. He is lying to himself.
Obesity works much in the same way. When some obese people take recourse to suggestions that it is hereditary, they are lying to themselves..
When we want to feel good about ourselves, we tell lies like, ‘ we are putting in our best, but aren’t getting the results’ or ‘there is no time, I am so busy’. We are unable to blame our complacency, our inhibitions or ourselves. Each blame is justified like this. When we subscribe to a particular ideology, we convince ourselves of its infallibility and refuse to accept flaws in its premises. George Orwell brilliantly exploits this psychological possibility in his brilliant novel ‘1984’. Truth in his society of 1984 is the picture the government has cleverly presented and there is no evidence of any fact that makes it uncomfortable and so no one knows what is actual truth. People can only verify truth through government owned documents and every piece of information is cleverly and efficiently doctored to suit convenience and protocol. So, here, the people in power decide what you should think and this is called ‘double-think’. There is ‘ thought-police’ that monitors people’s thoughts 24x7 and any person thinking divergently is effectively eliminated in order to create the ‘perfect’ government and the ‘perfect’ governed.
Kierkegaard, Sartre and Heidegger condemn self-deception as bad faith, an inauthentic response to the anxiety produced by contemplation of human freedom. When we deceive ourselves, we are abandoning ourselves to chance and to others. The cocoon of lies we weave around us may make us feel very secure, but we become incapable of intimacy and we lose our integrity.
Shakespeare says in Hamlet Act I Scene iii
‘To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not be false to any man.’
“O Sancta Simplicitas! How strangely simplified and falsified does man live! One does not cease to wonder, once one has eyes to see this wonder”- Friedrich Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil)
We all agree that we are always deceiving others, and as T.S.Eliot said, we ‘prepare to meet the faces that we meet’. Even Shakespeare has compared life to a stage and people as merely actors continuously acting roles. But the story of deception doesn’t end here. Some of the greater deceptions we practice are subjected against our own selves.
We are constantly telling ourselves lies that suit us; lies that make life convenient for us and lies that help us feel nice and happy. A chain smoker I know seems to need cigarettes like we need oxygen to breathe. He refuses to believe that every cigarette is cutting his life short and protests that he would die if he didn’t smoke. He is lying to himself.
Obesity works much in the same way. When some obese people take recourse to suggestions that it is hereditary, they are lying to themselves..
When we want to feel good about ourselves, we tell lies like, ‘ we are putting in our best, but aren’t getting the results’ or ‘there is no time, I am so busy’. We are unable to blame our complacency, our inhibitions or ourselves. Each blame is justified like this. When we subscribe to a particular ideology, we convince ourselves of its infallibility and refuse to accept flaws in its premises. George Orwell brilliantly exploits this psychological possibility in his brilliant novel ‘1984’. Truth in his society of 1984 is the picture the government has cleverly presented and there is no evidence of any fact that makes it uncomfortable and so no one knows what is actual truth. People can only verify truth through government owned documents and every piece of information is cleverly and efficiently doctored to suit convenience and protocol. So, here, the people in power decide what you should think and this is called ‘double-think’. There is ‘ thought-police’ that monitors people’s thoughts 24x7 and any person thinking divergently is effectively eliminated in order to create the ‘perfect’ government and the ‘perfect’ governed.
Kierkegaard, Sartre and Heidegger condemn self-deception as bad faith, an inauthentic response to the anxiety produced by contemplation of human freedom. When we deceive ourselves, we are abandoning ourselves to chance and to others. The cocoon of lies we weave around us may make us feel very secure, but we become incapable of intimacy and we lose our integrity.
Shakespeare says in Hamlet Act I Scene iii
‘To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not be false to any man.’
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