A Prettier Mask Needs Extra Polishing

WHAT A PERSON SAYS IS MOST OFTEN A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO SEEK AND FIND APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE.

It was a prolonged discussion with an old friend, spread across several days. He lives in a posh city in US and holds a very senior position with one of the topmost IT companies in the world.

The discussion was an extended exploration into “Black Lives Matter”.

I felt so intrigued to notice that whenever I spoke of the organization “Black Lives Matter”, my friend would come up with facts and figures about how blacks still face a tough life and discrimination, and how they do need a lot more support, and how it is imperative on us human beings to show that extra large heart and give them what’s due to them.

Not for a moment was I disagreeing with any of this, but the discussion was about the unacceptable activities of the organization “Black Lives Matter”. Why did even a mention of BLM bring in all that statistics and that appeal to humanity, which even if true, was totally irrelevant to the discussion?

It took me a few conversations to realize that in his mind, this well-meaning, large-hearted Woke EQUATES the name of the organization “Black Lives Matter” to unambiguously stand for the cause the words in the name pretend to stand for.

When I nailed the glitch, I realized that I first needed to decouple the “name” from the “cause” it pretended to stand for. I had to show to him that the name “Black Lives Matter” had no connection with the cause that black lives matter.

I pointed him to the origins of the organization, the background of the founders, videos of their overall activities of violence all across the United States. 

He couldn’t believe that he had been standing up for the wrong organization and couldn’t believe he was so misled all the while.

That was one person who could realize that the name doesn’t always equate with the reality. There are many many more who do so, and may probably never realize that an almost terrorist organization “Black Lives Matter” has no correlation with the historical sufferings of the Blacks, nor does it have an intent to address the issues. The organization, like most activist organizations was created by evil minds for their evil gains and apart from adopting that name, do not bother to even pretend that they have any such intentions.

There is nothing surprising in this experience. In a world, where more and more of us want to be perceived as “intellectual” and “sensitive”, and the less and less time we have to build awareness or to think through issues deeply, this is the most naturally expected scenario to be in. In future, we can only expect it to grow worse.

Having interacted sufficiently with a lot of them, directly or indirectly, I could state the assertion without a pinch of doubt that every “Woke” is either a malicious black-hearted devil, or a stupid, ignorant idiot, who wants to pretend to appear intelligent and sensitive.

The first group creates and drives agendas. The second group sincerely propagates them. This is the group that Lenin called “Useful Idiots” – zombies who proudly get played by the manipulators and the propagandists, and consider it a part of their portfolio of accomplishments to do so.

There are many news channels, websites, e-magazines, etc which claim that they deliver you the fastest news – 50 news items in less than 5 minutes.

What good does it do to know 5 words about problems which have roots that are centuries old? What good does it do anyone to know that a country X bombed country Y, if one neither has the time, interest or inclination to find out what led to any of this?

That’s what organizations look for when they pick up their names. They know that the bulk of the world population, esp the ones that have sufficient money, power, and influence, but no time, can be swayed easily by a simple choice of words. They know the most murderous religions could adopt epithets of “Religion of Love” and “Religion of Peace” and happily hide behind such charades with total ease, because the super-accomplished individual, who reads 50 news items in 5 minutes has no time to even worry about the truth behind the pretty, shiny masks he sees.

There are “Peace” parties, “Socialist” parties, “Grass-root parties” all over India, conveniently using the mask of their names to fulfil their vicious agendas while the hapless, unsuspecting public watches on.

A large number of successful, accomplished people have a dire need to look not just great, but to belong to the next level of humanity, where few could boast to belong to.

A friend of mine, running a successful business in US that coaches students (primarily NRI kids) for maths competitions, put out a post in Feb 2020, that said something on the lines of – “A lot of people are blaming Kapil Mishra for the Delhi riots. They are wrong. Kapil Mishra is not responsible for Delhi riots“. 

If you have already started making conclusions about what the post was about, wait to hear the rest.

He went on to say – “the real culprits of Delhi riots are those friends on my friend list who keep spreading hate on the social media, and I would request those spreading hate to quit my Friend’s list.”

I instantly bade a hats-off and a farewell to this messiah of NRI kids and their desperately-social-acceptance-seeking-parents.

This person, a “Mishra” himself, was working over-time to prove several things through one simple post – 

1. He was showing off his heart that was large enough to encompass the whole world – the soft, sensitive, humane side of a mathematical pro.

2. He was trying to prove he was beyond castes and surnames. A “Mishra” publicly condemning a “Mishra” was a sure-shot road to that elevated Peacock Throne of progressive thinkers.

3. His post was trying to accomplish the same that his business and his clients have been desperately trying to accomplish – gain social acceptance by the right actions, right accomplishments, and in this particular case, the right political views.

So what if he was just showing off was a complete ignorance of the sequence of events in Delhi, and a desperate need for acceptance by the society he has been working hard to fit in, but which even he knows – will elude him for all eternity – regardless of how many maths competitions his kids crack in the US.

Feeling embarrassed about where you come from is the most definite key to being accepted by where you want to go to.

The gravest dangers to us comes not from the evil on the other side, but those amongst us, who are trying to find their seats into the cosy laps of that evil.

It is commonplace for us to drop names, positions, accomplishments, etc in order to gain validation for a point of view.

What we often fail to realize is that those who have a high degree of intelligence have been programmed right from their childhood to be “favourite slaves” of all. An intelligent person is always seeking validation and approval, and much of what he does and says is aimed to achieving that.

Since the time they were asked by their parents to recite poems to all visiting uncles and aunties, and the uncles and aunties doted on the smartness of the adorable kid, the “intelligent” kid gets wired to think, act and behave in a way that maximizes his social acceptance, and spends an entire lifetime forever reciting poems to all the uncles and aunties he comes across in his life.

He dare not recite a poem that is distasteful to his uncles and aunties, and would get him the tag of a “bad boy”. A boy once programmed to be a “good boy” keeps striving and struggling for that tag from everyone that is influential and impactful enough in his relevant social strata.

To use people’s accomplishments to validate a point of view is extremely ignorant. Just like most hot and pretty stars live in an eternal fear of being rejected for their looks, most successful people live in a state of very low self-esteem, experience a perennial fear of rejection, and are in a constant, desperate need of approval from the right sections of the society.

They say things not because they believe in them, but because that is what will adorn and embellish their masks and render their masks most attractive and acceptable. They speak not to express, but to count the likes, comments and reshares.

A person could be gifted enough to crack a 4th-order multi-variate differential equation in seconds, but that is no evidence that he knows and understands the nuances of what evil do all those religions and political views aiming for a world-conquest are upto.

Those who thrive by reading 50 news items in 5 minutes also build their philosophical repertoire by reading 50 philosophical quotes in 5 minutes. They neither have the time, nor intent, nor the ability to look into the evil minds of a Missionary, a Jihadi or a Marxist. 

Having been spoon-fed with the doses of quickies like “All religions teach the same thing“, “Humanity is the great religion“, etc they keep reciting the few phrases, proverbs and epithets they have learnt by rote all their lives as a quick displayable evidence of their large brain and an even larger heart. Add to that a few irrelevant quotes by Nietzsche, Rousseau, Russell, and they have found a set of arguments that you are not even supposed to stand up against without risking your own social standing.

Given that most “intelligent” people are absolutely ignorant about human mind and emotions, a high degree of academic and analytical intelligence is in fact often indicative of the incapacity of a person to comment on social, political and world matters. 

Just because a NASA scientist, a founder of a billion-dollar unicorn, an Olympics gold-medallist, a Hollywood Superstar, a National or International Heart-throb, a Grammy Award Winner, a Hypermodern Artist, an Advertising Guru, a high-profile government servant, a Supreme Court Judge, a child prodigy, a Nobel Laureate, a Spiritual Guru, holds a certain point of view on a certain topic, it is no evidence of the validity of that point of view.

The more accomplished a person is, the more likely it is that when he makes a public comment, he is reciting his favourite poem to his favourite uncles and aunties.

Only a few would take the risk of being trolled with comments like – “Sir, today you lost all my respect“. Most achievers, super-achievers and hyper-achievers are just working their way to retain and regain the right kind of respect from those sections of the society that matters.

No. Nobody speaking out is speaking out their mind or heart or belief system. Most people expressing their opinions are just shining and polishing their masks, so that they appear prettier and find the acceptance they have been desperately seeking for.

Most people speaking out on world matters are just managing their personal and professional brands.

Judge a comment or a point of view entirely by the merit of the analysis, the context, the information taken into account, and the nature of the arguments used. Do not base it on the fact that the person who said it had won a President’s Medal at age two.

We need to stop evaluating the points of view on a cause by the profile, background and accomplishments of the people holding those points of view. A point of view needs to be evaluated strictly by the merit of the point of view, in the context of the points that relevant to that point of view.

If we aim for a mask-free society, we have to stop falling for the masks, no matter how pretty or shiny they are.