For those who may have missed our last issue, here is a podcast of the main introduction of that issue, that discusses how judging someone else’s decisions, specifically in the past is not a great idea. Worse when those who either have no skin in the game (like the New York Times) or worse are responsible for spreading the virus - do the judging, then we as a society are worse off.
Sutor, ne ultra crepidam ("Shoemaker, not beyond the shoe"): people should avoid passing judgment beyond their expertise.
When one has to approach any exalted being within the Dharmic framework, we do that via Upasana. That is Upa (upon/similar) + Asana (position). In other words - being in the position of.
If you were to be in the process of Upasana of Krishna, for example, the aim was to raise your consciousness so we reach the position of Krishna’s consciousness. Unless I was Krishna himself, how could I ever understand the import of what he said or did?
But sometimes even that is not enough. We often wonder sometimes why we did something we did in the past. Why did we indeed?
Every moment and every situation brings its set of factors impacting our decisions. Along with them, there are certain uncertainties that we have to deal with. And, decision-making time is not unlimited. Within that time, we have to make the decision given the factors that we have at hand and the uncertainties facing us.
As complex as it seems, this is the simplest scenario.
For, we could be in a group with many people who are willing to place hurdles in our way at every step. No matter what we do.
Even when it goes against their professed stand in public or the good of many. The greed for profit they may make by destroying everything around them may propel them to do anything. Even the most egregious things.
When India was faced with the COVID pandemic, India was the only country in the world where sitting governments in Delhi and Mumbai orchestrated a mass exodus of workers who had come to those cities from other parts of the country. Specific instructions, threats, and misinformation was circulated. No arrangements were made for proper streamlining. All the benefits of a lockdown were thrown away.
India was the only country where administrators and other forces, supposedly responsible, worked to create a mass spread of the virus.
When faced with such extreme uncertainty that had no precedence in the world along with power-hungry unconscionable public forces, those decisions had many, many variables. The decisions made at those times with the factors and information at hand are very hard to judge now. Yet those who cannot even tell their arse from the elbow, love to write tomes on how it was done wrong.
To give someone the power to spread anarchy, chaos and misery is bad enough. That they then get to judge those who mitigate their evil is what denigrates us as a society!
Here is the link to the full issue: Issue #211 - Barbell and Perfidy
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