What Makes Our Dream of Equality unfeasible?

It seems, everyone wants equality. Many voices are being raised against inequalities of different kinds- financial, gender based, racial and what not. If one carefully observes social media, the number of voices who advocate or care for equality is going up. These voices are becoming louder and bolder. Many times, one can see a lot of intelligence put behind these campaigns who try to bring about equality. Shared in hundreds, if not in thousands, these campaigns make silent people expressive. Everything sounds so great.

But, there is a glitch. I find these efforts coming out of selfishness. I love J. Krishnamurti and he has told us something very significant. He says, if what you do comes out of love, then only that activity would not be fragmented, then only it will be all-encompassing.

The problem with these thousands of social watch dogs is, they get provoked very easily and they share things without understanding them. I find the deep thought lacking. I am not going to say, ‘stop sharing whatever you share.’ My only request would be, go deeper into it and keep your selfishness aside.

You will certainly ask me, what selfish motive do people who share something good on social media have? There are many to be honest. The most important is filling up the hollowness which they have. Many of us have this complex that they are living just ordinary lives and hence, they want to bring about a change. They mentally believe that inequality is disgusting and sharing something which tries to bring about an equality fills this hollowness; it gives them a feeling that they are here not only for earning money and living an ordinary life.

I do not think that just sharing about something is going to solve that problem. To solve a problem like inequality, we need sensitive human beings. Are we sensitive? This is the question which we should ask ourselves. I have a small incidence to share with you all.

Most of us are working with some company and we firmly believe that if we perform better than others, we should get paid also more than others. Most of the companies have adopted this type of payment system- those who perform better, will be paid higher. We expect our employers to pay us more than others if we perform better. Do we pay our employees more if they do a better job?

I have a cook who makes meals for us every day. The monthly sum which we pay to her might be equal to amount which four people dining out at a decent place would spend. In my lifetime, I have eaten food made by at least 8-10 cooks and I can certainly tell that this one is the best. That day, while siting silently, I realized, I am not paying her a penny more than other cooks. Is this not an inequality? When I have to take money, I apply a different set of rules and when I have to give money, I apply a different set of rules. Where is my performance based payment system?

Ironically, we are comfortable spending up huge lumps of money to dine out at fancy places and can’t tolerate cooks or maids asking for a hike of hundred or two hundred rupees. We become vocal about issues like inequality only when they are put in front of us on a platter on social networks. We only comment and there is no actual action. Inequality is going to stay here forever if we are so insensitive. While we talk about the problem of inequality, we hardly ask ourselves how sensitive we are. I think the issue of inequality will not be solved only by changing governments, systems or financial models. If we make human beings more sensitive, things might change faster.

 


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