Power and Fairness
The circumstances that I faced during the last year were quite adverse. Events during this time triggered me to write this post on Power and Fairness. Everything turned opposite to my anticipation and for the first time I felt so powerless and vulnerable.
Though the experiences was quite painful, while facing the odds I learned very important lessons and I think it will be better to write them down before I forget them.
Here are they:
1) If you don’t have Power, Don’t expect that you will always be treated fairly.
2) During your bad time, only your true friends will support you and will help you in gaining back your lost confidence.
3) Irrespective of how atheist you are, you will start believing in God because when nothing works your way, you need Hope…..and God has to exist to remain hopeful.
Professionally, after facing various odds, I feel that one should have enough skills and competencies to stay in demand in market rather than staying on the mercy of a company. Until one is confident enough that if he leaves his present job today, he will have better offers the next day, he won’t feel secure.
Anyways, we all think that for equality to exist, fairness should prevail. But we also know that irrespective of how fair a system is perceived, it is always twisted by power and political relations to some extent.
Does it mean that to ensure fair treatment, you should possess power or liaison with a powerful person? To some extent, Yes, first because as I said, without power you can’t ensure fair treatment and second, without power you can’t be successful in making the system fair even if you want to.
As an individual, you may strive to make the system fair (for example – the role played by Ajay Devgan in GangaJal) or try to gain power in prevailing system (for example the role played by Ajay Devgan in Apharan) or wait for the right time to destory the unfair system (for example the role played by Tim Robbins in Shawshank Redemption) or lastly, disassociate with the unfair system.
Irrespective of which path a person chooses, he feels most secure when he commands power because with power he is sure that things will work the way he wants.
Only those with power and political connection rise in a society where raw power prevails and fairness is extinct. At such places, the poor remains poor and the rich become richer. Corruption is prevalent and the more one is corrupt, the more he rises. Education remains the right of selective few. Why is it like this in an unfair society? It is because with less educated and very poor people, powerholder can continue suppressing others and remain powerful.
I think that world can be a fair place if the Power holders can understand the popular adage “With Great Power come Great responsibilities” and act accordingly.
Before Closing, I will recommend a book “48 laws of power” which is about behavior one should possess to exude power in his surrounding environment. This book might be termed as Cunning and Deceptive by some but I think, that this book reflects truth in the world we live.
