The Technologically Advanced Primitive Man - Part 2

Form over Substance - Society of superficialities???

It is the malady of humankind that we get stuck in the pool of form rather than live with the flow of substance.

While form has its role, without substance it is as useful as a corpse - after a while you could almost smell the stench of its uselessness. However, the law of nature appears to be that over time, people may become accustomed with even the worse of stench.

Form however seems not only to pervade a large part of our lives in diverse ways but it has become sanctified. Take any part of our life and you will note that form is given predominance over substance.

Say we take religion. Hardly will we hear a whimper if a religious follower is a cheat, corrupt or oppressor. No one will jump on him alleging that he is irreligious. However, the moment a religious ritual is called into question, the entire band of the followers may even call for his blood. Similarly, it will not matter that the person is an honest, hard working and generally a decent person if she is not garbed in the form her religion requires. The mantra in a foreign language is more important than what it means. or the rationality of its meaning. Sanctification of form itself leads to an illogical state of mind that says:  "There is something sacred in not understanding!" .

Grand titles of 'divinity" for the religious leaders overrides the substance of their speeches. It is no accident that most leaders of  religions place the greatest emphasis on the form of the religion rather than its substance. This is evidenced by their dress code, personal appearances, hierarchy, the  pomp and pageantry that accompanies their presence and so forth. Symbolism, which is totally form is a sacred tool in religions.

It may not be too far from the truth to say that religion is where form is given its greatest prominence over substance. Probably because symbolism and ritualistic behaviours are more effective in the identification /classification of groups than unique thinking persons of substance. Collectivism also helps to gloss over the existence of the many more that are endowed with lesser thinking capabilities. Maybe this explains the general insistence on "faith" as opposed to reason in many religions. Hence like the buffaloes' stampedes, the religious followers are prepared to cause untold damage to uphold form rather than substance. In fact, you may find that  the call to think about substance is construed as sacrilegious and even blasphemous.  (As in politics, the call for thinking about substance may be construed as seditious or security threat).

Politics is another horrific entertaining aspect of our lives where there is greater emphasis on form rather than substance. It is in the political arena that we find the greatest adjectives created to disguise the lack of substance - the number (and length) of honorary titles, fancy sounding official titles, pomp and grandiosity of ceremonies, etc. It all seems calculated to give the theatrical impression of being more than superhuman.  It no wonder that despite centuries of so called leadership, human beings everywhere are still grappling to evolve into "enlightened" beings ! On the contrary, historical events globally actually seems to suggest that we have regressed into primitiveness.

Every single political leader promisingly speaks of bringing society to a better level since time immemorial. They wave the flag of hope and stoke the inherent fears in human nature to gain control and power. The people in turn unfailingly fall prey their game and get duped by the form that they are presented with without even evaluating the substance of what is promised. It seems to escape everyone’s attention that globally, political leadership as we know it has generally failed humankind.   We soothe our irrational senses by looking at the overfed, the rich, and the accumulative society while blinding ourselves to the larger reality of the hungry, homeless, war-stricken, humiliating human conditions in other societies. Selective perception fueled by superficial thinking allows us to live proudly while substantive thinking will expose us for the miserable and ignoble parasites that we collectively really are by choice or through apathy.

Our consumptive culture too is largely dictated by form that is turning us into superficial beings. We look at 'things' rather than the "person".  We measure the success of a person by the things he possesses regardless of how he came to possess them.  To assist us in further evolving into beings who lack substance, we have created the ultimate "form-maker' called 'branding". Hence with branding, instead of developing our inner selves, we are taught to develop our image rather than build character.  The frightening aspect of this "form over substance  virus"  is that we even tend to lose sight of even our own selves  when our "form" that we are busy creating does not match our "substance" that we have neglected. This, I believe is responsible for many depressive tendencies in this so called modern age. 

We seem to be in a hurry to accumulate perishable things to satisfy our perishable lives  such that we are useful to mother earth as manure only when we die. Somehow, we seem to have overlooked  the fact that the nature of form itself is perishable and when perishibility sets in,  disappointments and depressions are in order.

The manner in which we prefer to treat each other is probably dictated more by form rather than substance. We have become comfortable, for example, with the classification of human beings into “races” though in many instances it makes little sense substantively.  By race, we define or group human beings according to certain similarities such as common social settings, language, “culture”, dietary habits and so on. However, once so classified we lose our flexibility in labeling a person other than the “race box” into which we have put his fathers into.  For example, a person is still considered Malay even though he has lost most of the characteristics that initially classified him into that box. Likewise, an English is forever English even though he may have acquired most of the characteristics that would describe a Malay.   Again these are results of lack of substantive thinking.

Lack of substantive thinking, for instance prevents people from perceiving each other in terms of blood groups instead of “racial groups” though in many instances, blood groupings seem to make scientific and biological sense. What use for example, is a Chinese with blood group AB to a Chinese of blood group O in a life threatening situation where immediate blood transfusion is needed?  When you start thinking substantively, you will realize that there are several ways of classifying human beings for various purposes. However, politics seem to prefer only one sort of classification - that of “race” and society whose main concern is that of form, readily accepts this.

Even in our everyday communications, form seems to take precedence over substance. We have invented all sorts of pleasantries that represent merely form and totally lack substance. For example, we ask simple questions that we do not really mean like “How are you?” and expect nothing more than “I am fine” response.   It will be a shocking day for us if the person responds by sharing all the problems he is actually facing for the day! 

 Peace !

Muslims cannot celebrate Chinese New Year with others ???

This 8 year old Muslim boy studies at a Chinese school. He came home one day and told his father “Papa, did you know that Muslims should not celebrate Chinese New Year?”

His father asked. “Who said that?”

He replied, “My Ustazah in school”.

The father explained to him that a Muslim can celebrate Chinese New Year with their Chinese friends. That Chinese New Year is not a religious festival but it signifies the start of the Chinese calendar.  The father told him that he will go and speak to the Ustazah not to say these things.

“But Papa, don’t scold her. She is a nice lady”. His father assured him that he won’t scold the Ustazah.

The father then went to school and the following transpired:

Father (F) : “ Salam Ustazah. Saya ayah A. Ada perkara nak bincang sikit”.

Ustazah (U) : “Mualaikum salam. Sila masuk”.

F: “ Anak saya balik dari sekolah tadi, dia kata orang Islam tidak boleh raikan Hari Raya Cina”. 

U: “Betul lah tu. Saya yang cakap. Kalau ikut kan tak boleh?”

F: “ Maafkan saya Ustazah. Hari Raya Cina tak ada kena mengena dengan agama. Ia merupakan permulaan calendar ciptaan orang Cina berdasarkan pengiraan perjalanan matahari dan bulan. Sepertimana juga kita ada calendar Hijrah, calander Gregorian yang 2011 ni, dan macam2 calaneder lagi. Semua ni menjelmakan rahmah dan kebesaran Allah yang bagi ilmu pada kita untuk mengira masa melalui macam-macam cara”.

U: “Tapi Hari Raya Cina kan untuk CIna. Makanan dia orang tu kan tak halal?”

F: “ Puan, di Cina ada lebih daripada 30 juta orang Islam melebihi kita yang Melayu disini. Pokoknya ialah bukan Cina atau bukan Cina tapi Muslim atau tidak. Bukan semua Cina bukan Muslim”. 

U: “Maksud saya, kalau kita pergi rayakan di rumah orang CIna, kan makanan dia orang tak halal?”

F: “Kita jangan lah makan makanan yang tak halal kalau ada. Kalau kita dijemput, tentu mereka sediakan makanan halal. Kalau mereka tak sediakan, apa salahnya kalau kita pergi tapi tak makan? Kalau was was pun, tolak cara sopan. Tujuan kita kan nak rapatkan siratul rahim dan berkongsi rahmah yang Allah bagi pada kita? Kita orang Islam berupaya hidup dengan segala makhluk Allah secara aman.”

U: “ Ye tak ye juga. Mungkin saya tersilap cakap sebab saya risau pasal makanan. Mungkin tak kena saya cakap macam tu pada budak-budak”.

F: “Saya tak salahkan Puan. Pemikiran kita jadi sebegini kerana system pendidikan kita serta pergaulan kita yang memprejudiskan minda kita. Macam isteri saya juga orang Cina tapi semua keluarga dia adalah vegetarian.  Sampai ada coklat yang punyai gelatin pun dia orang tak makan.  Lagi risau dia orang tentang perkara tu daripada kita”.

The father and the Ustazah greeted each other and parted as friends as they discussed the possibility of her teaching his son Arabic in his home.

I do not blame the Ustazah. She is a kind and good lady but the product of an education system that has been segregationist. There are of course a host of other reasons why such things happen – mostly due to the kind of Islam that is permitted to grow in our country for the past 20 years by politicians, religious people and the institutions.

Peace !

Grand Mufti of Syria : There is Only A Culture of Humankind. Let's embrace it.

I was pleased that I attended the talk organized by the Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies headed by Prof Dr Hashim Kamali today. The talk was moderated by Dr Chandra Muzaffar. It was a rare occasion where I was very happy to hear a religious cleric give his talk. The Grand Mufti of Syria, Dr Ahmad Badr Al-Deen Hassoun was invited to talk on the topic of “Challenges facing the Muslim World”.  

The following is what I understood him to say:

On Malaysia

He said that Malaysia is a good model for other nations to follow. It has achieved many things. He was very impressed with the cosmopolitan nature of Malaysian society and the diversity of its religions and races.  This, he said, demonstrated God’s creativity very clearly. God did not just create the Muslims but all the non-Muslims and atheists as well. If we examine every human being, we will find the stamp “made by God” on them! He further says that if we understand and accept God’s creativity in creating diverse religions and races, we will understand the true value of human nature.  

On Religion, politics and religious people

He opines that religious leaders should stay away from political office. This is because religion is for all humanity and politics will limit the religious leader to a small segment of the population or make him partisan. This does not mean that religious leaders should shy away from political issues as politics is very much a part of life. The role of the religious leaders should be to advise and guide the political leaders and invite everyone to peace. 

He explains that Syria has diverse religions and sects – Muslims of various sects, Christians of various sects, Aramenians (the language that Jesus spoke), Jews, Atheists, Zorasters. He was entrusted to be the Grand Mufti for all of them, and not just one group. 

He says “When I read the Quran, it pointed to one faith but many religious path. Each prophet have different paths but faith is one - different legal paths”.

We are all creations of God
 

He explains that religion was created to serve humankind and not the other way round. That religion came after Adam. He rhetorically asked the question: is there a Hindu world, a Muslim world, a Christian world, etc? Why don’t we just say a “human world”? Does ‘musibah’ (calamity) just befall one group and not the others? The Palestinian and Iraqi issues are human issues not a particular group's issue.

He recalls in school that he was taught only the Muslims prayed properly. Later when he read the Quran, he realized that it spoke of believers and people of faith.  All prophets from the different cultures – Noah, Shuaib, Moses, Jesus – also prayed. These are Prophets from diverse cultures. Our children were never taught about other cultures.  It was as if we ourselves are just one universe to the exclusion of the rest. When our children live in narrow circles, they get confused when they meet diversity. However, the fact is God created all of us through His creativity. Isn’t a non-Muslim a living breath that God created? He says we need to cultivate the courage and fortitude to engage others who are born in different cultures and build bridges of peace. 

Inter cultural experiences

He gave the example of how Prophet Jesus left the environment of his Armenian culture to mix with others and how Prophet Muhammad left his Arabian cultural environment to mix with others. It is through such cultural mingling that we learn because different cultures have different things to offer.  There is no harm but benefit in learning from one another. We are all of one faith but may be of different legal religious paths.

He said that the Prophet Muhammad was an example of transcending cultural barriers where he married a Coptic Christian and a Jewish woman.  However, today we are building walls and barriers between different cultures and hence in this regard, we have become more primitive.

He regards it unfortunate if human beings want to be trapped into narrow circles while the true value of humankind is its diversity. 

Muslim Unity

He said that there is too much emphasis on division between the Muslims. He rhetorically asked: ‘Was the Prophet Muhammad a Sunni or Syiah or Wahabi or anything else? He was a man of faith” . He says Muslims should learn to embrace each other and discard the divisions. He citied Europe as an example where people of differing cultures have discarded their differences and embraced unity. We should learn from their ability to do so. He prays and hopes that Asia will cooperate and unite as one.

What came across clearly was the Grand Mufti’s message that we are all the “living breath” created by God and we should embrace God’s creativity in making us diverse. The nature of humankind is simply diversity and that is God’s ‘handiwork’ which any person of faith will rejoice and celebrate. 

I wish him all the strength, peace of mind and heart to continue conveying this message of humanity to all.

Peace!

[NOTE: This is my understanding of the Grand Mufti’s talk.]

Hungry Ghosts vs the "Devils" during Ramadan

I was recently invited to be one of the speakers at a conference party called "The gathering of Great Minds'" which was held at the Kuala Lumpur Securities Commission. (I enjoyed it actually, because the environment was creative and the audience was engaging).  My topic was "Creativity from Diversity".

To demonstrate how diversity is able to create new perspectives and open up new "windows of looking",  I shared with them an experience I had with an 8 year old dear friend of mine.

This 8 year old boy is a product of mixed parentage - Malay, Chinese and Burmese. (And adults who claim they believe in God will force him to choose an ethnic class or make him conscious of one! Makes you wonder "what god" they worship)

He told me that he was scared this month. I asked him, "why?"  He was told by his Chinese cousin that this is the hungry ghost month and that these ghosts will possess boys. 

I sat him him down and told him what the hungry ghost belief was and then reminded him that there is also another belief that Malays have. This is also the month of Ramadan.

I told him that while Chinese believe that the gates of hell are open and all the ghosts have rushed out to roam the earth, the Malays believe otherwise. The Malays believe that in the month of Ramadan, the gates of hell are closed and no ghosts or spirits can roam the earth! They are all chained!

He looked at me amused and said, "Yes. That's what I was taught in the agama class too".

"So, are the gates of hell open or closed you think? Got ghosts roaming around or not?", I asked.

"I dont know. It sounds so funny now. Two different story about the same thing. Both from adults".

I reminded him that while adults may have good motives, they need not necessarily have clever ways of handling situations. Sometimes they cause great harm with good intentions. Most of them grow up never thinking about what they hear.  "That is why you must always use your brain and think about what they are saying".

 "Remember how you were frightened to sleep with stories that the monster is looking for boys with eyes not closed at night? I told you there are no monsters in the house?. That if you do not sleep, you will make me the monster if I hear you falling asleep in school?"

He laughed and laughed.

"The next time your cousin scares you with stories of hungry ghosts, tell him that you had lunch with one and the ghost wants to meet up with him".

He laughed again heartily and said "Coool. That should shut him up!"

Peace !

Whither Culture of Knowledge in this Land of the Blur?

I am concerned and I am worried. I only hope that my concern and worry is misplaced. I feel that we have become a society that is adept at contradictory behavior in many aspects of our life. What is worrisome is that it seems to have become a National trait.

We often hear that we want to inculcate the culture of knowledge among young people. We even hear that we want our society to be knowledge prone. DO we really mean it when we say that?

DO we really want to have a culture of knowledge in our society? Frankly, I do not think so. Like so many things in our Land of the Blur, we have mastered the art of stating slogans and nice sounding phrases that we do not understand. We are only saying such things to please each others ears; to feel that we are “not too bad ourselves”. Hmmm….

Culture of knowledge? Really now???? For our society to evolve into a society which has a culture of knowledge, a few things must happen first.

Firstly, we must allow each to think and to think loudly. Which means, you must be patient with what I have to say and you should think about what I have to say. After listening, you are supposed to evaluate what had said as objectively as possible and then comment, commend or criticize. Will you allow me to say my piece or have you already been brainwashed into what is sensitive and what is not, what is heavy and what is light, what can be openly discussed and what can only be said privately, etc. I too should say it as well as I possible can with no other intention than to share or to put forward a view which I think may help society or me or you.

Secondly, does our society encourage thinking or must we always follow the leader regardless of how mediocre he is? Can you not see what is happening in our society? Politicians have the microphone and the paper coverage all the time. They are allowed to yak, yak all the time. For example, remember when Pak Lah was PM, he was the best this and the best that. He had all the ideas. For the life of me I cannot figure out how thinking can even retire! In the field of religion, only the AUTHORISED person is allowed to speak. It is as if authority and ability to think go hand in glove! If that was so, then I figure Hitler, Mussolini and Firquan were great thinkers too since they had authority!

Great thoughts do not come from a person simply because the Government projects the person. No. Great thoughts come from the passion for thinking and intention. It is something you cannot avoid. You try to shut off and you cannot. It is as if it is not your doing. Do we allow this? No. Seriously, look around you in our Land of the Blur – who are the opinion shapers? DO you think these people can be catalyst for culture of knowledge?

Thirdly, have we learnt that it is perfectly okay to have someone say something that we disagree with? I think our society has not learnt that we are not on earth for everyone to be like a product from the production like looking EXACTLY the same. It does not have to be that way and it cannot be that way. Different people will have different views. It is cool so there is no need to get heated up. The main thing is we discuss respectfully and cordially.

Fourthly, for a culture of knowledge to come about, example by leadership will help. If you can get leaders who do not read beyond the local newspapers it is bad example. Worse if you get leaders who shout and dramatize into the microphone instead of speaking intelligibly whenever they purportedly make a speech, we are fast turning into a society of clowns. Not motivating at all. Do not get me wrong. I enjoy comedy. I watch funny movies. However, when I hear politicians use emotions and childish drama and choose popular phrases when they make a speech, it really makes me squirm. I keep thinking. “wow he really thinks I am dumb enough to fall for that trick”. But I look around and see many clap! Welcome to the Land of the Blur!

Fifthly, for culture of knowledge to evolve, we should not be using the law, position and power to make I”thinking” a monopoly of a select few in society. Don’t you think that is a common trait in our society? I actually rasa malu when I hear some person in power talk in public because dia ada jalan. Luckily, the Creator took remedial steps by giving mankind the internet. Padan muka…monopoly also gone. But they never learn and we keep allowing them to dominate the real space. They plan and the Creator plans and of course the Creator’s plan is better. With the internet, fools are exposed for what they are despite their power and position.

Hello…read history. What do you think happened to real thinkers and reformers in their lifetime? You think most of them were awarded titles and honorific in their lifetime? Socrates was murdered by the elite and bangsawan of his society. Remember Galileo? So many examples to give. So many. Sometimes you must be prepared to be oppressed or murdered for thinking. To some, a thinking person is considered dangerous! Alaaahaii........


Let me ask you a question – which is more “powerful and stronger” – water or steel?

Oops sorry, I am asking you to think.

PEACE !

GANGSTERISM V RULE OF LAW

Of course there must have been many times in most of our lives where we may have felt like clobbering the daylights out of someone whom we feel has visited upon us injustice. However, Malaysians have mostly exercised restraint in responding violently. We allow sense to prevail and let the law takes it course or we just exercise patience and pray for divine justice.

We have not yet become a cowboy nation where we take the law into our own hands. Gangsterism has largely been confined to crooks, criminals, and schoolboys.

Malaysians still believe that the laws we have can still mete out justice.

But what happens when we allow numbers to come to Parliament house to intimidate another MP? What happens if there is gangsterism in and around Parliament? Is this the kind of culture we want to develop in our Nation? Have we ever thought that once it starts as a 'normal' thing, it can never be stopped.

In India, it is common. If a politician is really corrupt, his life is on the line. If a judge metes out injustice, his legs or hands may be the price and so on. Such gangsterism is common in India because people have lost faith in the law and the system. There are other countries too where people are prepared to be violent to achieve an end. When people become completely helpless, they are prepared to give up their lives. Ultimately, in this game everyone ends up being blind.

So let's NOT start this game, especially if we are believers in God.

PEACE !

EVENING WITH DATUK AZIZ SATAR

For me, it is like a long wait to meet this famous actor – Aziz Satar. Everyone fondly remembers him as the team member of the “sudin-ramlee-aziz” team. I have met the late P.Ramlee and the late A.R. Tompel before but then I was very young.



We chatted about the genius of P.Ramlee and how Malaysia lost a visionary actor and script writer well ahead of his time. I recall that Malaysia did not give P.Ramlee the support that he needed when he returned to Malaysia from Singapore. This is the malady of the Malays – inability to recognize real talent and real leadership.

It is even sadder that we still have not woken up to the idea of tapping on the experience and knowledge of veterans.

Dato’ Aziz spoke about 6 things that P.Ramlee told him, which I found interesting:

(a) Aziz, Allah Taala tidak memberi kita segala-gala. Kekurngan akau ada pada kamu, pada Sudin, pada semua kawan-kawan.
(b) Aziz, kalau gua mati, gua akan hidup lagi 1000 tahun.
(c) Aziz, seni gua bukan untuk wang, tapi seni gua untuk masyarakat
(d) Kalau kita sudah ada diatas, kalau ada kawan nak naik, pimpinlah ia.
(e) Rezeki yang Tuhan bagi tidak semua hak kita, sebahagian hak ibu, hak ayah, hak saudara dan ada kalanya jadi hak pencuri.
(f) Aziz, jangan selalu menyalahkan orang lain kerana nak melindungi salah sendiri.

The social messages in P.Ramlee movies are brought forth subtly, sometimes in the manner of comedy.

Dato Aziz Satar recalls a scene in the movie “Semerah Padi” where two farmers in dispute appeared before the penghulu. The Penghulu advised them:

“Apa yang digaduhkan? Kan elok kalau hari ini kau tolong sawah dia? Dan esok dia tolong sawah kau pulak dan buat lah seterusnya macam ni”.

I cannot help thinking that this will be useful advise to politicians in the cause of National interest issues. Apparently, P. Ramlee had PAS and UMNO in mind when he penned this dialogue.

Dato Aziz Satar is currently completing a book recording his experience with P.Ramlee and it is scheduled to be published by the end of this year.

We wish him the best and look forward to the book.

PEACE !

Towards a Culture of Mediocrity

We have heard the political leaders deliver volumes of speeches on “nation building”. Often times, we were ‘compelled’ to read unwanted advise from a politician holding some key government positions on the front page of a newspaper. I say unwanted because some of the ‘advise” given is not only mundane but equally puerile. I used to wonder whether the advice-giver knows that he is actually insulting our intelligence or probably he himself is lacking in grey matter. What shocks me is the audacity of being “courageous” in making public statements of such puerile nature. Where is the shame?

Then I realized, it is our Malaysian culture. In our culture it is polite to pretend to listen to what he is saying. It is also polite to report his puerile views on the front page because of his position. It does not matter that what he said is complete rubbish and affronts any reasonable person’s mind. The concept of “patronising”, “condescending” and “being talked down to” is alien to Malaysian culture. Can you find equivalent BM words for these concepts? Let me know if there is.

Because it appears that in our Malaysian culture, we accept being patronized, condescended and talked down to, we allow mediocre statements by political leaders to be published on front pages. This becomes a standard to be followed by the younger, unsuspecting minds. As this continues, we move towards a culture of mediocrity.

Then there is the psychological trap of those in power – any power, from civil service to political office. Over the past 10 years, I somehow end up having to meet high-ranking civil servants for meetings and to bring various problems to their attention (after those who came to seek my help have exhausted all avenues at the lower levels). Of course I have met some very decent, efficient, helpful and humble ones. But there are others who love the "upacara of mesyuarat". It is absolutely tiresome because I can see feudalism at work and very little real work! Somehow, I think this automatic granting of awards to these civil servants must stop as it does make their head grow bigger than their brains. Mediocrity. It is also unfair to the excellent ones in the civil service whom I know personally.

And of course one of my favorite topic – education. I personally feel that despite the technological advances of the 21st century, our educational standards are declining. I recall when I was in secondary school in Penang Free School, we started very early discussing topics which today are considered “heavy” by the same age group. My recent visit to that same school’s library gave me a shock – many quality books of general interest are missing! I had a chance to discuss with some of the form 6 students – they sounded like form 3 of my time. Why? Is it the teachers? Is the politics of education? Or is the Bahasa Malaysia language? We have to address these issues and not sweep it under the carpet with feeble excuses.

When was the last time any study on the quality of education in our country done and made public and discussed? My feeling is that even our educational standards are beginning to conform with the culture of mediocrity. I hope this is not a reflection of the kind of political leaders we have. EDUCATION CANNOT BE POLITICISED!

We often hear lamentations about the lack of good reading habits in the country. However, if you look at the book stores and the magazine stands, you will find plenty of reading material. Take a look at our newspapers. There is a whole cut-out section for “entertainment”. The magazine shops stock up much of what may described as trash material, including a lot of superstitious writings masquerading as “religion”. Do we know what books are being banned by whom and why? We need to consider the maturity and intellectual level of those who are given the task of vetting which books should be banned. Once again, a society that fears to allow the society members to think is cultivating a culture of mediocrity.

Someone told me that she sees mediocrity everywhere, the by-product of the education system of the past two decades. When I asked her, everywhere? She said, at every segment of the society.

One example of mediocre thinking is when a person is given a position, where the position comes with the power of decision making and she thinks that she is personally powerful. In other words, inability of the mind to distinguish between official responsibility and personal power. I find that quite a number of these mediocre minds unable to manage authority. Legal authority is also confused with feudalism.

Sometimes I wonder…is there a deliberate attempt to ensure that our society “excels” in the culture of mediocrity? What do you think?