Tit for Tat

There are some men and women who still believe in tit for tat; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, even though they know only too well that Jesus taught them a formula different from this one. Leave alone following the new formula of Jesus, that they should give even the garments to the one who likes to take the shawl, these people know how to strip people of the little dignity and honor they have, and love to place them on a pedestal stark naked, and call all the people around and declare that their opponents are stark naked. Such is the kind of thing that one would hate to come across, but when such a thing happens one is helpless.

The man had asked for a genuine feedback about him and his operations in public, and we took it seriously and opened our hearts to tell him how we feel about him, some of his bias and prejudices, some of his lopsided orientations, and least did we realize that he was going to fire us back for airing our opinions about him in public. No wonder, he made it a point to justify our feedback and the so-called remarks, and showed that he was more innocent than innocence itself. His duty and responsibility of asking for a feedback from the people who worked with him in decision making process is done, and now he is scot free to pounce on others.

He had acknowledged a day before that he had inherited a tendency to be judgmental from his cultural background, and was recognizing this trait in him in the recent years; but a day after again he came across vociferously to brand and judge me for what he does not have sufficient proof and evidence. I would not claim that I was altogether innocent, but when he said that I was suffering from “compulsiveness” to certain human error, I was wondering if he realized what he was telling about me in public. It is not that I was overly concerned about my image in public, but I realized he wanted to “humiliate” me in public and had pleasure out of it.

Just because you have learned a couple of words from psychology and psychiatry, you are not permitted to brand people with such labels, and I had heard him brand so many of fairly innocent men, and was feeling sad for it. At one or two occasions I had stood up and had cautioned him from branding others, especially on the basis of the personal prejudice he might have had with them. After our feedback on him, I thought he would begin to recognize the log lying in his eye, and instead he had gone to tell me to remove the spec from my eye. I did feel bad about this calumny, but was helpless; I remained silent, in order not to embarrass other companions.

I had felt that this gentleman is known for vindictiveness; if anyone stood against him, he would not hesitate to destroy their dignity and honor, and some of my close friends had narrated to me how he was trying to do that with them, and of late, I had tried to tell him directly how I felt in the past months about him, and how he was dealing with me. He would not accept many of the factual presentations and observations of mine, and instead he would jump to justify his reactions and judgments. I feel sad for him, because he had failed to read the Gospel he always swears by, and if only he could open his eyes, he would realize what the Gospel was calling him to. That is when his salvation may dawn.

Branding

One of the secrets of success is business and commerce is branding the product or merchandise. If the branding is done with great care, then one can be sure of success, even if the product or merchandise itself may not be worth that much hype. For those who are uninitiated into the world of business, branding is related to a projection of the product as it is and affecting the customer to a large extent, highlighting the great value for money that the product can give to the buyer. Branding basically targets human psyche, whereby the customer is brain-washed by the company. Take for instance, vesting a particular brand of vests is a ‘andar ki baat’! That is branding.

I feel terrible when people begin to brand their neighbors, friends, family members, and citizens of a particular nation. This is one of the greatest injustice we can do to humanity. First of all, human beings are a commodity that can be branded, for purchase. Branding persons basically points to an accumulation of prejudices and pre-judgements. When we say, so and so is such a kind of person, we are already branding the person, as if a person is a solidified matter, which cannot change over time. We need to look at people as they are and not as we would wish them to be.

Some of us are ace human branders, who even without seeing or hearing, can brand people, just on the basis of hear-say. History will tell us how mistaken these people are. It is only human beings who are capable of changing, and sometimes these changes can occur even over night; and we may not be in a position to explain how the change took place, but that precisely are human beings. Branding a person is equivalent to condemning a person to a state of immaterial being, who is incapable of change. We cannot have a healthy social living, until we begin to look at one another as people susceptible of change and transformation.

We all of us suffer at sometime or other from social stigma, and that is one of the consequences of immortalizing these human brands. The stigma is often imposed from out, without verifying the validity of the offence. Generalization is a cousin to this social stigma. But is it possible for us to ever overcome the propensity to brand people? We may have to begin our journey to cure, from the understanding that all are vulnerable, and weak human beings, and there is no one who can truly claim to be free from human frailties. Once I know that others are as weak as I am, I would not begin to label them for all eternity, but look at the silver lining in the midst of their dark gloomy nature. It is then that we will realize the danger of branding people.

Every time I brand people, I should realize that there are others prepared to brand me too. In fact, the very people I brand may be the people who may do the same thing for me. If I am in the chair of power and authority and begin to judge everyone on earth as I see them to be, then it may be good for me to remember that the day to be on the receiving end is not very far off. I may also need to realize that if others had branded me the way I do to them, then probably my life would be very different today. It is because many people had been generous enough to spare me from the humiliation of being branded, that I am able to keep my head erect and judge others. If I feel I have all the qualities to brand others, then it is time that I prepare myself to be branded too!