Recently, while I was talking to a friend, he told me about a friend of his who is quite an intellectual person and participated in social work by heart and soul. His view was that 'A person's social responsibility is directly proportional to his intellectual capacity.' My God, what a beautiful statement! That statement, according to me, hits the bull's eye. It has implications that seem simple on the surface but, are in fact quite deep. He also added that 'God has given the gift of intellect to you, so its your responsibility to use it to help others, your failure to do so can and should be construed as betrayal of God himself.' Now, I am not the best person to discuss God and His actions but, even to atheists like me, the statement serves the intended purpose.
Superficially, one may feel that the statement just intends to encourage people to serve the society. But, the second statement gives a clear picture. 'Intellectual' is the word to concentrate upon. What I appreciate about this view is that it does not ask for monetary service to society but, something much more valuable. It asks one to strive for honing the intellectual capacity of under-privileged members of our society. This is a manifestation of the well known proverb 'Don't feed fish to the poor, instead teach them to fish'.
In the much acclaimed book 'The World Is Flat', the author, Thomas Friedmann, beautifully explains the root cause of the spread of terrorism and crime in todays world. People lacking the skill sets required for modern day life find it difficult to lead a satisfying life. If such people are not given the opportunity to grow, not given the opportunity to improve, they tend to subscribe to anti-social philosophies. Consider the case of India and Pakistan for example. Both the countries started off at the same time (got freedom at the same time) yet, Pakistan has fallen far behind India. Indians are said to lead a more satisfying life than Pakistanis. The reason is that Indians have opportunities to grow, they have the great tool of good education which makes the global field flat for them. Pakistan suffers from lack of strong basic education and hence Indians usually are more employable and likely to avail to opportunities to grow. This, according to Friedmann (author of the book) is the principal reason why more terrorists originate from Pakistan (or Afghanistan for that matter) then from India.
Under privileged people who find out upon maturing that this world has not been fare with them, they have not been empowered as much as others in the society, they can never succeed as much as their privileged counterparts with even double the effort, such people are more likely to commit crime or turn hostile (and probably terrorists to take revenge against society). This is inline with the title of this article. Such people need help to lead better lives. Help, which their parents could not give them. It is our duty and responsibility to do that for them as we live in the same society (or have been created by God as equals). Hence, if you really wish to help under-privileged people, people who were not as lucky as you (i.e. did not have ancestors as great as you), try to contribute in some way to increase their intellectual capacity.
Merely donating money is not the answer to solving their problems (though it is one of the most important requirement to solve them). My friend's friend about whom I mentioned earlier does one of the best things in this regard, he runs a tribal school where he tries to provide the kids with the best education he can manage, the best facilities he can arrange. This is a herculean task (kudos to him for that) which may not be possible for all of us but, we could do our bit by being associated with such a mechanism that does the best thing (atleast according to me) to empower the under-privileged people in our society. It may be a drop in an ocean but lets not forget
Little drops of water
Little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land
Kudos to people like him.
Ring a bell? Agree with me? Disagree with me? Leave a comment......
Author : Vj
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