Thursday, October 16, 2008

The Evils of Righteousness

I feel that righteousness is the root of all fanaticism. Unflinching, self-sure, in your face cockiness proclaiming unabashedly: "I know!". Any doubt or question is met with derision, hostility, threats, violence, anger, hysteria and a host of other things except reason. Any attempt to talk reason is taken as an insult, heresy, conspiracy or foolishness. People who think that they have all the answers are the most stupid and dangerous ones. Unfortunately they are a plenty of them in today's world.

The chief and obvious candidates for the self-righteous are of course all the religious nuts. But it is not their sole-property. Anybody who thinks he knows all can qualify. It can be a communist, a Marxist, a leftist, a socialist, a Leninist, a fascist, a Nazi, a neo-Nazi, a rightist or a centrist too. Not just the established extreme thinkers. They can also be your free-thinkers, capitalists, atheists, human right groups et all. Without going too far from home, it can even be your parents, wife, husband, sibling, colleague, neighbor, boss or the society you live in too. Anybody who does not believe in "live and let live" and tries to impose his thinking on others is a good candidate. You can call this belief as my personal pillar of righteousness. And hell, I know! :D

Narrow and fixed sets of thinking cause conflict. Tolerance levels are falling, falling and falling all the time. What the heck,I think it is time I too develop my set of immutable set of beliefs. Who knows it may start a new religion :p. On the other hand, thank you very much. The people of the world (and I) already have enough problems to handle!

Where are we heading to, I wonder sometimes...

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