Value Erosion & Social Policing

Master Hirannaiah, the popular Kannada actor, stated in his reminiscences, that one of the important changes that has occurred in society is the absence of "social policing." Earlier, if some child had committed a misdemeanour, & its parents were informed, they would be more concerned than the complainant & would ask him to deal out exemplary punishment himself (social policing). Nowadays, the parents do not even apologise to the aggrieved nor reprimand the child, but instead pick up the cudgels on behalf of their recalcitrant child.

This social policing was also earlier prevalent in western society as evinced in the story of Agatha Christie's celebrated detective Poirot's only recorded failure "The Chocolate Box." A mother, convinced of the incorrigible homicidal nature of her son, kills him herself.

We can contrast this noble behaviour with the recent instance of the mother of a man, accused of the most heinous crime, begging for his life, before his execution. There have been instances earlier, where in similar cases, mothers have begged for the privilege of killing their sons themselves (as in the Poirot story) & later killing themselves for the mistake of bringing such sons into the world. Here, rubbing salt into the wound, a female lawyer shockingly advised the mother of the ravished & murdered girl to forgive the accused! No wonder values have eroded all over the world.

Of course, even earlier, in Mahabharata, King Dhritarashtra supported his evil sons, but it was a rare exception to the general rule.

This erosion may be partly due to the rise of two professions (considered amoral by the layman) of law & politics, where taking a one sided stance of sanctifying one side & demonising the other, is the sine qua non of these professions. It is not rational to believe that the good Lord bestowed us & the people we like with all desirable qualities & completely denied the same to people whom we do not like.

Importance of Semantics in everyday life

Semantics means study of meaning (of a word). This can be subdivided into

1. Logical Semantics dealing with sense & reference.
2. Linguistic Semantics dealing with exact meaning of words.

Though disregard of this may cause immense harm, it is almost universal in its misuse even amongst people who are supposed to know better.

To take a common example, when we cause or narrowly avoid an accident on the road, the first word likely to be used is "idiot." Actually both may even be above average in IQ, & the (utmost) correct word to be used is "careless." Because this is not kept in mind or forgotten in the first fit of anger, the incorrect first word may be used leading to a crescendo of further insults.

Similarly while reprimanding a junior in a perceived lack of application, instead of pointing out the shortcoming, it is quite common to hurl personal insults at the unfortunate person. So usage of language without respect to semantics may lead to quite avoidable friction in the workplace. To put it simply, one should know how to disagree without being disagreeable. This is only done when we take care to choose the semantically correct word for the occasion.

Another aspect of this is the fact that no elderly person likes to be reminded of his (or her) age. Especially in our country, it has become popularly accepted to refer to any person somewhat older in the (local language) equivalent of grandpa or grandma. Any dictionary says that only the parents of one's parent are defined as grandparents, but even so called highly educated people, who are supposed to know how to use a dictionary, go on merrily referring to even unrelated people, who they think are old, as grandpa & grandma. This is extremely bad etiquette as well as semantically wrong.

Probably this is the necessary consequence when people get educated, not to get knowledge or culture, but only to get money & position.

From the Utopia of "Charlotte's Web" to the Dystopia of "The Peppermint Pig"

"Charlotte's Web" (1952) is a classic children's book by E.B.White. In it, Wilbur, the runt in a litter of pigs is about to be killed, when the daughter of the house Fern, impassionately pleads for his life & succeeds. She looks after him & later after he is sold to Fern's uncle, also regularly visits him. But he is to be ultimately converted to pork, which he doesn't want. Charlotte, a spider in Wllbur's new home, hits upon an ingenious plan to save his life. She is so successful that Wilbur is assured a natural end.

"The Peppermint Pig" (1975) by Nina Bawden, also begins with a runt of a litter of pigs, Johnnie, bought by a woman. Her children love him & he becomes the center of the family. He grows big & fat (& here comes the crunch), & heartlessly sold to the butcher. The children are told it is the fate of all pigs. Shockingly, this book has also been given a children's book award. But many reviewers are enraged with the dystopian ending of a so-called children's book.