This week has been quite dramatic for my state of Tamilnadu as we lost 2 of our highly visible and vibrant personalities (within a day of each other) who straddled the hugely complex world of Indian politics for the last several decades. One was our esteemed Chief Minister and Iron Lady Jayalalithaa and the other was an equally respected and vibrant political satirist (among other things), Cho Ramaswamy. Both of them were highly controversial figures who looked at the world and reacted to it through their unique and distinct lenses and have left their own legacies. The poignant farewell procession of Jayalalithaa was a remarkable reflection of the imprint that she left on the millions of people that she governed over and for whom, her death (despite the fact that they have never met her) was a loss which was severe than losing one of their own kith and kin. Sure, she was a matinee idol in her younger days, extremely well read and articulate, took on several challenges heads-on and broke the glass ceilings on what was hitherto an unabashed male dominated political milieu. But the public outpouring among the young/old, rich/poor, haves/have-nots, literate/illiterate was remarkable. As in life, she went to the grave in a colorful, mass-engaged but graceful way. Similarly, Cho was one of the most erudite political satirists around and who had straddled across various areas like Movies, Theatre, Journalism, politics, religion etc., in his unique way. His writings, plays, points of view and political maneuvers and the impact that they had on his audiences were quite profound.
Having said that, I was trying to fathom and comprehend the lumps in my throat as I came to terms with a world devoid of such extra-ordinary personalities. After all, we live in a mortal world where death is common and accepted and which we do know that too shall pass. Public memory is incredibly short and every loss of such personalities creates a vacuum which nevertheless gets filled quickly by equally, if not more staggering personalities. I was reading a book on the great Aussie cricketer, Donald Bradman, in which the author had referred to the significant impact that Bradman had on a pre and post-world war Australia where as a role model, his influence straddled significantly more than just the cricket arena that he dominated like a colossus. Made me wonder as to why do we need these larger than life personalities and how sub-consciously, we allow them to dictate our thoughts/behavior? As a matter of fact, almost all of them do suffer from bouts of megalomania as they come to terms with the power of their range of influence.
Is it that they are able to reach out and straddle across a glamorous universe that is inaccessible to several of us? Or is it their abilities to put themselves out there and be rainmakers/change agents and drive large socio-economic changes? Or is it that they are really our own alter-egos and achieve success/impact that we all want but either don’t have the caliber or the drive to achieve? Or is it the craving need for gossip/tabloid that makes them as colorful goods that we like to devour whilst having drinks or over a cup of tea? Or is it that clichéd philosophical craving of the human mind that craves for role models to look up to and emulate? The last point is interesting as while the above quoted personalities were definitely larger than life and had numerous admirable virtues and achievements, they had their own set of controversies and a set of detractors who wouldn’t really agree to any kind of moral high-ground for them.
I was reminded of the American philosopher William F Lawhead who tries to answer some of these questions in his book “The philosophical journey: An interactive approach” by piggybacking on his interpretation of the great Greek philosopher Aristotle. The below are a series of quotes from the same which might help put things in perspective
“Aristotle’s idea of virtue ethics relies substantially on the effects role models have on people. Aristotle believes that we learn to be moral (virtuous) by modeling the behavior of moral people. Through continual modeling we become virtuous out of habit. Of course, people can learn both good and bad habits depending on the role models they have. Aristotle believed that it was the moral duty of every citizen to act as a good role model. This was especially true for people who were most likely to be in the public eye, since these people had so many eyes on them. Who are the role models in contemporary society? When asked, many celebrities (sports figures, actors, musicians) state that they don’t want to be role models. Aristotle would argue that this is not a choice a person can make. Since these people are so prominent in our society they are role models and should take this responsibility seriously.”
While the above puts a positive spin on the need to have virtuous role models, in the complicated world of the 21st century, it is almost impossible to find one without any shades of grey. It is almost facetious to put somebody at that virtuoso pedestal without suffering serious disappointments. Blind faith or hero worshipping has its significant drawbacks as one then gets sucked into a defensive mindset and loses the rational to separate the wheat from the chaff. I do believe their abilities to retain a sanity/balance and stay in the realm of grey is what possibly endears us to them. So I reckon that we do need these personalities to embellish our lives, create those delusionary high flying universes that we believe that they operate in, provide us with staples of gossip and of course, at some level, tell us what we should or should not be doing. But most importantly, we need to have the ability to look up to those remarkable virtues that they demonstrate (and if need be, sidestep the negatives) and role-model them for sheerly those virtues. In addition, we need to take the time to understand the times in which they lived and the challenges that they faced hitherto which will then help us better comprehend their actions as opposed to reflecting on them with contemporary lenses. After all, while they may be larger-than-life, they still remain mortals. Hopefully that will help us put a positive spin as we strive (in some ways rather haplessly) to reverse the decay that we are unleashing on the world and retain the humanity in us.
Experiential Musings 