It was a rainy evening. I was returning home from the gym which is far. The rain had slowed down the traffic..it was past 7.30 in the evening..peak traffic hour..i set out on my scooty from senapati bapat road..touched law college road and found long (over 1.5 km) line of vehicles...i quickly changed course and escaped from a bylane..only to arrive at another junction that was blocked too...i tried getting away from every tiny lane i knew but alas..why did i underestimate murphy! there were cops everywhere though!!
Finally i had to get blocked..this was a small square near nal stop, always crowded. Indians hate any wastage of space therefore every person was pushing forward his/ her vehicle in inches of space made available by snail paced traffic..voila! further blockade!! And as anticipated traffic came to a standstill..
Meanwhile i was pondering about the views on Human Nature by Hobbes, and Locke.. in front of me i was seeing a state of anarchy where selfish human beings were 'fighting' for survival (metaphor to get out of the jam asap!!!).little understanding of the situation and lacked patience and thus made matters worse for all..
but very soon i saw a couple of persons getting out of their cars to manage the chaos..my thoughts switched to the liberal view of human nature! - wow here i see Locke's cooperative, peaceful, positive human beings!!..hmmmm interesting to see contradictory views on human nature within a short span of time...
I concluded that humans are selfish and will always try to benefit themselves. Yet in an event where there is little hope and where collective action is inevitable, they will come together for mutual benefit.
The next question was whether humans need control or are they self governing, rational individuals. Hobbesian vehicles need to be controlled...as soon as Samaritans wore shoes of of traffic police,..traffic was streamlined in no time.
So i infer that humans need basic regulation..but even though it may be absent, eventually humans will devise systems where controll is exercised.Iit seems inevitable and a natural progression.
( I have taken a big risk of drawing general conclusion on the basis of a minuscule sample..but i think its ok to sort myself ideationally)
Fnally i reached home after 90 minutes as against usual 45!! Only to be happy that i had 'witnessed ' something taught in theory classes!!!
Hey amruta,
ReplyDeleteits nice
same way many times I attempt to draw generalizations on Marxist theories, especially Gramsci and Marx
yours is a good attempt
i would love to read such things which are related to our daily life and have some base of political theories
Really well written. But I also wonder, why is need to act collectively born out of adversity? Why must we be reminded that being together will be a boon for us? Why can't we all think collectively when there isn't a traffic police or a traffic signal or a 'Samaritan'? That is where Hobbes may have been right. We are incapable of thinking let alone acting collectively unless pushed into a corner a characteristic that can be likened to any animal, why just man?
ReplyDeleteGlad to see our subject matter being put practically.
i agree..Hobbes may appear as underestimating human capacity ( critic from the liberal notion), but i think humans are selfish..and every attempt at collective action is driven by personal interest.
ReplyDeleteMachiavelli is right ;)
we definitely need control..the extent of which is a matter of debate