Kill the Messenger Not the Message.

Part of finding freedom is getting rid of natural tendency of associating with famous people. At a very small age we find out that success (Success Definition described in another posting) is everything and if you can't be successful at least you need to associate yourself with the successful. Success or associating yourself with the successful becomes the same thing. This molds itself into celebrity culture, this in turn then affects the issues you chose to support and oppose. If you think about any message or issue you support - Non Violence (Gandhi), Global Warming (Al Gore), Healthcare Reform (Obama), Gun Control (NRA) it automatically gets connected to a celebrity. Unconsciously or sometimes consciously the issue is relegated to the background and celebrity becomes the key issue. So all that message does is promote the celebrity not vice versa. If you need to discredit the message all you need to do is - discredit the celebrity (Kill the messenger). If you want to make a dent in global warming talk find out that Al Gore lives in a big house and has a big carbon footprint and suddenly the supporter of global warming is on the defensive. This you can see on a everyday basis. The politics of the world or discussions in a Birthday Party all follow this pattern - be quick to discredit the celebrity associated with the cause, cause dies on it's own. Find faults in Anna Hazare or his team to kill the Lokpal Bill. This is public display of how to oppose an idea by discrediting the messenger. This awareness makes us more aware of what is going on and keeping idea and advertiser of idea separate. It is like going into a store and saying it does not have good clothes because the mannequin in the store don't look real. 

The second part to this idea of killing the messenger not the message is - internal. To evaluate any idea the first thing you need to do is kill the messenger. Once in your head the messenger is removed you can evaluate so much easily any issue you are presented. If you are dis-passionate about the celebrity then the message generally has not much of a 'bias' or 'drama' left with itself and it is a simple connection you need to make or reject. Even a fun dumb argument like pull shot is more attractive shot than straight drive or not, is a matter of simple choice. But if you now say Ponting played the best pull shot Vs Tendulkar played the best straight drive. Now all the emotions come to the fore and even if you never cared about one shot over the other, now you do!. This is the messenger effect - kill the messenger, not the message. 

Greed of the Crown makes you a Villain.

I was watching the new television series 'Mahabharat' and I came across a beautiful exchange between Kunti and Vrushali (Karn's wife). I have no idea if original Mahabharat has this exchange or this is interpretation of the director. But this exchange does make this philosophy look good.

Karna - में विवश हु, क्युकी अब मैंने अपने मस्तक पे मुकुट धारण कर लिया है. मैं  इस मुकुट के बोझ से विवश हुँ. 

Vrushali - मुकुट धारण करने से तुम इतने विवश हो गए हो की धर्म जानते हुए भी अधर्म के पक्ष में हो.

Kunti - मुकुट पर कलंक मत लगने दो पुत्र कर्ण, मेरे पुत्र भी मुकुट धारण कर चुके हैं, मुकुट नहीं पुत्री मुकुट की लालसा व्यक्ति को बुरे कर्म करने पे विवश कर देती है.  (No it is not the crown that makes you do things that are not right, it is the greed of the crown that makes you do bad things.)

Everyone has a crown on their head, it could be your job, your relationships, your responsibility. These can bog you down from doing the right things or so we think. It is generally assumed that we have to do things because our job demands it. A manager can be rude to the employee because he is asked to. He hides behind the company policy, he  has targets to meet etc. He won't be rude to random guy on street. Parents hide behind parenting. Even social experiments show that regular people can be cajoled into killing others if they are provided the setup where somehow they can mortgage the responsibility of their actions to others. Even Nazi soldiers who were killing babies were not born evil, they were just following orders and duties which is another way of absolving yourself of your own actions. We are no better, at first opportunity we look to absolve ourselves of responsibility we hide behind the 'crown' and do the stuff easily that would have been uneasy.

In general just like Vrushali and Karna we all think that it is not me, it is my crown. We make 2 separate entities within ourselves that division of self creates division in heart and mind leading to unease. The moment we talk about our crown be it - your position at your job, family, society. As an engineer I need to...,, as a Dad / Mom I have to.... as a friend.... as a citizen... as a XYZ....  STOP. that is a trap. Check again, is it because of the crown you are going to do something which the basic you won't allow? Many people look completely different when at work (or when they are acting out one of their crowned responsibility) Vs when they are themselves. 

The position is seeming to make this happen but the fact is the greed or love of that position is making a person do bad things. Greed of staying the Dad, or a Friend, or Manager, or whatever, makes you do worse things than you will allow yourself to do.