The Ant and the Grasshopper - 'hel(l)'m of affairs!!

Not a stable mind of mine, as it is, I often keep oscillating between socialist and liberal views. Though I might somehow settle somewhere between the two by striking a balance, I realize the futility of spending time over such theoretical issues which don't have any meaning left in the way they are put to use in practice. Though socialist views are often considered to be noble, one must never be fanatic at it; one must never be fanatic at anything for that matter! An excess of such zeal with socialism (or rather to gain power which is the universal ultimate aim) often produces results worthy of mockery prima facie by reasonably sensible people. A very apt instance of such result is the quest for socialist substantive equality. The notion and the essence of it is undoubtedly very noble and morally acceptable but the implementation is equally unreasoned and mindless. Synonymous to the policies of Mohammad bin Tughlaq, the classifications done to establish classes of unequals in order to bring substantive equality are often based on such grounds which fail to correctly identify the deserving ones. Afterall, equality is not above ensuring welfare, and the form of equality sought to be achieved i.e. to place everyone on an equal pedestal in the superficial manner is practically impossible owing to basic human nature. Why do we confine our thinking and mindset to such narrow conventions? The first step to achieve substantive equality according to me is to change rusted typical mindset of considering classes of unequals, at leaast on the social grounds. In such a case, as of considering every job, every institute and every person socially respectable and 'equal', the most prominent difference that might exist will be on monetary basis but even that should be looked in light of what one deserves. 'We reap what we sow' and even the government cannot ensure everyone to be economically equal, or even aim for it as is done by substantive equality, when people differ in what they deserve to earn. Basically, my assumption is that only when people are ensured of what they deserve, equality is established and that things should be looked at holistically instead of an emotional jaundiced-eye-view to gain popular support. Formal equality becomes preferable over substantive equality when the classification done and the aim sought to be achieved by substantive equality goes beyond the limit of justified socialism to vote bank politics and to deteriorate the condition, those unjustly reaping benefits out of such distortion of substantive equality, or likely to do so, shamelessly demand for more. Anyway, all these thoughts are just to justify my blog's tagline and hold negligible value when it comes to real world state-of-affairs. By the way, these thoughts struck me when i read this amazing satire about the two different versions of the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper corresponding to the helm of affairs -

* Ant & Grasshopper *

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

* Modern Version*

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. *NDTV, BBC, CNN * show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed suffering so? * Arundhati Roy ***stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house . * Medha Patkar***goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.* Amnesty International and Koffi Annan *criticizes the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper. The *Internet* is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) . * Opposition MPs *stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPI(M) in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality ofpoverty among Ants and Grasshoppers. * Lalu Prasad *allocates one freecoach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath ' . Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the '*Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act ' *[POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.* Arjun Singh *makes '*Special Reservation *'for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services. The Ant; fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes; its home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV. Arundhati Roy calls it ' *A Triumph of Justice* ' . Lalu calls it '*Socialistic Justice *' . CPM calls it the ' *Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden *' Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the *UN General Assembly*.

* Many years later *

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in * SiliconValley * . 100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ... because of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the Grasshoppers, * India is still a developing country!!!*