Justice, Equality, and Fairness

"In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?" - Saint Augustine 

A few days ago, while I was travelling by local transport, I met a felon. I mean, this is perhaps the reason why the ‘well-to-do’ and the ‘educated’ classes seldom take the mass transit. Anyway, we picked up a conversation that not only kept me off from falling asleep, but also made me rethink about justice system of our society.

This man, seated besides me, was put in prison for two years, after he was convicted for a crime related to drugs. Well, you may now wonder, what is wrong with a system in which, a guilty is brought to books. So, here is the flip side. He was raised in crime prone, poor neighborhood. Secondly, his trial was fast and having no money, he could not hire a good lawyer, who would have helped him get a reduced sentence. And what has this period of serving the sentence done to him now? For beginners, he is not even interviewed, let alone hired, by most employers. He manages to survive by doing odd jobs, and feels that he isn’t given a fair chance to reform and rejoin the society.

Pondering through this conversation, few questions struck me. The first one, what if he could afford fees to hire a good lawyer? Does the justice system favor the wealthy? And if this is a reflection is justice system of a country like the US, which claims to stand for justice, is justice really fair? Finally, if this is not fair, how would a perfectly just society look like?

As I’m not trained in political science or moral philosophy, I did some research and most of my points are based on the works of two of the greatest minds of our times, in these fields, John Rawls and Amartya Sen.

Rawls in his book, A Theory of Justice, introduces a concept called ‘Justice as Fairness’. Claiming, justice-as-fairness to be political, and not metaphysical, he explains the two fundamentals it comprises of, a) Liberty and b) Equality. Liberty is fully understood, only if the  circumstances bring in the right awareness. And equality is hurt by several factors beyond ones control. Say, whom you are born to, or how much you could afford to pay, are unacceptable forms of inequality. These factors indirectly give a license to the high and mighty, to treat justice as a system, skewed in their favor.

Amartya Sen’s book, The Idea of Justice, helps in understanding how a perfectly just society would look like. In one sentence, it would be a society in which almost everything would be worked by a reasoned social agreement, to mutual content. And as human nature is flawed, a pragmatic goal should be, enhancement of justice and reduction of injustice, from this world.

‘How could this become a reality?’, is a million dollar question. I don’t know the answer for this question, but would not hesitate to guess that giving up on the sense of entitlement, emphasizing on moral education and ethics, rather than social status, could certainly help. Another open question I would like to leave you with is that ‘is this trend of people trying to accumulate wealth, making the system of justice, slightly unfair?’

Tolerance

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – M. K. Gandhi

If there is one disturbing trend that has become increasingly prevalent in our society currently, it has to be intolerance. We see people responding in a violent manner to criticism or comments, which may or may not be true. Either a criticism is right, in which case the concerned people should do their level best to address it, or it is wrong, in which case the concerned people should choose to ignore it. Mainly the criticism or comment, directed against people in power or people who have a religious following, invites such response. How to handle such a situation is probably best illustrated by a story about Buddha, which I read recently. Here’s how it goes:

Once, Buddha was in town to spread his message of peace and non-violence. There were several who did not approve of this. One such person, who disagreed with Buddha’s view on patience and tolerance, decided to teach him a lesson. It is said that Buddha would start his day by taking a dip in the pond at the dawn, to signify physical purity. While he was walking out of the pond, the cynic who was determined to teach Buddha a lesson, spat on him. Buddha smiled and went right back into the pond and took another dip. Again while he was going back, this misanthropist spat on Buddha, with an expectation to start a verbal tussle. Buddha again smiled and went right back to the pond and took a dip once more. This happened more than fifty times, before one of his disciples; saw this disturbing occurrence again and again. He came to Buddha’s defense, by trying to fight the cynic. Buddha said to his disciple that “It is his determination to make me physically impure and it is my determination to keep myself physically pure. My aim will not be achieved by fighting him, but by being determined to what I am doing. Allow him to do what he is doing and allow me to do what I am doing. Let sanity prevail.” Realizing that Buddha would not fight back, the cynic continued spitting on Buddha, until finally Buddha had taken his ritually established dip, for the 108^th time. That is when he asked Buddha, “How come you don’t want to stop me? Why don’t you react? I am feeling frustrated about your inaction, and have no further desire to spoil your ritual.” Buddha said to him, “You answered your own questions. By not reacting, I killed your desire to disturb my ritual. By fighting, I would have merely stopped you from disturbing my ritual. So, I have accomplished a greater task by my approach of tolerance.” It is said that the same man became one of Buddha’s foremost disciples, and continued living the rest of his life, practicing and preaching non-violence and tolerance.

I think the world would have been a better place to live in, had most people focused on transforming or reforming a person than merely trying to curtail a person from doing wrongs, using brute force. When I started writing this article, I thought this story was apt for the current times. However by the end, I realized that there is a timeless lesson elaborated in it.

Misinformation: A Social Media Menace

"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices"

- Voltaire

As social media is becoming increasing popular, its downside is increasingly becoming apparent. Well, I’m not going to accentuate those pitfalls, but would suggest some options to avoid becoming a victim of or contributing to, this misinformation.

To make my point, here’s a brief incident which is widely circulated in the social media.

Bill Gates was at coffee shop:

After having his coffee, he gave $5 to the waiter as a tip. Waiter picked up the money, but with an evil smile on his face. Gates realized this and asked, “What happened?” The waiter replied, “I'm just amazed because in the same coffee shop, your son gave a tip of $500 and you, his father, the richest man in the world, tipped only $5.” Gates smiled and replied with the meaningful words, "He's the son of the world's richest man, but I am the son of a wood cutter”

The moral of this incident is: NEVER FORGET YOUR PAST.

Are you wondering why I am taking offence to this incident? Well, for beginners, Bill Gates is not a son of wood cutter (click here for proof). He was born to fairly wealthy parents. Now you may say, even if the incident is a made up one, the moral is good. Think about it this way. Five years down the line (assuming I will be making more money than what I am making today), if I tip a bartender $1 and claim, “five years ago, I was a struggling grad-student”, it is only likely to invite those harsh glares from the bartender. People would quickly (and rightly) draw the conclusion of my parsimonious nature. Point is, use common sense and don’t accept the morals concluded by someone else. Don’t we already have religions which have often created such legends to glorify particular practices? Why take social media in the similar direction?

It is not too hard to verify the authenticity of incidents posted on social media. Here are some pointers:

1. Don’t be a monkey on computer keyboard and hit the ‘share’ or ‘publish’ buttons. Please use common sense.
2. Don’t believe any information unless it is from official (or reputed) sources. It may take a few extra minutes, but you will be doing social service on social media by improving the quality of content. Learn to distinguish between opinions and facts.
3.  If you see a clear agenda behind any post, it is likely to be either exaggerated or untrue. Use your discretion, unless you too have the same agenda. In which case, you are degrading the quality of content on social media.

I’m not a big fan of censorship on social media. But it is responsibility of every user to understand that no freedom is absolute. In the US, freedom of speech is guaranteed by the constitution, yet shouting fire in a crowded theatre, is not permissible. One has to show some self-restraint. If not, in future more people are less likely to participate in social media.

The Art of dealing with Teenager’s issues

"We change, we grow up, we goof up, we love, we hurt; we’re teenagers. We're still learning"                     -Anonymous

I first thought of writing a self-help-style article targeted at teenagers, but gave up on that idea quickly, realizing that it would not go down well with my targeted audience. So I decided to write this post for parents with teenage kids and others who have well crossed the teenage, and may soon find this article useful.

The western society has been well aware of the clichés associated with teenage, such as curiosity, rebellion and, believing views of others in the same age group to be truly righteous. Perhaps these issues could have been easily neglected in India, about two decades ago. But our country is in a transition state, a migration from feudal system to a modern industrialized society. That being the case, these issues have become extremely relevant to the Indian society, especially in the large cities.

Observing these signs in teenagers itself, doesn’t imply understanding the situation. What is crucial here is to understand the reason why these issues remain prevalent. The first reason is the physical changes that teenagers undergo. Without acknowledging this fact, we can do little or nothing to help them cope up with this phase of life. The second reason is their developing the ability to think on their own, but with little or no experience.

To help the teenagers deal with this sensitive phase, as adults we need to be patient and understand, and hence the word, ‘art’ in the title. It is certainly tempting to punish and apply the phrase, “spare the rod and spoil the child”, when things don’t go our way. However research indicates that punishment may help change their behavior only temporarily. Instead of punishment, a positive reinforcement technique, where an individual is rewarded for displaying a particular behavior or habit, is more beneficial.

Also talking to teenagers seriously helps you win their confidence. Showing interests in their hobbies and keeping up the tastes of current generation may be a little demanding, but can be rewarding. And finally, treating them like grownups would help them understand their responsibility. An example of this would be: If they fail to keep their end of a commitment, do not keep your end. This will help them realize that you take them seriously.

The previous generation, perhaps, did not have the need to think through this as seriously as the current generation. That is purely because the teenagers are well equipped, curtsy Internet and other technological advancements. Depriving and punishing should not be among the options, as these would fuel the already existing rebellion tendencies. 

An Inspiring Life

"The way to gain a good reputation, is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear".

- Socrates

I spent most part of the last Sunday, writing and editing the below article. It is based on a series of incidents in a life of a professor, which were narrated to me by one of my former professors.

If you google the name Gene H. Golub, besides his personal webpage at Stanford University, you are likely to come across numerous theorems and research papers. Like most professors, he too had a tremendous track record, both in terms of teaching as well as research. However that’s not my focus of writing. The manner in which, he led his life, is what inspires me.

In his twenties, after obtaining a PhD, Prof Golub got an opportunity to travel to University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, for carrying out further research. While at Cambridge, one day he came across a beautiful young lady and immediately got attracted to her. They say computer scientists and mathematicians can never be that guy at a bar, who can just go and talk to a girl and impress her. This is probably the reason why Prof. Golub could not express his feelings and few months later returned to the United States, making a firm decision that he will never marry any other girl.

Probably this decision worked in his favor. He continued doing great research all his life and shaping many students’ careers. He built such good relations, especially with international students, that they would even live with him, as his house guests for several days. Likewise, when he travelled abroad, he would be hosted mostly by his former students.

Nearly thirty-five years later he again got an opportunity to travel to Cambridge. And guess what? He again came across the same lady, who was probably as beautiful as then, but certainly not young. However this time around, Prof. Golub expressed his feelings openly. As she had been widowed this time, she did agree to marry him. By the time when most people in his age group retire, he continued to work, as he was newlywed and had to deal with the starting expenses of new life.

Some years later they separated and Prof. Golub continued devoting more time to his teaching and research. He worked till he died at the age of 75, in the year 2007. He did great work, got whom he wanted to be with, and amidst of that he was genuine do-gooder. Now isn’t such a life awe-inspiring? 

The Spiral Cone Effect

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
― Mark Twain

I had started writing this article months ago, but found time only today to complete it. From now on, I shall be more regular in posting articles.

Have you ever come across this term, ‘spiral cone’ before? It would embarrass me to a great extent if some of my readers answered ‘yes’, to the above question. At least I would like to believe that this metaphor is coined by me for the purpose of explaining a peculiar human behavior.

So what is this spiral cone? Literally it’s a conical structure, starting at one point, increasingly becoming narrower and narrower to the final point. Think about it for a while and then try to figure out where you come across such structure in your day to day life. If not literally at least we all come across several people whose thoughts replicate the exact same model.

Most humans exhibit this structure in thinking.  Below scenario might ring some bells:

• My country is great
• People from my state are greater
• People from my region of the state are even greater
• People of my hamlet in that region are even greater
• I am the greatest

The greatest possible remedies to this problem are:

A) Travel

B) Have an open mind

C) Stop Judging

Unless people give up believing that they are the best or always right, differences would always appear as ‘wrong’ and similarities as ‘right’. Being an eternal optimist, I hope this structure of thought will one day change in many societies.

Leadership

Writing about leadership in the times we currently live in could be very challenging, as most points about leadership are already well known. In this article I have made an attempt to write about some of the less known points about leadership.

Firstly, what is leadership? Hardest are those questions, whose answers seem to be obvious. Most people may visualize a suit-clad man, talking about something real big. At this point the question arises, ‘is leadership about wearing fancy outfits and talking big?’ Probably not! While pondering this question, I came out with three points which would explain leadership in a fair spirit.

One; Ability to decide based on your conviction rather than someone else’s opinion is one such quality. I felt like highlighting this point after reading a quote by Nelson Mandela, “Everything seems impossible until someone known to you, gets it done" The truth is that someone, who got it done didn’t share the belief which the majority imposed on him / her. What separated that person from the rest is the ability to think and act independently.

Two; Leadership is not bigger than a person. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t remember of any object or machine, known for its leadership. It has always been about people, regardless of what category of leadership you wish to consider. And it is very simple to stand out from rest by being different. Then the question is, ‘how to be different?’ Think of those mistakes which are often made and try to avoid repeating them. In a commercial world, kindness seems to be one of the biggest scarcities. Your ability to show kind gestures will automatically put you in a different league.

Three; A leader is nothing, if he/she fails to inspire his/her followers. Leading an exemplary life is easy said, than done. Being genuine, in your words as well as actions will never go unnoticed. Practice what you preach and preach what you practice. Only by this way, you will be able to carry others aboard on the same plane, you currently are flying in.

An additional point could be, avoid imitating people. I would conclude this post with a quote by the great philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti, “If you are very clear, if you are inwardly a light unto yourself, you will never follow anyone”

Reasonable Expectations

The motivation to this post sources to the article on ‘Project Triangle’, which I read a few days ago. The bottom line of which is: A product or service can be Cheap, Fast, Good; pick any two. This is the corporate way of setting the right expectations. The question is: Is this how things actually work in real life too? Another question is that what if someone makes an offer that defies this rule? I thought about it for a while and then remembered a story, I had read as 8 years old. I’m posting the same story, and to my mind, this story is incredibly relevant even today.

Long, long ago, there was king in southern part of India. He had set a daunting goal for himself, to keep every person in his kingdom happy. As the summer approached, the main agenda which the king had to deal with was to provide good quality hand fans to everyone, at most affordable rates. In some of southern states of India, the summer can be nasty beyond imagination. As this is a story from the era, when there was no electricity, hand fans were the only viable alternatives. Being a fair minded king, he invited bids from all the craftsmen who could come up with affordable and fancy-looking fan that would perfectly suit the needs of the people. The king, with the help of his finance minister, selected three bidders and gave them orders for making 100 fans each, and after a public feedback, one of them would get the contract to make the fans for the rest of the public. The first two craftsmen had the same negative feedback from people, of being too pricy while people were not too happy with the beauty element of the fans, made by the third one. The king was puzzled and said to his finance minister, “There seems no plausible way to please these people. They find 50ps fans expensive and are not happy with looks of those fans that cost 30ps. How do we deal with these people Mr. Finance Minister?” The finance minister’s wisdom was unbounded and he came up with a solution. The solution was, to hire an anonymous craftsman who would make an attractive fan for just 10ps, but it came at a condition. Every resident had to make the payment in advance for their individual fan. People were very happy and lined up to place their orders. A week later, as promised, all the fans costing just 10ps were made available to each of the resident. Everybody seemed happy till they actually tried to use the fan. The moment someone tried to oscillate the fan for the gentle breeze, the fan simply broke. By the same evening, almost everyone had lined up in front of the king, whining and complaining. It was then the king who brought it to everyone’s attention, about the note inscribed on the fan, which was very hard to notice otherwise. It read, “Cheap and fancy fan… oscillate your face in front of this fan for cool breeze. But if you oscillate the fan, it will break” The king asked everybody to be cautious from now on and read carefully before they bought a product, whose dynamics defied conventional wisdom. People realized that this was king’s ploy to teach them a lesson and set reasonable expectations in future. However, once they had learnt this lesson, the king presented each of them with a free fan for that summer.

Every choice that we make in life, involves tradeoffs and if we are unwilling to forgo anything, we probably end up either losing everything or doing nothing. The timeless lesson to be taken away is to be reasonable in setting our expectations, be it money matters, personal relations or professional life. A few may even draw a conclusion that a task to please everyone at the same time itself may be an unrealistic goal.

Statistics: A Tricky Measure

“Statistics can prove anything, even the truth” - Noel Moynihan

Many people would agree with the statement, “Life would probably be less meaningful if we discount statistics from it”. Even if you were to disagree, I fervently believe that most professions of today wouldn’t even exist had we been less fascinated with statistics. And if you talk to anyone who has done research of some sort, they will confirm the importance of statistics.

So, why is statistics so important to us? Scholars believe that statistics plays a vital role in every field of human activity. Humans in general desire predictability, consistency, and assurance to make better decisions. Essentially statistics quantifies and represents these factors in a more visually comprehendible manner. In spite of this huge advantage that it offers, I’ve always felt that most outcomes based on statistics leave plenty of room for ambiguity. Consider the below scenario.

I recently read an article titled ‘disappointing facts in popular music’ in which the author had posted a fact that “Flo Rida’s (an American rapper & singer) song ‘Low’ sold same number of copies (8 million) as that of the Beatles’ (one of the greatest band of all time) song ‘Hey Jude’” . Now here’s some food for thought. People, who view this fact as a regrettable one, would claim that the quality of music has gone down since the 70’s. That could only be the possible explanation for Flo Rida’s song to match the success of the Beatles’ song. Those who like the rap music, prefer taking a tequila shot, and hit the dance floor, might actually feel that Flo Rida is equally good, if not better, than the Beatles and would cite the same statistics to validate their claim. Then there are those make analysis might include factors such as increase in population from the 70’s to now and the power of Internet to propagate popularity, and conclude other way. Probably, using the same statistics, we can argue from either side. A lot depends on which side are we standing.

For a long time I believed if there is someone who defied this ambiguity that statistics generates was the great cricketer Sir Don Bradman. Recently, a researcher published some facts, using the same available statistics, and concluded that Sir Don was second best batsman, not the best. That is when it became very clear to me that statistics operates more in tandem with ‘confirmation biases’ than logic. In such a case, relying blindly on statistics would seldom help us make effective decisions. The reason I call statistics as a tricky measure is because though there is this visible shortcoming, bright minds have always been able to use statistics effectively.

PS: This article has references to some subjects and people, and could be better understood through the below links:

The Beatles, Hey Jude, Flo Rida, Low, Don Bradman, Confirmation Bias