Once more....
Take One. The guy loves the girl. So he displays his honesty (yours faithfully) and tells her that he doesn't have a job yet; but he is sincerely trying for one. The girl rejects him and marries someone with a job; later, the 'devdas' gets a job.
Take Two. The guy loves the girl. So he hides the fact that he has committed murder, a few days back. He fakes that he works for an upcoming software firm. In due course, the girl falls in love with him. In a few more days, the love gets deeper and madder. They elope away and marry each other. A month later, the police catch the guy and put him behind the bars. The girl continues to love him (I know many women who consider their self-respect linked to being dedicated to the person whom they fell for; it's very much an ego problem).
Now, ignoring the simplicity with which the stories are narrated (mainly for dramatic effect), I wish to combine both the stories. And the resultant story is obvious. Why are we taught those simplistic moral science lessons from childhood? Had the first guy not been honest, and faked that he has a job, which he eventually would get, and then made the girl fall for him, it would have been a much healthier climax to the story.
Now, you folks may argue that, what if the girl gets angry on the guy for lying to her. My dear's, just check what happened in Take Two. Even if Take Two may not apply to all girls, my take is, a girl who cannot forgive her beloved for the simple lies that he told to get her, is not someone whom the guy should waste any more of his life (or lies) on.
So, my point is, the deserving-ness in the whole world is misplaced. Our fable tale moral science no longer works. Reminds me of Somerset Maugham's version of 'The Ant and the Grasshopper'.
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Interesting....
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.. you can never teach your heart to Calculate
.. you can never teach your brain to Love
This generally speaking separates adult human population as 2 kinds -
B-people: kind who think twice before doing anything - brain dominates heart
H-people: another kind who act out of passion - heart dominates brain
B-people always have a problem with the results (any .. either good/bad) that the H-people get.
(there are exceptions but not for now)
This explain the dual-nature problem of the "Grass Hopper Story". Remember the ending story changed a lot since the original version ... which itself is another question!! ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper)
Why so much preface? .... I was tickled by your ref to moral science - this being one of the - how to put it - painful? irritating? boring? classes....what ever it is ... its still in my head ...it started with "The Good Samaritan" though.
We know that by nature kids are not biased either towards heart and brain, with generally the heart being active;
As we grow inumerable factors - environment, parents, society, time, events in life, ...... convert the child to either kind of adult
I think moral science tempers the heart and lets the brain to take over. Moral science is not a "Empirical Science", its just propaganda (may be too tough word ... read sermonising) by the society that B-people are rewarded....not by them but by destiny. It forces on kids an unknown fear/dogma into accepting the notion of the society that you have to live with in their rules and plan.
(ok destiny itself very large concept, not now)
But we are too young to decipher this at the time and too late to change our nature now.
There have been a lot of stories (though not classified as moral) that also show this ambigous nature of the "who/what is rewarded"
A good anti story that can be used in this case is The Cop and the Anthem by O. Henry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cop_and_the_Anthem)
Enough ranting for this morning .....
Good comment Prasad.... Loved going through it today (work was damn crazy till yesterday; so didn't check the blog since 3 days).
ReplyDeleteI do agree... Moral Science was only propaganda...... and its there to inculcate fear about the unknown and be in sync with the society.
I must say I enjoyed reading Prasad's reply than your post..;)....Moral Science is that freaking thing that makes you think of Moral Science whenever your heart is taking over the brain!
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