Spare the rod and spoil the child

"Spare the rod and spoil the child". We have heard this saying numerous times. It simply means.. 'If one does not discipline a child, he or she will never learn obedience and good manners.' Here is why I chose the title..

Recently, India has witnessed age old problems boil over in the form of massive protests which lose steam eventually. Then the poison goes back to simmer and the fumes keep eating into our society. In the past two years we have witnessed and few of us maybe have been a part of two such spills. The first one was corruption and now the rape cases and treatment of women in general. 

The entire country joins in blaming their own elected representatives for not doing anything. New promises are made and broken, just the way they are supposed to be. But I am not saying that these protests are useless and get us nowhere. They do a couple of things. They make us think. They get the issue into limelight where we, as a nation, discuss it. We openly recognize that it is an issue in the first place. Some people get genuinely affected by the charged environment and knowingly or unknowingly change themselves for the good. Many discussions come up where moral and ethical degradation of the society is discussed and the need for transformation as a solution to the issues is proposed. Not many people have good answers as to how this can be done. And I don't blame them. It is not that simple. 

The very fact that the situation boiled over means that the the poisonous brew is extremely strong and something really strong is required to neutralize it. That would be like a moral revolution which is kind of unlikely. We like to believe that education can help set a moral or ethical base but it has been amply proved that education does not help. It just enables you to sin smartly. What we need is to remove the poison from the cauldron slowly. By this I mean harsh deterrents from adding to the poison. I strongly believe that human psychology anywhere in the world is shaped by the environment they live in. Majority of the people living in corruption free countries or places where women are safe are no saints. They have lived under strict laws and more importantly strict law enforcement for generations which has resulted in a natural aversion from committing any misdeed. And here is where my title makes sense. A simple example I can think of is observing traffic rules. It is not that we do not have laws in India. But law enforcement miserably fails. I know it is not easy with India's huge population but it seems the authorities have given up. Thus there is no deterrent and flouting of rules is rampant. 

In countries like USA where law enforcement is extremely strict, we see most of the laws being obeyed. I am pretty sure that this is out of fear of the "ticket" rather than from the feeling of doing the right thing. But it serves the purpose. This fear gradually gets ingrained in the sub-conscious and becomes a habit. That is when you see disciplined traffic. But that initial fear is necessary. And this is where India needs to get its act together. Law enforcers need to take existing laws seriously and law makers need to create some tough ones. For this to happen the political will is necessary. Law enforcers need to have the right rewards and incentives. Law makers need to be free from political games. This will only happen if we have a strong government which does not have to worry about keeping alliances happy. This will only happen if we vote and put some thought into it before electing someone. 

So if you think about it, we, the children need to choose the right parents and give them a rod to discipline ourselves. Or else, we will be nothing but spoilt children ready for mischief.