When I watched
Shawshank
Redemption for the first time, I was struck, among other things, by a
conversation among the prison inmates. It is when Red explains that old Brooks,
a long-term prisoner, resorted to violence on being granted parole because he
was “institutionalised.” He then elaborates on the psychological effect of
imprisonment on those who have been jailed for decades together, but what made
a strong impression on me was the apparent connection between ‘institutionalisation’
and incarceration. Is every institution a kind of prison-house, I wondered.
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In trying to answer this intriguing question, I wanted to
tackle the root of the problem: the possible origin of most social institutions.
Tracing how these institutions developed in the process of human civilisation,
I thought, may offer a clue to their real nature and purpose. When I say ‘human
civilisation,’ of course, we can conveniently omit the pre-historic age when
evolution was still by and large a physical phenomenon, and focus only on the
times of recorded history, ever since we have been proud to think of ourselves
as the possessors of culture.
At a time when mankind was still largely in its
hunting-gathering phase, there was little chance for any organised social
behaviour. The ideas of both ‘organisation’ and ‘society’ are the key to
understanding all the developments that followed. When every man’s survival
meant a daily battle with other (often larger and more ferocious) species,
there couldn’t have been much time for socialising, leave alone establishing
any rules of conduct. So, once we discount those human activities that were
merely survival tactics (such as taming animals and living in settlements) and
look closely at what Man did after he began to think over what he was doing, we shall find the roots of all social
institutions.
Across different civilisations of the ancient times, there
are to be found some fundamental institutions such as marriage and family,
religion, a system of government, a legal framework, and suchlike, whose
existence cannot merely be explained away as expedient tools of survival. The
inherent complexity of many of these systems, right from the ancient times
until now, challenges the notion that they were born simply in response to our
primordial needs. The caveman’s worship of Fire and Thunder may perhaps be
accounted for by fear, but such rudimentary motivations fail to explain the elaborate
mythologies created by more sophisticated Greeks, Indians, and Nordic races.
To trace the evolution of all social institutions, we could
analyse as an illustrative case the one institution which seems both ubiquitous
and enduring—Marriage. The birth of Marriage was an indication of Man moving
away from casual sexual encounters and fierce competition among mating rivals.
The institution of marriage could ensure that a man had a wife (or several) of
his own, and this security allowed room for greater emotional bonding between
the man and his wife/wives. (The imposition of monogamy was, no doubt, an
afterthought!) The whole question of parenting and other shared domestic
responsibilities (over the millennia) has strengthened these ties, making marriage
a viable institution across cultures.
The growth of civilisation further refined and embellished
the structure, gradually elevating Marriage to the top rung of venerable social
institutions. The ascent of Marriage to the powerful status it enjoys today
among the must-haves of every culture was not the result of a blind, overnight coup d'état. Its success was
orchestrated by great visionaries and inspired thinkers at every stage of human
civilisation who realised the joy of loving and sharing, the mutual sense of intimacy
between a couple and all that constitutes ‘the bliss of marital life.’ It is to
their great credit that they were able to share their vision with less-gifted
mortals in order to make the blessings of marriage accessible to every human
being. In evidence of this, we can clearly see that, at this day and age, we
don’t think of ourselves as getting married primarily in order to eliminate
mating competition. Marriage has grown to become the socially recognised repository
of love, trust and affection. Odes have been composed in honour of conjugal
happiness and the entire genre of romantic narratives (along with a thriving
rom-com industry) has been built on this foundation. Thus goes the story of the
origin of Marriage and its steady rise to glory. A similar history may be made
out for most institutions that exist.
If you look closely, it is true, of course, that every
institution that survives today is founded upon a lofty ideal. Marriage, for
instance, or even religion. The former was meant to acknowledge and celebrate
human love, while the latter was Man’s way of recognising, and also
reciprocating, Divine Love. Then arises the inevitable question: why, then, is
our world today all but ideal? The corruption, violence, ignorance, hatred and
evil that we witness all around obviously could not have been the natural products
of an ideal order. So, where exactly did the rot set in? The trouble, I am
convinced, lies in the gap between the initial vision that acted as the driving
force and the sadly compromised form it achieved in execution.
Let me explain this further. Every social institution was
created by some visionary leaders of every community, who were inspired by a
praiseworthy ideal that they wanted to share with the rest of the society.
Love, Justice, and Enlightenment were just some of those ideals that these
extraordinary minds had conceived of, to be worthy goals for the whole of
humanity to aspire for. However, such ideals could not be shared with others in
their abstraction. They needed to assume a corporeal form in order to be accessible
to the general public that could not partake of these abstract visions. And ay,
there’s the rub. Whenever a forbiddingly high ideal is to be made accessible to
the lowest common denominator of intelligence, its integrity is inevitably
compromised. The form or the outer structure remains and penetrates every
section of society, gathering strength all the while, but the spirit quietly
departs. In fact, the stronger the physical form an ideal assumes, the farther
the final result is likely to be from the spirit behind its conception.
To test this theory, consider a different example. The
process of initial compromise and eventual degeneration can be seen at work in
the creation of another major institution: organised religion. The curiosity to
know more about forces greater than himself prompted Man to contemplate the
idea of Divinity. The pioneering thinkers and mystics who felt that they had a
direct experience or a revelation of a Supreme Being wanted to share this
experience with those who had not. In trying to express the ineffable, they had
to resort to much dumbing-down as well as oblique methods of communication, and
ultimately ended up creating mythology. Successive generations attached further
and further literal meaning to their communication, progressively alienating
themselves from the spirit behind the original vision. In the place of a
nebulous and tentative conception of the God-Experience, ever open to
investigation and exploration, massive groups of human beings now had gods and
their families (complete with children, step-mothers, and incestuous relatives!)
to worship. Once these gods started multiplying like guinea pigs, Man had to
house them somewhere. That accounts for all the imposing physical structures of
temples, churches or synagogues that were erected. And what would these gods do
in their idle hours, once provided with the security of housing and periodical
food offerings? Why, listen to songs that people made up in their praise! Thus,
to make the process complete, ritualised forms of worship were prescribed, with
a privileged priestly class steadily battening on the remains of the gods. As
the structure solidified with the passage of time, the idea of spiritual quest
was increasingly lost sight of. In this way, spirituality was institutionalised
into Religion.
Institutions, then, are the flawed inventions of fecund
minds in order to administer to a near-savage populace a poor imitation of the
ideals which they themselves conceive of in abstraction. The ideals which
inspired those rare geniuses suffer progressive deterioration as they gain
wider and wider currency, finally existing only as a parody of their original
selves, but practised dogmatically by the great unwashed masses in the shape of
mandatory institutional forms. But, didn’t those great visionaries realise how
their cherished ideals would be betrayed by the very forms that they had
created? I’m afraid, the answer is yes. Imagine the pain they must have felt
when they saw what mankind would make of their pristine and sublime inspirations.
I strongly believe it is this anguish that is depicted in the metaphorical
story of the Fall of Adam and Eve.
As I explained earlier, the most powerful means of
communication available to those inspired thinkers among our ancestors was
myths and allegorical stories, by which they tried to crystallise their unique
vision of our future. The familiar fable of the Fall of Man is one such illustration
of their most heart-breaking realisation—that human beings tend to corrupt
everything that comes to them in an ideal state. The Paradise, of course,
stands for all that is ideal, and sadly, Man proves unworthy of the great gift
and loses it by sheer wilfulness. Then, consider how ironical it is, that this poignant
symbolism should have been turned into one of the many bed-time stories that
religion lulls us with!
Once you recognise the process of degeneration that sets in
with institutionalisation, you can apply the same principle to evaluate any of
the powerful social institutions that exist today. For instance, the highest
aspirations of intellectual curiosity and the liberal pursuit of knowledge have
been converted into the degree-producing education system that we are saddled
with today. Or, think of how the law, with its bureaucratic judicial system and
ridiculous loopholes, has come to represent the more abstract ideal of
Universal Justice. Every institution is, in fact a huge grinding system that
works by simplifying emotions into conventional expressions, ideas into
procedures and inspiration into habit. Once reduced to such an unimaginative
and impersonal set of rules, rituals and formats, every ideal becomes a shadow
of itself. The practical advantage of this, however, is that all those who
cannot be convinced of ideas can be conditioned and disciplined into following
conventions. A major share of humanity, unfortunately, falls under the category
of those impervious to ideals, and this is where the idea of ‘organised social
behaviour’ comes into play. Institutions are super-efficient, self-sustaining engines
that can be run with minimal effort and zero imagination.
I am sure you must have seen those curious desiccate flowers
that many of us preserve inside books. Devoid of the true colour, fragrance,
and above all, the gentle freshness that characterise flowers, the desiccated
ones merely retain the shape, hardened and coarsened, a grim reminder of their
original texture. Come to think of it, are all institutions like these dead
specimens that have only been hardened by time? Unfortunately, no. If they were
only fossilised structures incapable of any real harm, the world we live in
would be a much happier place indeed. But, the truth, alas, is quite the contrary. In fact, the most dangerous aspect of many institutions is that they work
like fake currencies. They assume the value of what they are not and pass
undetected among the less discerning. The common man mistakes conformity to
religion for spiritual fulfilment and a degree certificate for intellectual
attainment. These institutions do not merely represent an ideal, but replace
it altogether. The very fact of being married takes away the obligation on the
couple to seek, express or experience that sublime and mysterious quality of
Love; the criminal acquitted by a court of law for want of evidence brags that
Justice has been done. What to say of the deluded young graduate holding a
paper that unequivocally declares that she has acquired all the wisdom
requisite to call her, henceforth, ‘educated’? To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, where
is the Knowledge we have lost in Education?
Talking of fake currency here reminds me, ironically, of the
one major institution—the government—which has the longest history of debates
and polemics in its evolution. One would think that after all the constant
wrangle, we might have hit upon the ideal form: but the Government today
remains the ultimate fake currency! Where we need a divinely inspired ruler or
benign and farsighted leaders, we have corrupt and vote-bank-pandering
politicians, backed by divisive, unprincipled parties. Cash-for-vote is only
the latest form of ugliness to emerge from our already rotten system of
governance. A wise and disillusioned E.M. Forster could declare more than half
a century ago that even democracy is only a compromised form, a sort of
least-of-all-evils. He gives it only two cheers, instead of three.
Now, there is a question you may legitimately ask: are all
institutions, then, irredeemably evil? In other words, is there no chance for
Love within Marriage, Justice within Law, and Enlightenment within our
Educational system? Thankfully, they are not. Institutions are too mechanical
and impersonal to be characterised as evil, per
se. They allow all evils to thrive within them, of course, but they are not
inherently evil. Left in the hands of the common people who are not gifted with
any extraordinary intelligence, sensitivity or courage, they become the
breeding ground for all evils. Remember, institutions are not corrupted by the
positively wicked, but merely by the incompetent. After all, one need not be a
bad person to be in an unhappy marriage or a hard-core criminal in order to be an
unenlightened postgraduate. Simply by failing to rise to the ideal of selfless
love or the liberal spirit of enquiry, you may be left with the rotting carcass
of an institution rather than the uplifting spirit behind it.
All it requires is a bit of honesty to acknowledge that religion
gets reduced to rituals; the shell of marriage becomes a set of social
shackles; knowledge is measured by marks scored—these are certainly the
consequences of the natural degeneration of the system. But, if this process of
decay is inevitable, is it also irreversible? What does it take to stem the
rot? The good news is, it is definitely possible for an individual to infuse
life into any of these institutions, but only at a strictly personal level.
With a sincere effort of imagination and true soul-searching, one may indeed
discover God within the church or by an unquenchable thirst to learn, one may
find the means to gain unfettered knowledge within the confines of a college.
By consciously overcoming your innate selfishness and investing effort into
caring for another person, you may bring that delicate spirit of Love alive
even within the rigidly codified system of marriage. But the crucial thing to
remember is that, whatever you do, you can only elevate the system for yourself. The institution, as a
whole, can never be redeemed by the actions of one individual or one hundred.
The coldly impersonal grindstone will remain what it is.
History is filled with the cases of spectacular failures of
great people who have tried to make a lasting change to the system and redeem
it for everybody. Martin Luther, Joan of Arc and Ramanuja could defy and
challenge Religion; their historical achievement is certainly significant, but
religion to the average man on the street still remains the same. Kennedy and
Lincoln made a significant difference to government and political policies, but
the natural degeneracy of the system outlasted their attempts at reform. Raja
Rammohan Roy could fight for the blatant injustices of child marriage and Sati
to be rooted out, but which reformer can ensure that every man is a loving,
caring husband?
What this really means is, once you recognise the nature of social
institutions, the onus is completely on you
to make the best of them. Only you
can put life into the empty shell, and not vice versa. Being married will never
teach you love, being in college will never fill you with wisdom, whereas, you,
the individual, can impart a higher spirit into any system, in whatever state
of decay it may be. But, this task is in no way going to be easy. It would be
an uphill struggle, an everyday battle against the temptation to settle
comfortably for the least difficult option of letting the institutions govern
your life.
Or a greater course still, and one chosen by the strongest
individuals who are not daunted by the petty demands of society, is to go straightaway
for the substance rather than the scaffold built around it. Set out on a
personal exploration to find Love, Knowledge and Spiritual fulfilment outside the
traditional bounds of marriage, universities and religious denominations. In
fact, the great visionaries I spoke of were indeed the ones who received their
inspiration only by hazarding to explore the unknown and not by trying to think
from inside a shoebox. Even if you do not think of yourself as the next great
leader whose grand vision is about to change the world, this more daring course
would at least make you a much better human being. There have been such
exceptional individuals all through the course of human history, and I can
think of at least one such person among the popular public figures in
Tamilnadu.
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Let me conclude by telling you the extraordinary story of
what one of those old, wise men could foretell thousands of years ago about our
society. It is, as before, a story written by a sensitive idealist frustrated
by the ignorance of those around. This
wise man set out on a gruelling journey in search of God. All the others in his
tribe awaited his return with the message from God, but were growing impatient.
As their wait prolonged, they decided to make an idol—a golden calf—for
themselves so that they may have something to worship and make offerings to. It
apparently didn’t matter much to them that their absent leader had gone on their
behalf and in search of the true ideal. They wanted quick solutions and not
necessarily the right one. Further, they were not ready to put themselves
through the trouble of finding the truth on their own, but were quick to find
fault with the delay of the only responsible man who had undertaken the
mission. When the man finally returned, the story goes, he was so furious at
the false idol they had created that he put most of them to death.
The mythological element apart, this story explains the
nature of most social institutions. First, that the common run of people who
cannot subject themselves to the discipline of undertaking any quest don’t
think twice about betraying the ideals of the best among them. Further, when
such people create an idol of their choice, they would stick to it and swear by
it, even if they happen to know that it is a false god. The golden calf of that
age has been transformed into the formidable ‘holy cows’ of modern society.