On control

So I’m a liar.

Maybe so, but what’s better? An unconscious liar or a conscious one? Curious, isn’t it, how society pardons an unconscious liar, writing it off as a hangover from genetics? But it's a crime to lie on purpose.

Perhaps that’s why we need a framework for rationalizing; rationalizing is important.

But I’m digressing here; I always find it strange that we forgive events if they happened out of our circle of control. That drives the judgment on one’s degree of morality: if crime happened out of our circle of control, we are eligible for the ticket to heaven. I’m sure the gates will be guarded by a toll-booth, and all the excess baggage that one carries will be weighed and the price will have to be paid. (NB: Hilarious, isn’t it? Jesus’ death was considered a crime by all of humanity, but noone paid the price!)

Personally, I admire a person in full control of his or her faculties and consciously commits a crime, over a person who never had control in the first place. Such people deserve to be studied, rather than paying tax-money into curing the latter category of people.

So I’ve put across my first observation: that control is more admirable than its absence. It’s marvelous when no one is quite sure what you’re in control of, but you’re the Man!

Maybe that’s why we create sages and prophets: gentlemen and gentlewomen who debunk all theories that we are in control. This happens every two centuries or so: the message is spread through love….and six thousand devotees who give you a tax-break for donating to their charitable cause, and invite you every Saturday to attend their prayers, and arrange for community gatherings where the children can play, and the men can discuss the rising steel prices.

The issue of control has never quite been resolved, has it? Governments, religions, monopolies, marriages and failed relationships, the local astrologer……isn’t it a question of control?

Stock markets follow random walks, because at no point of time is one sure of who is in charge! Like a piece of software that everybody uses, but noone is quite sure who made, or who runs, or who benefits! Like office automation.

We’ve come a long way to realize that we never left home.