Whenever i talk to my dear friend Rudra, i realize that the answers we are looking for are usually hidden in the question itself. We met after three years and we were conversing randomly. We've known each other for more than half a decade and yet the manner of our conversation hasn't changed. We ask questions and delve into various answers without any intention of arriving at a conclusion. As per our ritual, seated on the balcony, we were shuttling back and forth queries and possible replies. One such query caught me off guard. He asked me the reason why poor people remain so. I countered pointing out that there are 7.3 billion people on this planet and less than half of that figure is ACTUALLY poor. In fact, the number of people who pulled themselves out of poverty during this century is astonishing, not just in China and India but across the globe. So, my digression was that poor people don't ALWAYS remain so. In my mind, i was thinking that he'll counter by saying that poor people don't give birth to rich people so that the equation doesn't fall in the underprivileged's corner.
Turns out he had something better to say.
His theory is that the reason why poor people remain so is they are unreasonable. And this aspect is evident not just in their general characteristics but also in their very essence of being. For instance, according to him, isn't it unreasonable to have x number of babies when you know you don't have the capacity to nourish even one of them? Similarly, isn't it unreasonable to believe in certain things that have not yielded you anything except despair? Of course, he was referring to the extreme mode of religious inclination that poor tend to exhibit no matter which faith they affiliate themselves to. He also referred to the risks poor people take with respect to their health by visiting/committing stuff that is supremely unnecessary. The best part about this argument is he extrapolated by adding that we don't have to emphasize on poor people as individuals. We can push a step further by replacing poor people with poor countries and still his theory maintains relevance. Poor countries, more often than not, compromise on reason and history is ripe with instances when (and how) this attitude backfired. Rich countries, on the contrary, have always made sure they find a good enough reason to get richer.
1 comment:
I personally feel that the super rich have the moral compunction to annihilate poverty around them, and to return to the society, what they've received from the society. Poverty is a result of several social, economic and political factors - such that certain groups have been increasingly benefited by the system. The drift between the rich and the poor is the creation of such social anomaly.
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