Open society and its friends!

 Karl Popper wrote in his book "Open society and its enemies"  that Paradox of Tolerance leads to more intolerance. He explained that in order to maintain a tolerant society,the society itself must be intolerant of the intolerant. He openly borrows his idea from Plato's concept of Benevolent despotism or benevolent dictatorship.

Indians have understood this contradiction in governance and according to the best of statecrafts defined by them State Governance has four ways of taking action : Sama,Dhana , Bheda and Dhanda. When it should actively encourage dharmic ways of living, it should seek out and identify those who are bent upon disturbing this peaceful coexistence. It may be its own citizens or enemies from outside. For dealing with them it should employ the above four ways and it can move from one to another subtly, discreetly or sometimes directly. Dhanda is always the last resort and even for criminal acts and for offenders, punishment is a must. This is intolerance of the intolerant. Punishments should be given after speedy and fair inquiry and justice must be seen to be delivered without delay. This will have a deterrent effect.

However the contrast is to see who are Friends of Open society. Friends are Those who forge consensus, those who encourage cohesion, those who believe in cooperation, those who trust collaboration, those who practice transparent communication, and those who want syncretic, synergistic community development.

The tolerance towards genuine failures, mistakes in trying to invent, missteps in search of progress will go a long way in supporting open societies that are productive and supportive in the long run. When the societies are young in age such openness provides the youth power to blossom out full harnessing its potential.

But, many times, these friends of open society work in silence and with lot of patience. But earnestness, perseverance and persistence are their hallmarks. Friends of Open society will always build checks and balances to prevent even unintended misuse of power, influence, nepotism etc.

When Voltaire declared Liberty as the fulcrum of modern human society, he meant , civil liberties, freedom of expression and freedom of religion. He is widely believed to have written "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Those who subscribe to his views are all Friends of Open society.Such open societies will bring forth positive changes in human dynamics and nurture inventions, innovations in all spheres of life from poetry ,arts to physics,biology.All this leads to prosperity in society and the virtuous cycle is set in motion.

It is our bounden duty to identify and safeguard these Friends of Society who are pillars of Tolerance and not to discredit them wantonly by imputing intolerance.

Change management, Covid and nation.

Kubler-Ross Change Curve

This Curve theory explains the process as to how people cope up with significant upheaval or life-changing or threatening situations.link

The process explains that people undergo five/six stages: the first stage is that of Shock, then going into Denial, then to Anger, moving into Depression. Up to this stage the performance of the individual or group of people will continue to deteriorate as time progresses. Once the inevitability of the Change dawns, then the people move to Acceptance and finally into Integration when the performance will again start regaining the original position or sometimes exceeding it if there are supporting enablers or incentives.

This is true for individuals as well as for a country or economy.

Since the nation received the pandemic shock in March middle, you may recount we have seen at least the first four stages. We start denying that this pandemic will affect us and once we realised that it is spreading we showed our Anger at China, TJ, and at all those epicentres. Now we are in the Depression stage slowly moving into Acceptance stage where we need to understand to live with this virus by being vigilant and exercising caution. We should not let our safety guard down .

One must also understand that when you are already in Depression stage, if there is another negative news the performance will again start sagging and another cycle /bout of Shock, Denial ,Anger and Depression will kick in .So, it is extremely important for the Govts and the people to navigate this phase without further unexpected shocks.

People are cautioned to listen to the TV news with a pinch of salt. They must look at the Covid nos as a percentage of tests made, active cases situation , infection per lac of population and death per lac.