Civic discipline, a disappearing concept

Rationality of indiscipline, lack of civic sense
Times of India

It happens every time. You are waiting for what seems like days at a level crossing waiting for some vitally important goods train to pass when some idiot goes right to the front on the wrong side of the road. Soon the other side is jam packed with vehicles of all descriptions and what was going to be an interminable wait becomes an intolerable one. You rave and rant, pass scathing judgments on the morons who screw up things for everyone else and quickly move to denounce Indians as a race who cannot hope to well without some discipline, civic duty and common sense.

Underneath all the bombast, what really upsets you is that you thought about doing it yourself, restrained yourself knowing all the while with sick certainty that someone else would go ahead and break the rule and you would be sitting and ranting. The most galling aspect of this situation is that the person who breaks the rule is the smartest — there is no way the traffic can move until he gets to move. The system as a whole suffers but the individual gains — people who show collective rationality end up feeling like prize chumps individually.

This pattern of behaviour can be seen in various forms. A small jam becomes a large jelly in no time because some enterprising motorist blocks up the other side; red lights are seen as commas that open negotiations rather than full stops that conclude proceedings, garbage piles up in the colony because it is no one individual’s problem. The individual’s need always comes first — the interests of the collective are always subordinated.

In many ways, the city for us is an empty collective without the intricate network of mutuality that characterises systems that are inter-dependent. The city is the arena of multiple singularities, packed densely with each intensely individual life living out its deeply personal destiny.

The city happens to be a shared space but comes unaccompanied with a sense of the trade-offs that all communities inevitably involve.

Interestingly, when it comes to the family, we understand this need marvellously; Indian family life is built around the idea of small mutual sacrifices that keep the collective together.

It is almost as if over the years we have lost the ability to organise ourselves into new communities. We are good at following rules, especially in the social arena, even better at bending them but seem to be inept at making and following any new rules of engagement.
The modern city calls for a new behaviour code to be evolved by us and this has clearly proved problematic.

There are two ways by which things can change. Either we will be forced into mutuality because things would break down otherwise as is the case with Mumbai, the only city in India with a sense of shared destiny. Mumbai understands that the city is a zero sum game — every take needs a corresponding give.

The other way is for us to have plenty — to erase the ingrained memory of scarcity that makes us grab what we have today for who knows what tomorrow might bring.

That is likely to take a while so in the meantime, dream up some new swear words you can use the next time the idiot in the gold Santro jams up the level crossing. Happy cursing!