By Farouk Gulsara
A teacher lost all her life savings, around RM 200,000, to spammers. Over 400 children were rescued from orphanages in two states from sexual predators in Malaysia. Stories like these are not ground-breaking anymore but happen on a daily basis. The worrying trend of late is that these are no isolated incidents perpetrated by individual wackos with ill intents. It is, in fact, a well-organised, well-lubricating establishment with vast tentacles lurking all over the globe.
The brains behind all these schemes are super intelligent, erudite people who can judge what is good and what is evil. They are also aware of what is beneficial and what is detrimental and brings misery. Yet, these same people wilfully devise newer schemes to prey on people’s weaknesses year after year.
They know how every action has an equal and opposite reaction. They understand what goes around comes around. Yet, without an iota of guilt, they carry on life.
Is the lure of materialism too strong to resist? Is the power that money yields too compelling that it becomes an addiction? Is this business a quicksand too strong to extricate one out of? Like a politician trapped in a quagmire that needs to feed his cronies, perhaps this scamming business is multilayered and needs to be fed at many levels, from mafias to enforcement units.
Only the conscientious person worries and regrets any of their deeds. He will have sleepless nights pondering and regretting his actions. He would fear its implications or pursuant legal ramifications. He would shudder to visualise how it hurt his reputation or embarrass his family.
So, when people say humanity lives in each of us and that there is still goodness in the world, are they correct? Are we all innately evil and only conditioned to behave in a particular way because our wise ancestors told us so?
Have we developed a consciousness so advanced that we can justify all our devious actions? We say the people who lost their hard-earned savings can afford to lose some. It is all part and parcel of the circle of life’s ups and downs, karma, warts and all. It is a zero-sum game. One party loses for the other to live. Life is not fair, and we have to live with it. Nature is hostile and humans are part of nature. Our duty, first and foremost, is that we are obliged to take care of ourselves and our own at all costs. In the meantime, the conscientious brood over the evil that is spewed throughout the world. They make their lives purpose to correct the balance. They yearn for equality and social justice and lose valuable sleep over it.
Meanwhile, fraudsters and psychopaths cheat without an iota of guilt. They justify all their crimes. In fact, they feel entitled to do what they do and obtain inner gratification from their manipulations. On the other hand, the conscientious ones constantly assess and reassess their actions, aiming to do the correct thing. These thinkers carry much guilt and regret. They consider their own actions and try to do the ‘right’ thing.
This topic is nothing new. It was tackled by the legendary Tamil philosopher-poet Valluvar[1]. His origin is hazy, but many parties claim him to be part of their tradition. He was probably a Jain-Hindu poet. His short couplets are recited daily by most primary schoolchildren in Tamil schools. These couplets generally talk about righteousness, love and wealth. He sarcastically comments in one of his lines (Kural #1072), “Blessed are the cheats who do not think about good and bad.”
[1] Dated to have lived between 4th and 5th century BC
Farouk Gulsara is a daytime healer and a writer by night. After developing his left side of his brain almost half his lifetime, this johnny-come-lately decided to stimulate the non-dominant part of his remaining half. An author of two non-fiction books, Inside the twisted mind of Rifle Range Boy and Real Lessons from Reel Life, he writes regularly in his blogRifle Range Boy.
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