(This is a humble extension of Amartya Sen’s ‘Three Children And A Flute’ parable in ‘Idea of Justice’ and a tribute to his genius. The objective is to play on emotion and rational and get you to think as ‘nakedly’ as possible).
Read this carefully:
In a war ravaged country, there is just one city that survives the incessant bombings and air raids. In a solitary building, survivors of that country huddle together.
In 3 separate rooms live three children – all sole survivors of their families:
Andrea, a 6-year-old girl who has no belongings, money and no means of survival. While she can neither read nor write, she seems bright, very eager to learn and shows an uncanny ability to imbibe knowledge when ever given a chance. She is bright and optimistic.
Sofia, a 10-year-old girl who seems confident, calm and self-sufficient. She has just enough means to survive and is keenest to share her thoughts and ideas. She loves to teach when ever given a chance. She is practical and motivated.
Pascal, a 12-year-old boy, definitely from an aristocratic family who has survived and has with him some money, clothes and lots and lots of books. He possesses a library that would be sufficient to teach a child to read, write and learn almost the basics of everything. He refuses to share anything with anybody and is paranoid about lending even a rag to anyone, given the state of skepticism the war has left him in. He is introverted and withdrawn.
None of the children speak to each other.
As the administrator of the building, Sofia comes to you with a fervent plea – She wants you to get her access to Pascal’s library, so that she can read and learn and more importantly teach young Andrea who is illiterate and helpless. It’s certain that this war will not be over for a few years more and she needs your help. Knowing Pascal, he will react violently to anyone touching his books, save even taking them out of his room. And every time you see young Andrea, helpless and hungry to learn, your heart wells up..
What will you do?
Remember that it’s easy to jump to a conclusion – but think of right and wrong in the purest sense. The concept is not just about who needs what but also about who owns what is rightfully theirs… Think in shades of concepts of communism, socialism and democracy and apply ideals of who you really are, how you have lived, your religious ideas and maybe what you respect to solve this…
Would be happy to post rational well-rounded comments…
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If what Pascal owns is rightfully his, then the administrator can’t use force or reason to make him part with his stuff. Of course, a word can be put with him. He can be suggested or requested. But, not force.
However, Sofia herself is quite able to help a very young Andrea. So, to begin with, I’ll suggest Sofia to manage without the books and try doing it herself, with some support from the administrator.
Andrea, ably helped by Sofia, can start growing up and they together will develop a social relationship.
In the meantime, Pascal will also be helped to get over his fresh memories of war and destruction, partly due to time and partly due to the social environment around him (Sofia, Andrea and Administrator).
Gradually, Pascal may be helped to calm down, start sharing his belongings, at least for his need of the social relationships and other factors of dependency.
Of course, this all may not happen overnight. But, the entire situation anticipates this to continue, enough time for this to happen.
Great thinking Deepak…
But as I clearly understand, the books stay with Pascal.
Thanks. And, that’s exactly what I say. The book must remain with Pascal only. Only that maybe Pascal may have a change of heart and better comprehension of his surrounding and he may or may not lend it to his mates
Hi Alok ,
Philosophically speaking ,I would look at this whole situation, as I would look at life itself . If all the kids had ‘books’ there would be no situation here . Just as in ‘LIFE ‘, if there were no inequalities or pairs of opposites ,there would be no such thing as ‘LIFE’ as we know it .
Quandary – by Robert Frost
Never have I been sad or glad
That there was such a thing as bad.
There had to be, I understood,
For there to have been any good.
It was by having been contrasted
That good and bad so long had lasted.
That’s why discrimination reigns.
That’s why we need a lot of brains
If only to discriminate
Twixt what to love and what to hate.
To quote the oracle of Delphi,
“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”, aye,
And hate him as thyself thou hatest?
There quandry is at its greatest.
We learned from the forbidden fruit
For brains there is no substitute.
“Unless it’s sweetbreads.”, you suggest
With innuendo I detest.
You drive me to confess in ink:
Once I was fool enough to think
That brains and sweetbreads were the same,
Till I was caught and put to shame
First by a butcher, then a cook,
Then by a scientific book.
But, ’twas by making sweetbreads do
I passed with such a high IQ.
-Robert Frost
Practically though , dealing with the situation as the administrator, I would think and act this way ….
Considering that there are only three kids in that age group in that place, its just a matter of time before they realize, that their social interaction with each other, their need to love and support each other, will outweigh their need to learn or get literate .
As time passes and they begin to interact, its likely that they will share all their resources. Pascal will realize, that it is not possible to buy the affection and friendship of Sofia and Andrea, until he shares his stuff with them …
… and then (like most people) will figure out ,probably the hard way, that all that he has , is meaningless , if he cannot find love …
In the meanwhile ,I will tactfully appeal to Pascal (since he is a child who is in an impressionable age) and try to gently get him to share his stuff with the others .
Bringing morality into the picture … I think the books need not stay with Pascal, Would I not be forgiven, if I devise a plan to use Pascal’s books without his knowledge, for the good of the other kids ,if he is beyond convincing, after a reasonable while ?
Now this is made easy, because books are a non- consumable resource, but if it is ‘food’ that Pascal has, then that is another topic altogether …
After careful consideration and various permutation combinations only just conclusion i can reach to is as follows
If Pascal loves to dominate and Sofia loves to share then i would have make pascal the mentor and Sofia the teacher. Here I am assuming that Pascals grooming as an aristocrat would have taught him some things about life which he can teach Andrea and may be over a period of time reads the books and imparts their wisdom to her. This way we can have two Intelligent people creating a better world. The premise here is that Pascal would be a good mentor and we can make him Mentor the child which can be easily done by passing on a good word. The beauty of this method is that we are not taking anything tangible from Pascal just telling him to speak to the kid for a couple of hours and see if she is progressing well.
What we need to ensure is the conflict between Pascal and Sophia and it is Sophia we would need to take care of more then Pascal in this context.
Threating or coaxing Pascal would be an act equivalent to nationalization of all the private assets
Leaving Andrea just to Sophia would be an act of accepting things as they become.
What we need is a way where we create an atmosphere of trust in which everyone has proportionate responsibility and authority which might make life a little simpler for all these children and people around.