The Personality Cult and Lack of Tolerance for Criticism

If there is one thing we are the undisputable number in the world, I think it should be in practising personality cult and hero worship, whether in sports, movies or politics. The trigger to write about this topic is the overdose of Sachin mania in the last few weeks, but it is not about Sachin or against him… he is a good and humble person who hasn’t let all the success and adulation get to his head. It is rather about our mindset.

Let me give a few examples from the field of sports.

Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo may be great footballers and make big money, but they won’t be considered equal to Maradona or Pele till they win a World Cup for their country.

Michael Jordan had to win many NBA titles before he became the Chosen One. Kobe Bryant even after winning 3 NBA titles with Shaq, had to win a few more without Shaq to prove others that he is great in his own right. More recently LeBron James had to win a few NBA titles to launch his way to greatness.

Federer may have the most gifted and talented player, but still he has to win 17 grand slams in all surfaces to be in considered among the all-time greats. So is Nadal.

But we are different. Objectivity and Rational thinking has no place when it comes to our holy cows. Even if someone attempts it, it is brushed off. This is damaging the cause in many ways. One is real merit may go unrewarded. People who do the work get overshadowed and may get demotivated. Secondly is that these people become bigger than the cause. People watch cricket just for Tendulkar, watch a movie just to see the Rajini or SRK irrespective of the quality of the movie and people voting for leaders (several) irrespective of the performance. Some people would even prefer a Sachin scoring a century over a win.

Why is it so? I think it is inbuilt in our psyche. All our mythologies are about eulogising a warrior or king or a God. We likely have carried over the eulogising part, but over time, we may have lost the ability to objectively evaluate their achievements. So overboard we have gone that we have lost the ability to take objective criticism in the right spirit. Any objective criticism of an icon or ideology will invariably result in a strong or sometimes violent reaction and so people who can speak up against mass opinion are just going to shut-up and we as a society are not going to evolve or progress.

Note: I have deliberately used the term objective criticism as there is also a tendency for some to criticise the person rather than the problem. This is of course no excuse to being intolerant of objective criticism.

London Calling!

I got an opportunity to visit London during end of August. I was travelling on business to UK and my company's UK office was located in Ipswich which was about 80 miles from London.  Started a day earlier than I would have otherwise to get some time to see around London before  going to Ipswich. Got to spend a day and half in London and started liking London. I wasn't expecting to like when I went there.
There were huge open spaces in Central London like the Hyde park, St James park, Area near by Buckingham palace etc. There were also a lot of space on the side of roads for walkers and cyclists and you actually see a lot of them walking and cycling around unlike US. The weather was very pleasant that time and it was really a pleasure to walk around and sitting on open top bus and sight-seeing!
The other thing I liked a lot about London is that old and the new  co-existed very well and they have retained the historical structures and the architecture unlike the way Glass and Concrete structures are taking over Indian cities. The palaces reminded me of the architecture of Hiranandani Palace Gardens in Oragadam Chennai. It was not surprising as the township was modelled on British palaces, but I was surprised that how closely it resembled the British palaces.
The other aspect of London that I really liked was that it was multi-cultural. While walking around or in the underground tube, I was surrounded by people from different ethnicity's speaking different languages. You could speak your native language anywhere without looking out of place. You could even see people dart across the roads like back at home. Felt at home…  :-)
Some of the things I did was to walk along the banks of River Thames, going for a ride in London Eye, visiting Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. Visited but didn't like Madame Tussauds much. Harrods was just too expensive though I ended up buying some handbags at the Harrod's store in the airport.
The Underground tube was very efficient and cost effective and sitting on open top bus with wonderful  weather  and sight-seeing London’s landmarks was great experience.

Back from a Break!

Finally woke up from hibernation and realised more than 2 years have passed since my last post. I can't think of any reasons why I stopped and why I am starting again either!