Human beings are by nature selfish creatures and nothing perhaps illustrate this better than the young children, to whom the world revolves around them and everything is explained and understood in the context of I or Me. However no one remains a child forever and as the young child grows into an adult he undergoes the process of socialization and it is during this process that the concept of status and role gets imbibed in the individual and the existence of society dawns on him.
Through the different stages of evolution that human society the world over has evolved, the role of the individual vis-à-vis human society has been defined and re-defined to suit the changing needs of mankind and today when we talk about an individual human being we invariably have to understand the definition of an individual in the context of the larger human society. Manipur today is in such a situation that it has become increasingly difficult to understand the role of an individual vis-à-vis the Manipuri society and one of the over riding factors for such a situation is the obsession with the self, the ‘I’ syndrome.
By the same extension, we may add, the obsession with only one's community or one's organization or one group of people with which the individual in question may share certain similar ideologies or train of thought, has become the hallmark of the Manipuri society. Such obsession invariably leads to blank refusal to see beyond one's nose or understand the viewpoint of the other party. This is the peculiar situation besetting the Manipuri society and one manifestation of such a situation is foolhardiness or refusal to climb a rung or two from one's lofty stand for the overall good of everyone.
Another point that we may touch along this line is the plain refusal to see the good points of others or rather the illusion, ‘Whatever I do is right. Who are you to question me?’ Translated into Manipuri it runs roughly something like this, ‘Ei Mangaire.’ We acknowledge the importance of the individual and we are of the opinion that the importance of the individual being should not be buried under the notion of collectivity or anything of that sort, but when individualism becomes detrimental to the well being of the whole social set up then we think the time has come to press the alarm bell.
We have said it before and we will not mind repeating it. The obsession with the self or one's organization has led to the mushrooming of numerous apex bodies in the State which are all under the impression that whatever they do is in the best interest of all but in effect may just prove counter productive. We are no psychologists or psychiatrists to know how the human mind functions, but at least we are perceptible enough to notice how the working of the human mind affects the general well being of the society.
Manipur today is caught in such a situation that we cannot afford to live in a sand castle under the smug notion that whatever we do is correct. The time calls for some serious self introspection. The time also calls for all to shed the obsession with the self and to start looking at things from a wider perspective.
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