Two and two is not always equal to four,
my young friend Tony says. 2 + 2 ≠ 4, he reasserts. Tony doesn’t think linearly though his
thinking has the precision of mathematical logic.
See these two, Tony offers
an illustration, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Then add another 2 to them, Ambani
and Adani. What do you get?
I smile in answer. It’s
dangerous to answer Tony verbally.
Now, Tony continues,
let’s take two beggars from the street. And then add you and me, another two,
to them. What do you get?
Tony goes on with more
arithmetic because he thinks I didn’t get it.
(Modi + Shah) + (Ambani
+ Adani) = 4 persons
(Beggar 1 + Beggar 2) +
(You + I) = 4 persons
Is the first 4 equal to
the second 4?
Today is Good Friday. Good Fridays are sad because they
are about the victory of vicious political power over simple goodness. Just a
few days back, on what’s known as Palm Sunday among Christians, Jesus was led like
a hero to Jerusalem, a political fulcrum in those days, by a huge crowd of
people who imagined that he was their redeemer. Those same people gathered a
few days later outside governor Pilate’s palace demanding the crucifixion of
Jesus.
People sing hosana to you today and demand your death tomorrow.
Lesson umber one of Good Friday.
What changed the people’s attitude to
Jesus? Religion + politics. The religious priests like Annas and Caiaphas hated
Jesus because he was undermining their religion by making it humane instead of subhumanly
ritualistic. The power that the priests enjoyed over the faithful as well as
the money that came through that power would go with the wind if people really
started taking Jesus seriously.
Every genuine teacher is a threat to those in power. Lesson number
two of Good Friday.
The priests changed the mindset of
the people as soon as they saw Jesus’ increasing influence on them. So the
shouts of Hosanas transmogrified into cries for crucifixion.
It is easy
to hoodwink the masses with new stories and histories. Lesson number three of
Good Friday.
Give the masses new slogans and they
will hunt your enemies with the zeal of frenetic militants. One of the easiest
ways of eliminating certain people is to project them as enemies of some
glorified entity like nation or religion. Jesus was projected as both: an enemy
of political rulers and of God.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus of
the Sanhedrin will become powerless in front of the frenzy of the masses. They can only bury Jesus now.
Goodness
dies again and again because of the leaders of the masses. Lesson number four
of Good Friday.
(Joseph + Nicodemus) + (Tony + I) = 4
(Annas + Caiaphas) + (Pilate + Herod)
= 4
One 4 ≠ Another 4. Lesson
number five of Good Friday.
Hari Om
ReplyDeleteOne of the best arithmetic examples I have ever seen 😉 Blessed Easter to you and your good wife, dear blogpal. YAM xx
Thank you, Yam. Wish you too the joys and blessings of Easter.
DeleteGreat Arithmetic, of Alternative Possibilities, beyond the TINA Syndrome. Building Little Pockets of Resistance. Why don't you try s Trigonometry of Holy Saturday. People speak of Good Fridays and Easters. But not of Holy Saturdays. Take my challenge and be at it tonight, in the quiet of Arikuzha night.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the challenge. Let me contemplate. Tangents aren't easy to manage.
DeleteWhat's sad is we never actually learned that lesson, did we? We're still doing the same thing over and over and over again.
ReplyDeleteThat's how the species is, a big blunder of evolution!
DeleteSharing this one. Very aptly put.
ReplyDelete