Black or White

20Dec07

Disclaimer: The following work has no relation whatsoever to Michael Jackson’s Black or White and any reader wishing to read on expecting any such work is sure to be sorely disappointed. Readers wishing to read about Mikey’s song could please go elsewhere, else their time which would obviously be wasted on the following piece, will in no way be acknowledged or compensated.

Things can be done by different methods, much the same way a destination can be reached by different roads or a view be expressed in different words. What matters is the ultimate goal, rather than the means adopted to arrived at. Though of course, one cannot discount the importance of the methods in certain cases, most of which are normally overlooked in these trivial lives of ours.

As is expressed in the book Shantaram, there are four ways of classifying our actions in relation to our intent. And it’s all a matter of perspective. Anybody having any particular inclination to a certain method or reason might not be able to see others, but that certainly doesn’t question their existence. The alternatives are still there, present, waiting to be discovered by others, of a different nature, having a different perspective.

The four classifcations that could perhaps be put down in no particular order are:

1. The right thing for the right reason

2. The right thing for the wrong reason

3. The wrong thing for the right reason

4. The wrong thing for the wrong reason

Let’s take the example of the first case. One may find oneself in this situation more often than in any other - doing the right thing for the right reason. Let’s say one helps a poor man in need by giving him some money with the intent to make his life better. Here, the action is right, that of helping others. And the reason is also right, that of making someone’s life better. This is what is called as doing the right thing for the right reason.

The second one is - doing the right thing for the wrong reason. When one helps a criminal commit a crime, by becoming his accomplice, then one does the right thing for the wrong reason. The action i.e, helping someone is right, but the intent here is to commit a crime, which is wrong. So, this is a case of doing a right thing for the wrong reason.

Doing the wrong thing for the right reason is what we are forced to do at times, with actually no intention of doing it on our own if left to ourselves. Supposing one kills a man in self defence, that would classify as being in this category. The action which was of killing a man is wrong, but the intent, which was of protecting oneself is right. These are cases which one has little control over.

The last one is perhaps the most disquieting of all - doing the wrong thing for the wrong reason. When one kills for money, it’s doing the wrong thing for the wrong reason. The act of killing is wrong and the reason for killing i.e, taking someone else’s money is also wrong. This is what the society often refers to as a crime.

But the above classification is not as simple as it seems. There are more than just the visible factors at play. And there is this big question of perspective, the single factor that creates a delusion of something being right or wrong. If one considers the above examples from another perspective, one might arrive at completely different conclusions.

Giving money to the poor for making his life better doesn’t sound as wise when looked at from another perspective. The intent of helping somebody might be good, but the act of giving him easy money might eventually make him lazy and dependent on others. So, the act itself might not be a good one. It appears that this is a case of doing the wrong thing for the right reason.

Helping a criminal commit a crime could be seen as an act of commiting a crime with only the intent of helping. So, it would come under the case of doing the wrong thing for the right reason again. Similarly killing somebody in self defence might be seen as an act of protecting oneself with the intent of killing, thus putting it under doing the right thing for the wrong reason. The last case of killing someone for money could be seen as an act of killing for the reason of helping out one’s family in need of food or shelter or any other such event. Now, that would make it come under the category of doing the wrong thing for the right reason.

It’s a matter of the angle from which things are seen and views are expressed. Life’s not all in black or white. The thousand subtle shades of grey in between are also as important as the extremes. Action and intent couldn’t possibly be judged from any one point of view. And they can so easily be confused with each other. An action could be mistaken for an intent and vice versa making things even more complicated. So, what’s good for one might be bad for another. No act can completely be justified nor can it be completely condemned. The obvious example of this might be the US going to war with other countries firmly believing in its noble intentions which could be seen as ignoble by other countries.

If only the shades of grey could be removed from life making it as simple as being in black and white…

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