The character Tanner's retort to Ramsden's contention that Tanner is an impudent man. Excerpt from George Bernard Shaw's play - Man and Superman.

"We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins. Good Lord, my dear Ramsden, we are ashamed to walk, ashamed to ride in an omnibus, ashamed to hire a hansom instead of keeping a carriage, ashamed of keeping one horse instead of two and a groom-gardener instead of a coachman and footman. The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is. Why, you’re ashamed to buy my book, ashamed to read it: the only thing you’re not ashamed of is to judge me for it without having read it; and even that only means that you’re ashamed to have heterodox opinions."

...

"I am only the most impudent person you’ve ever met. That’s your notion of a thoroughly bad character. When you want to give me a piece of your mind, you ask yourself, as a just and upright man, what is the worst you can fairly say of me. Thief, liar, forger, adulterer, perjurer, glutton, drunkard? Not one of these names fit me. You have to fall back on my deficiency in shame. Well, I admit it. I even congratulate myself; for if I were ashamed of my real self, I should cut as stupid a figure as any of the rest of you. Cultivate a little impudence, Ramsden; and you will become quite a remarkable man."

There was a small article writing contest in the company that I work for to commemorate the 59^th anniversary of Indian independence. Two entries were selected as winners; one by yours truly and another by a colleague. We were asked to write what in our opinion was the single most critical issue facing democratic India and what must be done to resolve it. Here are the two winning entries for your reading pleasure! I've hosted both of these articles on Google's Writely service, which is a free online web word processor. Just incase you didn't know Google has free online spreadsheet and calendar applications too!

What's wrong with India and how to fix it - (My colleague Parthiban's version)

Read this for a fun, humorous, tragic perspective!

 

What's wrong with India and how to fix it - (My version)

Read this for a boring, serious, heavy, preachy perspective!

Terrorists must be some of the dumbest people on the planet to believe that terror can somehow further their cause. I wonder if in all of history there has ever been a case where terror resulted in something positive for the terrorists. End of day such acts only contribute to fuelling a vicious cycle of hatred. The fundamental problem is that humans have a capacity for evil! That might sound naïve but is nevertheless true I think. There’s an apothegm by Friedrich Nietzsche that goes like –

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

What this would mean is that acts of terror are perpetrated by terrorist groups (which tend to be insane by nature given that they are groups of people) that are led by sober, cold and essentially evil individuals who do the thinking and the planning; who cleverly exploit and misdirect restless energy in disgruntled youths; who know the exact words and notions that will appeal to them and even lend an illusion of grandeur to what they are doing.

I have always suspected that there exists a suicidal streak in humans as a species. This is perhaps just one of the ways in which that instinct has manifested itself.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/12/asia/web.0712india.php