December 21, 2018
Addiction to Failure
The Abu Dhabi Test cricket meltdown against New Zealand is simply a symptom of a larger national malaise. A pattern of underachievement persists with a country of 200 million plus being outclassed by a nation of 4 million. Against common sense are the uncle/nephew optics.
The long trail continues along with the sociocultural addiction to substandard performance in virtually every field. It’s much of sameness. What is projected as new may already be stale, covered up with a differently labeled salad dressing.
Cricket – being a key cementing bond – cuts across socioeconomic, ethno-national, and sectarian barriers. So what occurs on the cricket field sends a broader message.
Setbacks can be a stepping stone to later success provided there is an honest diagnosis. But left uncorrected and unchecked, the habitual exposure to failure can spill over into a bigger epidemic.
The current generation has grown up in an environment of adverse signals from family elders, from schools, and from society, which doesn’t value honest toil. Switch on the TV and the repeated refrain is the language of cruelty, rudeness, and venom. The takeaway is humiliation, not humility.
The young simply are not going to become better unless they do better. Non-stop big talk, thereby, takes a front seat with the bare minimum of action relegated to the back benches.
The bigger problem is not the destination itself, but the journey to get there often falling short because of not really trying and striving. The classic example is the Dacca debacle of 1971, which has been masked by false narratives, leaving thereby the carcinogens within undisturbed.
Often lacking is mental grit – it is that which instills the fighting spirit to defy defeatism and overcome uphill odds. The norm is to overreact, succumb to despair, act on whims, and take panic-prone steps. All of it leads to poor impulse control and a mindset of negativity, where weasel words like “bahut mushkil” and “nahin” predictably crop up as a justification for doing nothing. To cite Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb: “Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
A beacon of light beckons via the Kartarpur corridor breakthrough, sending a clear-cut message of what is achievable through vision and valor. It sends a ripple of joy throughout the worldwide Sikh community. And it is very dear to their hearts as the Sikh sacred soil lies in Pakistan.
It is a salutary lesson, particularly for the educated youth accustomed to seeing their elders throw in the towel in face of challenges, whose difficulty is mostly magnified in their minds.
The Internet age has had manifold benefits, but it has also brought in a mechanical approach, a conditioning to easy convenience, a self-absorbed complacency in a comfort zone, and a consequent lack of empathy for the “other”, which occurs when there is over-emphasis on the great “I”.
The great Muhammad Ali repeatedly demonstrated, whether inside the ring or outside it, that one can be knocked down without being knocked out. It’s a lesson that the young need to heed.
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