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| Sunday, 14 November 2004 |
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Features |  |
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The right column Arrogance in abundance Humility is a rare commodity nowadays. Wherever you go you meet people with swollen heads. This is my humble observation. Let me tell you some personal experience. Once I had to meet a Secretary in the Ministry of Education to find out whether the service records of a friend of mine, a teacher who had retired some months ago, had been sent to the Department of pensions. The officer concerned was in his glass cubicle reading a newspaper with his legs, shoes and all on the table. Having waited a few minutes and unable to attract his attention to my presence opposite the door to his room I tapped at the door and entered his room. "Why did YOU tap at the door?" he barked at me. Apparently he was unaware of public relations or polite manners. It was later I realised that it was arrogance of power. We in Sri Lanka witness arrogance of power daily. When politicos go and occupy seats of OICs in police stations or order officials at will or play hell in public restaurants they display nothing but arrogance of power. Arrogance of power permeates all ranks in the public and political office. Even the lowest in the hierarchy frowns at the simple citizen. What exactly is arrogance of power? Senator J. William Fulbright described it as "the sense that because one believes that one has superior resources, one can override opposition and ignore criticism. Put in more neutral terms, the arrogance of power is based on an over-valuation of one's power - an unrealistic expectation of what one can accomplish on one's own. Arrogance enters the picture as dismissiveness - the leadership's will is indomitable, so all impediments and objections to it can be dismissed." There are also other varieties of arrogance. Take for example the arrogance of knowledge. It is arrogance that makes experts ridicule commonsense of ordinary people. It is arrogance that makes medical consultants keep channel patients waiting for hours. They believe that only their time is valuable but not that of their clients. Perhaps they are unaware of the Arabian proverb "arrogance diminishes wisdom" or they may be personally aware that knowledge is not wisdom. Then there is the arrogance of wealth. Ostentatious living, extravagant weddings, funerals all betray arrogance of wealth. In these days of high crime arrogance of wealth is a risky virtue. There are other types too like arrogance of beauty, arrogance of clan etc. If someone asks me which arrogance I detest most I would certainly answer "arrogance of sycophants". They are the most despicable tribe on earth that brings woe to ordinary folk and also dooms those they flatter. - the Sceptic |
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