By now I’ve talked from my personal point of view and my umbrage at the way the Caste System is spoken about, what the true purport is from a Scriptural perspective and various models followed by other ancient civilizations and societies and have even touched upon the Animal Kingdom and a political perspective. In this installment, I’m going to be talking about certain practical aspects. I’m also going to be talking about how we have a classification in sports, the corporate world, the Pareto Principle and stratification based on money.
Let’s also look at biology, genetics and how the Double Helix plays a role in categorization. It is a pretty well established fact that we inherit certain traits, skills etc from our parents, who in turn inherit from their ancestors. So what happens over time is that certain families or races end up with certain skills, qualities that are inherent in that race, breed, sect or geography. Genetics spans the color of eyes, skin, hair, height, strength and so on.
So it is a combination of hereditary traits coupled by training which establishes a position of leadership or specialization for that particular family or race or community. Thus classification became a natural outcome of this process.
Let’s talk about leaders and followers an in that context look at the general perception that the trait of leadership is inherited. “He’s a born leader”.
Then we have the Pareto Principle or the 80:20 Rule, “The 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, is an aphorism which asserts that 80% of outcomes (or outputs) result from 20% of all causes (or inputs) for any given event.
It is a clearly established and well accepted fact that not EVERYBODY can be a leader, trailblazer or decision maker. So to expect all classes of society to lead or take pragmatic decisions is nothing short of fallacy or a recipe for disaster. Someone has to lead and others follow, else what we’re looking at is sheer anarchy.
The real question is who do we choose to lead us? People who have the background, knowledge and skills or do we put our faith and trust in the hands of someone who isn’t cut out for the job or task at hand? It’s plain stupid to ask an electriciain to deliver a child.
If I were to take examples from sports and games and I will take a game that is close to my heart and a game that is so popular not just in India but also internationally, I’d take American Football and Cricket. In American Football, the guy who calls the shots is the Quarterback (leader, or King). He’s kind of a captain and he calls the plays. The playbook is developed by experts in the field (strategic advisors or Brahmanas). The Quarterback tends to pass the ball to the person who will be able to gain the maximum yards on the field. The game has a side where the team in possession of the ball, needs to drive the ball to the end of the field and score points by getting one of their guys to carry the ball into the endzone of the opposite team and then kick a field goal. The team that does not have the ball is in defence mode and they need to prevent the offencive team from advancing or then even take the ball away from them. The Quarterback is defended by linebackers (army or Kshatriyas)and he has wide receivers who carry the ball into enemy territory.
Similarly in the game of cricket, the captain (leader) will put in a certain batsman or bowler for a higher likelihood to get more runs or wickets.
Now both the Quarterback and the Cricket Captain, do have at their disposal ADVISORS or Strategists and they fall back and take guidance or bounce of ideas and plans with such advisors.
The corporate world works no differently. There is the CEO or the MD, who is answerable to a Board of Directors and the CEO is guided by expert advisors. These advisors are nothing but the Brahmanas, or thinkers.
If you abstract all classes across the Globe what you will most certainly see is that society is divided into certain wide classes, in some way shape or form:
- Thinkers.
- Doers.
- Seekers.
- Slackers.
Now isn’t exactly what happens in real life?
Let's talk about the dynamics of money and its role in classification. It is also a well known fact that things like knowledge and money, do give an edge to the people who have it and thus they are in a position to influence those who don’t have it.
What also ends up happening when money enters the equation is that, most rules about classification go out the window and out with it goes culture, traditions and upbringing thus unhinging generations of the social order.
Have you heard people saying, they come from old money or new money? What they're saying is that when someone moves up the social ladder solely on the basis of the money in her/her pocket, there is a tendency to loud, aggressive and the fact that money is available is flaunted in a way that makes them stick out like a sore thumb. It takes at least a generation or two for the refined tastes to develop and emerge which makes them more acceptable in circles that they were not privy to earlier. Old money does not accept new money easily and even when they do it is done begrudgingly.
With that I conclude my propositions for Part 4 which deals more with practical aspects of social stratification and will conclude the series in Part 5.
Write in and tell me what you think about this! I can be reached at sumir@sumirnagar.com or you can even leave your comments here. Don't forget that this series is also available via podcast on all major podcast channels like, Apple, Google, Spotify and Breaker. All you need to do is look for "Spirituality and Beyond" on any of these platforms.
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