Hi,
.
My friend Sree had posted recently about irresponsible and profligate behaviour generally, and specifically at his college – IIT Bombay.He was talking about things he saw, and typical reactions when he intervened. Really happy that he took the effort to write on this and post.. We can never have enough bellwethers 
GREAT GOING, SREE!!
I’ve had a lot of similar experiences, and have thought a lot about such people and incidents. This post is an off-shoot of them..
.
First, I’ll describe a typical scenario:
A guy picks up a piece of trash and throws it in the dustbin. His friends ridicule him. Their arguments are
- you cannot clean all streets
- what’s the point? Its not your business
- you cannot bring about any change
- just because you throw away trash, people are not going to stop all this. They might in fact be encouraged further because they’ll think there’s someone to clean up (I’ve personally been at the receiving end of such assumptions)
- fuel conservation, conscionable usage of resources, discipline and such lofty ideals are impractical and are good for movies and crusades; not for daily life
- why do we pay and keep cleaners? Let them do it
- mind your own business; don’t be supercilious and act saintly. You cannot tell me what to do and what not to do. Its a free country
- I’m too busy to think about all this
- I can afford to pay for fuel. Why can I not use my car?
and finally, the MOST important point
- What difference will it make my me alone changing? Its not going to result in any perceptible gain
.
It could be keeping the environment clean, or conscionable usage of resources like paper, fuel, electricity, or the like. The reactions are always the same. I’ve listed just some of the most common reactions I’ve faced, when I’ve spoken to them about this. I’m sure I’ve missed a lot, but this captures the attitude of such people (majority, in fact). This leads me to my question – how will you convince these guys to become more aware?
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I’ve tried a lot of arguments, but none seem to work :l I’ve tried telling them about
- being the change you want to see
- effect of scaling and accumulation (the famous Anniyan 5 paisa * 5 million dialogue )
- demonstrating responsibilty
All to no avail 
Have you faced any such scenarios? Were you able to influence them? How? I’d LOVE to hear from you all on this.. It’ll be of great help to many
–
karthrags
P.S. – The title is a bunch of some of the attitudes I’ve encountered on this issue. I’m sure all find possession of such qualities reprehensible (though the words themselves are quite beautiful ). But are you indulging in such behaviour? Would such epithets be applicable? If so, is it fine to leave it so? Are you going to give me one of the reactions I listed in the blog?
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Update: Talk about timing! One of my friends’ gmail status message:
If you think that you are too small to make a difference, then you have never tried to sleep with a mosquito in the same room.
February 3, 2009 at 12:27 am
This link is inspirational… I dont know whether u know this story
http://www.starrbrite.com/starfish.html
February 3, 2009 at 12:35 am
That was quite good! I knew a similar story, but this one’s new..
February 3, 2009 at 11:27 am
its funnier that these same guys somehow can keep from littering the streets of NY or NJ when they get there. Its all about attitude or the lack of it. I’d say that just turn a deaf ear to the comments and keep going. You don’t want to litter, then don’t. It shouldn’t matter if others in IIT(or India) follow suite or not.
February 3, 2009 at 1:20 pm
great going dude…well written
February 3, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Hi… A thought provoking post and an enjoyable starfish story… Kindly excuse me for this irrelevant comment but I am curious as to your style of including dots after a paragraph. Saw this in the previous posts as well and a similar style in an editor called JEdit. Could you reveal the reason for adapting this style and its origin? Just curious…
February 3, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Thanks sree
Raju – thanks
Regarding the dots, I like multiple blank lines between paragraphs. It looks neater that way. But lines without any content get removed off when I post. A dot is pretty inconspicuous, but counts as some content for the line 
I didn’t know JEdit had it 
February 5, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Such a an article on such a topic can never be “Open for Discussion”.
Wrong thing to comment, still, thought this rant was relevant here -
When Shit doesn’t happen and Paper goes waste
PS: This is a rant Not intended to hurt or insult my roomie, but just to express my hopelessness and environmental dejection.
I unfortunately happen to be one of those oldie/unfashionable environmentally conscious guys. I regularly feel helpless when I see shit happening and I am unable to change it. But this actually rocked, no, stinked…better, stinks.
What can you do when you have a roomie with whom you share a family plan phone and who refuses to make the monthly telephone bills paperless despite your repeated attempts via begging/pleading/threatening/scorning? I see it every month – we can see our bills online and settle it online, but this guy insists on getting the paper statement (the damn paper statement, in case you didn’t know, includes a list of ALL (Italics) the calls both of you have made over the past month, often coming to around 20-25 pages) and the environmental part of my soul bleeds when he sees the statement for a minute and trashes it.
Now the shit got stinkier when he wanted to be clean. (leave alone his humongous appetite for tissue-usage, sample this – he once single-handedly finishing three-quarters of one full roll of toilet paper in one s(h)itting, and with obviously no intention to mock at him, I mean, I obviously haven’t seen how he shits, but I’ve seen him use paper in the kitchen for cleaning/wiping his hands, and I seriously bleed tears seeing that, so I think I can safely assume how he would use toilet paper. {I, incidentally, don’t use toilet paper at all, there is a mug in our kakkoos and it suffices quite satisfyingly}). Still, when somebody flushes the toilet 15 times (I counted it, 15 times, yes FIFTEEN) in succession just so that shit is wiped out from the face of the … not earth, just the cistern, it bothered me. I mean, I know we need to be hygienic and all that, still, 15 continuous flushes for about 7-10 minutes of shit really beat (the shit out of) me. Frankly, I have thought long and hard and even asked him once or twice if he had some kind of health problem or something which might cause or require this indiscriminate flushing (I don’t have any idea if there is any such thing which does), but he replied saying he wanted the toilet to be clean.
I’ve experienced severe water problems – I’ve been through times when I had to wake up at 5 in the morning and rush out with my mom & dad brandishing buckets and having to face about 30 sleepy, irritated (obviously!) souls all jostling for the same water. But even if this experience did not cause me to turn emotional and feel bad, just seeing the amount of water being wasted for no purpose (the worst shit in the world can be wiped out in a maximum of 3 flushes, don’t ask me how) really REALLY gets on to my nerves. (It’s another matter that the flush in our house makes a hell of a noise and this maniacal flushing is sometimes done at midnight or early morning). Seriously, I don’t mind that, but I DO mind the wastage.
And when the guy doing this shit happens to be doing his PhD(Environmental Engg.) you just can’t help but explode somewhere.
February 9, 2009 at 3:01 am
Hey Buddy!! Good One yaar, I have similar list of experiences and I really hate such people. Surprised with many ppl in hostel too.
February 9, 2009 at 3:11 am
Hey Pratik! Thanks
Guess things will change slowly..
Ya.. In hostels, labs, mess, roads, everywhere
February 13, 2009 at 12:33 am
*Real Men* don’t pick the cans littered by his friends and put them in bins. Wusses do.
That’s what they think.
I lose any respect that I have for someone who (apart from things you have said):
- buys books like cigarettes, and hardly reads 1% of them. Prints one full published paper (> 30 pages) at one go in the name of research and is capable of reading only the first 2 pages. I too can’t read stuff on terminal, but that doesn’t mean I’ll print full gcc manual for reference.
- keeps on buying new computers/cars/clothes like old ones didn’t consume any energy in their production. Come on, who doesn’t like new stuff everyday. Can’t help them, consumerism is a disease.
- who says – “show me one garbage-bin nearby, and i’ll throw this wrapper/cup there. It’s *their* fault that they haven’t kept a bin here”. What I say is: who are you doing a favour? I think high of you, let it be that way.
It’s really beyond my comprehension as to where do these people learn all about hygiene, good-conduct, honesty-as-a-habit, less-religious and everything cool when they go abroad for a while. Why can’t we be cool here to start with?
February 13, 2009 at 2:01 am
“Why can’t we be cool here to start with?”
I loved that! Well-put
February 24, 2009 at 12:42 am
[...] Being Green?. Jennifer presents some dryer sheet alternatives for your laundry. Karthik presents Indifference, Apathy, Depravity, Debauchery, Futility, Profligacy posted at My SmorgasBLOG. Karthik says, “This is a post about general eco-unfriendliness, and an [...]
March 1, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Just passing by.Btw, you website have great content!
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