Mirage of Success - II

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Mirage of Collective Success

The path of collective success is strewn with far greater perils and risks of failure. Success of a society or nation(s) on the whole is dependent on a very complicated set of factors sometimes as different as chalk and cheese, still interdependent and interwoven. There are many such examples, where the time was waiting history altering events to unfold , but success decided to play her famous hide and seek game and remained enigmatic and elusive, throwing everything (including the fate of mankind) in jeopardy. Too much is at stake and too many entities are involved. Any effort to move a society towards balanced progress or movement started to bring about a revolutionary change can easily fizzle out, for one or more of the following reason:

·        Lack of clear cut or tangible goals

·        Lack of unity of command

·        Clash of motives

·        Indecisiveness about a concrete plan of action

·        Scattered efforts

·        Lack of resources to uphold large scale revolution

·        Lack of sustained mass support

Social or national (or international in some cases) movement is very long drawn process, which requires resolute belief in the goal and persistent efforts to achieve it. The temporary success, if achieved, demands unfaltering efforts and long term clear vision to maintain it. The factors that create false mirage of success at personal level also come into play in case of collective success only the magnitude of their incidence far greater. Even definition of success (the target itself) undergoes a change if the process is overdrawn. We have seen all that in the recent Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption.

Sometimes on this level, mirage of success is deliberately created to feed ulterior motives of some third entity. Societies or nations are intentionally led towards false veneer of success in terms of peace, prosperity and collective upliftment, pushing them further down the abyss they would take long to crawl out of. We have seen that in case of developed nations acting as world police putting the burdens of their ambitions on underdeveloped countries.  

When the dust of mirage of this collective success finally settles, damage is already done, causing the loss of not only precious lives and wealth but of cultures, legacies and sometimes civilizations. It takes the efforts and sacrifices of generations together to get back to the track.  Still, hope lives in form of leaders like Nelson Mandela and Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, who remain unfettered by the adulation they receive and cast a very cautious eye at the early signs of success. That is the kind of balance and direction, coupled with collective efforts, mankind needs to deal with this mirage and keep marching towards ‘bona fide’ success. 

Picture taken from: leninistmontages.blogspot.com, desiclub.com