As kids, the adults were armed with this ultimate tool of controlling our actions, “Good kids don’t do that.” Don’t lie, don’t be selfish, and thousands of such books were written on the idea of right and wrong. A line was drawn on the sand and for better or for worse, it was very clear what side we were supposed to be on.
For as long as I could remember, every life lesson, be it at home or in ethics class, always centered around this idea of omni-righteousness and somehow it worked. Until the day it didn’t. Somewhere in between wanting to be the good kids and wanting our dreams, each one of us has faced the dilemma that the fairy tales warned us about, you or I.
Human beings, like all creatures, are inherently born with a survival instinct. But in due course of evolution, we constructed for ourselves civilizations far more complex than our ancestors could have ever imagined. Born out of this was the idea of collective good, a utopian society where all was fair and all was good.
But when societal rights encroached into the territory of individual rights, using them as sacrificial lambs, that’s when we started to draw a line between I and Us. As irony would have it, societal rights were born out of the necessity to have a construct that could ensure individual rights were upheld and has now become its greatest nemesis.
Let’s consider the blockbuster Captain America Civil War. The primary conflict that drove the Civil War was the Sokovia Accords, an imaginary legislation passed by the United Nations under which the Avengers had to give up their right to act on their own accord in the event of a conflict.
On one hand, you have the possibility of possibly trying to control the damage inflicted due to the war between the bad guys and the good guys and on the other, you are taking away the freedom of individuals to act on their own accord. The line doesn’t look so clear anymore, does it?
Every one of us in our lives has faced this conflict without even realizing it. As citizens, we too have certain restrictions imposed upon us in order ensure the rights of our fellow citizens aren’t infringed upon. For instance, by the constitution, each one of us is provided with the freedom of expression. But that freedom comes with the accountability for the words we utter.
Take another example of the Joker in Dark Knight. He lures the innocent citizens of Gotham and the criminals into two yachts and plants a bomb in both. He then provides them with a button that could save their lives but meant sure death to the other yacht. But should they not press, both of them go down. This scene in itself encompasses the conflict of individual rights and societal rights. You could push the button and save yourself, thereby protecting your right to life. Or you could keep your hands clean of the other’s blood but your own rights are taken away.
Here is the million dollar question, you or I?
To be honest, this line between you and I is a tightrope. There is no single absolute right or wrong answer to it, as much as we would like to pretend there is. Over the course of history, our idea of right and wrong in itself has changed. What was set in stone a hundred years ago doesn’t even matter these days. When our idea of right is in itself evolving, how can there be a right answer?
What is important is we understand why the two are important in their own accord. Without societal rights, we can’t expect someone to respect our individual rights because honestly what’s in it for them? But without individual rights, societal rights in itself will sooner or later lose ground. Like I said before, the line is a tightrope. And like any good tightrope walker, the key is to make the balance just right.
Agnes Sharan