From Greese Devils of Sri Lanka to Daniel Kahneman
I'm a lot worried of the fate of the Greece Devils of Sri Lanka in the hands of the angry mobs.
Have you ever experienced the wrath of a mob against you in your life? I experienced it many times. Once, perhaps in 2003, I was selling a leftist newspaper near a political meeting of a JVP coalition. I stress near because I was not in the meeting venue they had booked for the rally. But they were an upcoming power then and not like today's 'downgoing' gentlemen.
One person I met in an outside corner of the venue was a student of mine who appeared or pretended fond of me until that moment. He was in a programme in which I taught English as a volunteer and he had not lost money even if my teaching was bad.
The newspaper I was selling supported negotiated settlement through power devolution for the ethnic problem. But there was not theoretical stuff at all in that newspaper. It was just a radical tabloid. It was selling well at this particular meeting. After a short while, a group led by a man wearing a suit usually worn by MP security staff came and asked me what our stand was about self determination. I said it was a theoretical issue and could not be discussed on the road. They said we were supporting self determination and asked to leave the place or face circumstances.
Read the full article in W3Lanka English
It is exactly the wrath of the mob that I am afraid of as anyone walking the street can be accused of being a Grease Devil, as it only takes one person to make an accusation based on fiction and the mob without thinking will turn on the innocent individual and worse than a pack of dogs tear the poor person to pieces just as it happened a couple of times this week.
ReplyDeleteWe must be very careful as human beings to control our bases urges in the face of lies, and realize that every statement that is being uttered by some person is for that person's benefit and not for the public at large.
So tread carefully and do not believe any cock and bull story put out by the Police, the Government or the JVP or for that matter any passerby with an ax to gring!!