Intervention - III
I am against kissing in public places (in India).
I do not care what one does in US or France
I also do not care what one does in a private place.
Update: Since venerable Sharanji has commanded, here is my explanation (or rather attempt to explain).
What is public morality ? I don't know, I do believe it is out there, but I can not define it, I tried to do that in the past, and I failed.
I can not define former, what about personal freedom as a criteria? Since kissing between two (or more) individuals in public place is a matter of personal freedom, hence it can not be restricted, so goes the libertarian wisdom.
To proceed on that logic, that any voluntary transaction between participating individuals which doesn't harm can not be restricted in public place, the inevitable conclusion is to allow even the actual act of intercourse (in any of the positions (NSFW) described by Vatsyayana) in public space. Now I do have problem with this situation, logic or no logic (even thought I suspect most libertarians will support this conclusion).
So what to do, first I realize American society is permissive, French even more so. Many people will argue there is nothing wrong without, however I find the notion of "anything goes" troubling. It indicates, to me, a sort of unravelling of social ethos which can only result in enervating society. Now, this is my biased view, owing to the fact that I grew up in a mostly traditional society (which most of us did), and I do believe that society has played a beneficial role in my growth (which most of liberals don't believe, because you know "tradition ain't cool").
The only course left for me then is to adopt a rule of thumb. This rule is to permit only those acts which are acceptable social norms for public places, in India kissing is not a social norm for public display of affection (as opposed to west) and considered to be of intimate (and private nature). Now the social norm is a very relative term, social norm in Saudi Arabia is very different from that of India which is again very different from France. But since the specific case for India doesn't discriminate on the basis of gender, there is nothing else for me.
Another Update: If I were to state the rule in one sentence, "Don't do anything in public,that you wouldn't do in front of your parents". How is this ?
8 comments:
Namaste Gauravji,
i've myself been trying to graple with this issue.
On the one hand, it should matter only to the two concerned (or more, if so :)
On the other hand, are the two violating the onlookers' rights in any way by their kissing?
Should the onus be on the onlookers to stay away from anyone's private business or should it be on the couple to maintain 'public morality'.
Is there something called public morality? How do we define it? And then, why only kissing? By someone else's standards holding hands may also be 'indecent'.
I understand that all you've done is just stated your personal viewpoint on this matter. But interesting (and useful to me) to know WHY you feel so.
HH 1008 Gauravji,
Thanks for the update. See - i face the same problems that you mention - and end up with the 'rule of thumb' approach.
Didn't know you had done previous posts on it. Nice ones.
Sharanji,
Thanks, by the way there is another update, which I may say so is rather cool :-)
Gauravji,
Don't you ignore the reality that different Indians do different things in front of their parents.
What then?
Gauravji,
Besides some Indians have foreign parent(s)...what of them?
:-)
NitinJi
I think, being a engineer, you will appreciate what a rule of thumb is.
As reards to phorener then as they say when in Bharat, do what Bharitya do
what i can do in front of my parents needn't necessarily be something you could do in front of yours or vice versa.
think about it :).
Cinamon,
That is why I said rule of thumb, not a law of physics, think about that :-)
Post a Comment