Ant and Grasshopper Part II:
The other version of the story..
The story in the previous post goes on till the grasshopper makes mistakes and pays for it. Then what happens?
Ants in their next season start to work hard and accumulate more wealth. They now have the capital and thrive with a combination of hard work and capital. The capital helps them to grow on a larger scale and perform only the smarter tasks. With in few generations, they become affluent group in the society. In the mean while, the grasshoppers suffer for all the mistakes committed by their forefathers. The ants get high quality education and get to do high value work. They employ the grasshoppers to serve them and work in their fields or at home. As more time passes by, the grasshoppers were made to believe that they were always inferior to ants and their primary duty is to serve the ants and get good name from them. The ants teach their children about new things and they frequently come in contact with other societies and update their skills. Ants are now a greatly networked society and they get guidance and help from other affluent ants. Ants shape their own life and dream big. Consider even a poor ant which does not have the kind of money that his fellow ants have. This ant’s kid’s role model is her uncle’s close friend’s brother (another ant) who is highly educated, has great deal of knowledge, has great reputation, earns lot of money and has travelled to different places and countries. The kid ant dreams of becoming like him and move forward. However the grasshopper does not even know of any one who he can aspire to become. Sad part is that he doesn’t know that he needs to dream**. All he hears from his community is about his great grandfather who worked very hard in the fields and won the appreciation of his employer ants. At the best, he aims to become like his grandfather and to serve his masters (the ants) better.
After many generations forward, few of noble ants realize the inequality among the ants and grasshoppers (notice that it takes an ant to realize that there is inequality). They undertake the social cause and try to improve the standard of grasshopper’s life. These affluent ants initiate social change and provide education to the grasshoppers. The grasshoppers that are now enrolled to school find it extremely difficult to learn. After all, with 20 generations of doing coolie work, their brain cells have stopped developing and this has passed through genes across generations. They are not able to cope up to the requirements of learning and are not able to compete with the ants. Seeing this, the altruistic ants proposed reservation for grasshoppers. The reservation process kicks of well and around 5-10% of the grasshoppers get benefited. In couple of generations, these 5-10% grasshoppers are out of ignorance, have a great standing in the society and are out of their community. They see new world, network with ants and see no differences between them and ants. But they still enjoy reservation in the system. These grasshoppers exploit the reservation system and take it for granted. They successfully prevent the other 90% grasshoppers from getting higher education. They also take strong political positions and try to keep their reservation status.
The majority of ants see reservation as injustice and find their way out of the country. Be it poor or rich, the ant community is well informed and find opportunities abroad and leave to freedom land. They scorn the government policies and vow not to come back. However, the 90% grasshoppers have no way leaving the country or finding new opportunities. They still remain ignorant without knowing their purpose of existence.
** - Acknowledgement of contribution from Srinath Rajaram, my friend at ISB who made me realize that underprivileged people do not know how to dream.
The other version of the story..
The story in the previous post goes on till the grasshopper makes mistakes and pays for it. Then what happens?
Ants in their next season start to work hard and accumulate more wealth. They now have the capital and thrive with a combination of hard work and capital. The capital helps them to grow on a larger scale and perform only the smarter tasks. With in few generations, they become affluent group in the society. In the mean while, the grasshoppers suffer for all the mistakes committed by their forefathers. The ants get high quality education and get to do high value work. They employ the grasshoppers to serve them and work in their fields or at home. As more time passes by, the grasshoppers were made to believe that they were always inferior to ants and their primary duty is to serve the ants and get good name from them. The ants teach their children about new things and they frequently come in contact with other societies and update their skills. Ants are now a greatly networked society and they get guidance and help from other affluent ants. Ants shape their own life and dream big. Consider even a poor ant which does not have the kind of money that his fellow ants have. This ant’s kid’s role model is her uncle’s close friend’s brother (another ant) who is highly educated, has great deal of knowledge, has great reputation, earns lot of money and has travelled to different places and countries. The kid ant dreams of becoming like him and move forward. However the grasshopper does not even know of any one who he can aspire to become. Sad part is that he doesn’t know that he needs to dream**. All he hears from his community is about his great grandfather who worked very hard in the fields and won the appreciation of his employer ants. At the best, he aims to become like his grandfather and to serve his masters (the ants) better.
After many generations forward, few of noble ants realize the inequality among the ants and grasshoppers (notice that it takes an ant to realize that there is inequality). They undertake the social cause and try to improve the standard of grasshopper’s life. These affluent ants initiate social change and provide education to the grasshoppers. The grasshoppers that are now enrolled to school find it extremely difficult to learn. After all, with 20 generations of doing coolie work, their brain cells have stopped developing and this has passed through genes across generations. They are not able to cope up to the requirements of learning and are not able to compete with the ants. Seeing this, the altruistic ants proposed reservation for grasshoppers. The reservation process kicks of well and around 5-10% of the grasshoppers get benefited. In couple of generations, these 5-10% grasshoppers are out of ignorance, have a great standing in the society and are out of their community. They see new world, network with ants and see no differences between them and ants. But they still enjoy reservation in the system. These grasshoppers exploit the reservation system and take it for granted. They successfully prevent the other 90% grasshoppers from getting higher education. They also take strong political positions and try to keep their reservation status.
The majority of ants see reservation as injustice and find their way out of the country. Be it poor or rich, the ant community is well informed and find opportunities abroad and leave to freedom land. They scorn the government policies and vow not to come back. However, the 90% grasshoppers have no way leaving the country or finding new opportunities. They still remain ignorant without knowing their purpose of existence.
** - Acknowledgement of contribution from Srinath Rajaram, my friend at ISB who made me realize that underprivileged people do not know how to dream.
posted by Nameless at 3:45 AM
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