The Right and the Wrong

Janghaolun Haokip *

What is right and what is wrong? In a world where humans are filled with their own wisdom? Who is right and who is wrong? In a world where humans are striving for acceptance and recognition?

Since so long ago, mankind has taken pride in being one of the most intelligent species of all that exists on earth. Indeed, we have machines, and nuclear weapons, and our technologies are so advanced that we are beginning to create machines that are almost as intellectual as ourselves, like the artificial intelligence to mention. However, in spite of all these intellect and advancement, as much as it continues to grow every day after day, we seldom are capable of defining the simplest terms as the 'right' and the 'wrong'.

Here at the beginning, we shall simply explore the notion of the 'right'. Is the right anything that produces positive results for us? If it is so, what is it that is an opportunity for me but detrimental for another? Is it right as long as it serves me right, but then again, what is it that serves me right but is wrong to the others.

Can I separate myself from society and live in my own secluded world? If I do so, where do I have the acceptance, attention, and recognition that are essential human craving? Or can I identify myself not human but just a random alien looking like a human being? If I do so, what then is the meaning of my life?

I wish to quote myself here about the simple meaning of life of which I owe my basic principles of socialising, that to live a life worth for others is the greatest fulfilment one can achieve in his/her lifetime. So then, even if it is right or either an opportunity to me, it doesn't count least if it is a curse for the rest.

Howbeit, if a life that is of the greatest worth for others is the worthiest of all, and I am to accept a curse that is an opportunity for others. I believe that that is again not something supported by reason and human experience which firmly holds that you must love yourself and yourself alone, so that you can love others best.

In short, what is the truth that defines the right and the wrong? To me, there is nothing as an absolute truth, and this is the only truth that I know, apart from believing in God and accepting the divinity of God as the only truth. But since we still have to define somehow, and make a distinction between the two so that Justice is done to the topic: the WRONG is anything that defies logical reasoning, anything that may lead to negative results and the RIGHT is simply and rightly the opposite of the WRONG.

But then again, what are the negative and the positive? As a compendium of various research and philosophies, if what is right to you is wrong for others, in other words, if your freedom enslaves another, then that can be considered RIGHT for you but Wrong because it is wrong for the other.

The answer thus lies in the effort to find the 'between' between the two. It is clear that the question of right and wrong cannot wholly rely on one individual's perception, and nor can it wholly deny the conclusion of one. There must rather exist a universal absolute by taking into consideration the whole perceptions of the entire humanity. But can an inexplicably large entity as this exist and subsequently form a solution.

These arguments are rather complicated, but as stated before, the notion of the right and wrong are rather simple. These arguments are simply to augment our minds, to evoke questions that are simple but yet seldom noticed. To me, the right and wrong are free-spirited or extensively personal. To a kind person, the right is being kind to others and thoughtful for the welfare of others.

On the contrary, to a rather cruel person, the right is being self-seeking and being a narcissist in our approach and only thinking of our own, and for our own. Therefore, the more important questions becomes, instead of identifying what is right and what is wrong, for that we know it all, but how to bring the right to the wrong. How can one possibly and effectively transform the wrong to the right?

Like earlier stated, there is again no absolute, for even to the end of the earth, evil will never cease to exist in the world. The devil will always find its place among saints. This is another truth I know about life. What then is what should be done to maintain the world?

This is what we should know, on the notion of the right and of the wrong, of what is negative and what is positive and of what is an opportunity and a disgrace: What is truly important is not what is what it is, what is truly important rather is how 'what it is' is benefitting another person.

Look around the world and you will see that there is already so much agony, of poverty and pain of sickness, of injustice and of arrogance of ignorance. The world is now divided, with hatred and enmity as the only links between different people.

There is little love and little care. If you know of all these, and yet you decide to do nothing about it and if anything you do at all only worsens these sad realities of the world, then that is the universal WRONG, for which I am most confident.

The right, on the other hand is doing what you can as you know you must, in your own capacity, your own capability, regardless. The right is anything that is benefitting to others, as much as to your own. The right is universal and is not being a part of a group, but the whole of mankind.

The right is always choosing for the larger interest of humanity, and of understanding and accepting differences. The right is being conscious to the more profound dispositions of human mind, of the truth and the good, as opposed to the lies and the bad.

Each of us must be agents today, of peace and reconciliation, not just social relationships, but of economical and political conditions. Like an Indian godman Osho famously quoted, let us "Never belong to a crowd; Never belong to a nation; Never belong to a religion; Never belong to a race. Belong to the whole existence. Why limit yourself to small things? When the whole is available."