Ethics Theory, GS 4, TLP-UPSC Mains Answer Writing
1. “The true enemy of good isn’t evil, but fear. Evil will battle good, but fear will corrupt it”. Comment.
“अच्छे का सच्चा दुश्मन बुराई नहीं है, लेकिन डर है। बुराई अच्छी लड़ाई लड़ेगी, लेकिन डर उसे भ्रष्ट करेगा ”। टिप्पणी करें।
Demand of the question:
It expects candidates to write about how fear is the true enemy of good as evil can fight with the good but fear leaves greater impact on good by corrupting it. It also expects to write how overcoming the fear will help to supplement the good.
Introduction:
At the basic level fear guides our fight or flight responses and helps to keep us safe and alive. Fear heightens our senses and awareness; it keeps us alert and helps in better preparation. However, the other side of fear is that it holds us back from doing something positive.
Body:
Fear is a feeling or sense that imbibed in to the mind of a person due to certain danger of threat to his or her life or any other precious-valuable thing in his/her life.
- When a person tries to do some good in the society he/she may have to face fear due to numerous problems. e.g. A person who runs an old age home and runs it through charity of people, might face fear due to demand of money by some local goons.
- In this scenario the fear of survival if overpowered might lead to closure of old age home. This in turn has corrupted the good.
- Fear to speak against corruption acts will not only question the moral standards of a person but it will also pose a question on the integrity of that person.
- For instance, a civil servant is well aware of corruption in her/his department, but chose not to speak against it, in the fear that she/he might lose her/his job.
- Fear to act against unjust will question the courage of the person and will pose a threat to the survival of good by corrupting it. e.g. Onlookers seeing a girls getting molested and acting in silence cowards who are fearful of speaking out.
Hence, it becomes imperative to overcome fear if we want a free, fair and just society. Overcoming the fear will not only help to do good but also it will help it to save good from getting corrupted.
- Martin Luther king jr. spoke against the racial discrimination and demanded an end to racial segregation in the USA, also asked for equality in jobs and civil rights. This mere act of speaking against injustice without fear has culminated in to good for the people of African origin in the USA.
- Ashok Khemaka, IAS has been transferred 53 times, due to the fact that he spoke and stood up against the corruption in various departments. This mere act of courage shows the innate good nature of speaking against corruption without fear.
- This act of speaking against corruption has helped in two ways, as it never let a person’s spirit down to act against evil and it also helped to have a greater impact for welfare of the disadvantaged sections of people.
- Hence, overcoming fear will not only help to do good but it will also help to remove out the corruption in good.
Conclusion:
While speaking about the fear Mahatma Gandhi has once said that all fear is the baseless fabric of our own vision. Therefore, Removing the fear from the minds and speaking-acting for good will help to have a harmonious societal life.
