The basic need is an experiential guideline for action
Anything living needs some ground rules. A living creature, be it a single-cell organism or a conglomerate of millions of cells, will need to nourish oneself and expel the waste from the body. This itself requires a routine. The ground rules of each species of a living entity define how long it will live. The same applies to human beings. To move away from the gross level of activity—rest, sleeping, awaking, breathing, eating, whatever else—one has to fall into a pattern. If there is no routine the organs of the body start malfunctioning and some form of illness takes over. Illness has its own issues and has spawned multiple breeds of doctors, variously known as allopaths, homeopaths, Unani specialists, Ayurveda acharyas, naturopaths, etc. None of these schools of medicine claim to be complete or have all the answers. Very often their assumptions are so widely different that they seem to be at war with each other. The basic need is to have a system and a logic, an experiential guideline as the basis for action. This is needed for life itself, social existence, mutual interaction and indeed is the basis of civil society. A basic act like walking on the road requires observance of certain well-understood protocols. It is important to emphasise this because there is a growing crescendo in favour of ‘do what you want, when you want without a care and concern.’ The principle is interesting and perhaps even enticing. Whereas such ‘letting down of the hair’ is desirable at times, even the location for doing so and certainly the time for doing so has to be carefully thought through. So, there is a case for freedom with thought. Taking the discussion at a higher level of thought and action it is obvious that all group living requires some ‘discipline.’ ‘Discipline’ is resented by some and many advocate ‘Bohemian freedom.’ This can be dangerous if freedom is exercised by people of poor judgment. In short, the matter also becomes the orientation and maturity of individuals. It is at the level of dyadic relationships in groups and larger conglomerates of organised existence like the state or a nation.
The matter is also of the threshold where freedom can become excessive and discipline, an overbearing phenomenon. The relationship between freedom and discipline can be subtle and yet critical for organised life. A comparable example can be when to persuade with judgment and gentleness, and when to use emphasis and assertiveness. There are no easy answers. In all this, the role of leadership becomes critical. How a leader marshals his argument, organises his data, and makes a presentation becomes an essential part of not only creating norms but the functioning of a civil society. Those who had the occasion to listen to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address of May 2 to an Indian audience in Berlin would have seen an example of selection of facts, piecing together an argument, and backing it up with appropriate intonation and emphasis. All put together, it creates impact and could produce results. Most of us would not have that podium in one way or another for making that presentation. However, all of us will have occasion, in one way or another, to marshal facts, organise our thoughts in a disciplined manner, and communicate to someone in an acceptable idiom. This is also what life is about. Freedom and discipline have to walk hand in hand. They touch all aspects of life just as they touch all aspects of existence. In every case, judgment is the key and constant practice, and awareness is the path.
(The writer is an acclaimed management consultant. The views expressed are personal.)
