They aren’t bullet-proof Mr Creedy

Creedy: [desperately shooting at the approaching V] Die! Die! Why won't you die?... Why won't you die?
V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.     [sourced via IMDB]

I loved V for vendetta. It was a perfect blend of mindless action and flowing thought. It was powerful, yet exciting. I’d easily rate it among the best movies I’ve ever seen.

One of the many, many great dialogs in the movie is the one I’ve quoted above. It was beautiful. The injured V staggering on despite his wounds. The terrified Mr Creedy’s true colours showing through. Beautiful.

But Is that really true? Are all ideas bulletproof? Equally so? Can an Idea be killed, stamped out and erased from history’s memory? I’d wager they can. Its been done before and its being done now. I know this. I’ve seen too many dreams and ideas worn down to nothingness by the grinding machinery of apathy to say otherwise. This post is about that idea – that ideas and dreams are not bulletproof and that need constant support and help to keep from falling apart.

I’m from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli. Its supposed to be one of the best schools of engineering in India. And accordingly, each year, a batch of India’s finest minds (or nearly so – the very cream is taken by the IITs) enrols there with dreams of changing the world and doing great things. But, for the large part, they don’t. Most seem to take up paid jobs. Some Join the IIMs, doubtless drawn by the huge salaries and comforts of corporate life.

But do they join with that in mind? Does the average NITTian or IITian join with aspirations of a decently paid job at a multinational or does he (and it seems to be overwhelmingly ‘he’ with women a small minority in these institutions – but that sad fact is material for another post) enter with dreams of changing the world in one way or another? I’d wager its the latter, if only in an un-expressed, back-of-the-mind sort of way.

But then something goes wrong. The vast majority of these people seem to loose interest in the path they believed would be theirs and stray towards something more comfortable. Why? Is it perhaps because age and maturity (! lol) have changed their outlook? Perhaps. Is it because they feel that it is their responsibility to earn well and keep their families happy at the expense of their dreams? Perhaps, but I doubt it is so in many, many cases.

Apathy. A state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion – Wikipedia.

It can be induced.

An organization with any power – be it a College administration or a national government has the ability to bring about a situation in which there are enough restrictions and wrongs to prevent the people it has a hold over from truly realizing their full potential. It can create an atmosphere where the effort needed to do the simplest of things is so great that people just don’t do them. You don’t bother reading that article on the web because it is so annoying to go all the way across campus to reach a PC with internet access. You don’t bother voicing your opinion on an idea of some importance because the threat of litigation over some perceived wrong in your words is just great enough.

You just don’t bother.

The one thing you have to note is that there is always a way to actually do whatever you want. It is theoretically possible to do all the work you want on that piece of new equipment in the lab because a procedure actually exists to acquire permission. Or fight off the blatant attempts at silencing descent because the law is actually on your side. But the machinery of apathy is just strong enough that you don’t bother doing anything in the first place.

And that is how ideas and dreams are killed. By exerting just enough pressure to strangle them without actually alerting them to the fact they they are being killed…