What Motivates Me (Original text written immediately after University of Michigan Dance Marathon on 3.22.09)
My inspiration is Nakul Bhansali, because he was wrong--the cost was his life--for the wrong reasons. He caught Dengue Fever, he was misdiagnosed and did not receive proper treatment. This does not reflect the suffering he faced, which was great--all he could do in the end was whimper in delirium for an apple while his body crackled; like fire, it is said. He was wronged by people, organizations and institutions.
Any case like this--with or without similar specifics--must never happen again in human history. There are two things which must be protected and enabled: life and virtue. In Nakul's case, both life and virtue were obviously compromised.
The most dangerous villains of life and virtue are people, organizations and institutions.*
So, I resolve for myself the following: life and virtue must forever be enabled and protected from the people, organizations and institutions than mangle them. Doing so is my supremest and sincerest conviction.
* - The most dangerous people, organizations and institutions are public ones, which is why I think enabling/protecting is most important in the public sphere.
Writer's note: I decided to strike the word "people" several times, because I do not believe the problem is with individuals. I believe that individuals are good inside, at the very least they are more good than wicked. The problem is not with individuals, the problem of wickedness comes from aggregations of persons, I think. Persons are not complex, people are complex.
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