The goat-herd and its built environment

The phenomenon discussed in the TV show in the previous post is an increasing trend, and is worth taking a closer look at from the perspective of the built environment, which has a direct effect on the opportunities for cultural development. If the IT training methodology described in the video is true, it is unprofessional, inappropriate and brings in a 'goat-herding' mentality. The built environment, especially with respect to these IT companies, enhances the potential to bring in this mentality.

The common thread apparent in all these issues is that of a 'group' identity and the severe lack of an individual identity. The biggest testimonial to the 'group' identity is that no matter what the field of study during college was, everyone invariably ends up in IT! People want to embrace change, but change in order to relate to a 'group' rather than get themselves up to speed with the modern world. How is this different from the closed-culture society thats been the traditional Indian social organization? It started with the work performed in the society during the Vedic Age, and is regrouping to a similar format in the current trend. How is this modernization?

If IT companies are indeed pushing people to do things as portrayed in the show, it is clearly not modernization, but rather the practices and policies of goat-herding applied to IT professionals. How does one herd a bunch of goats? Tie their legs together and let them graze the field, and when they become fat enough take them to the slaughter house. Its not as if the goats have a choice, they just do what they are trained to do, get fed well and finally end up on someone's plate.

Consider the scenario in India today. A typical IT professional's daily routine is something like this - wake up, get ready in time to catch a bus, get to the business place, work, take a bus back home, eat, sleep. Nothing outwardly wrong with this scenario, except that this was the same routine to get to school, then get to college and now get to work. Life only changes in terms of the destination based on the current stage of life. Opportunities for cultural interaction are limited to the 'group' encountered each day.

How is the built-environment responsible for this? Unregulated and haphazard development in the residential areas with scant disregard for bye-laws and no semblance of a community concept, companies built way out in the hinterlands and a prevalence of automobile based development - all of them short-term profit decisions to maximize the cash flow for the goat herder who has no regard for the goat's development apart from the one that serves the herder's ultimate goal.

Such a scenario is leading to social isolation and increase in the trend of 'group' identity. More time spent in travel and at the workplace is eroding the quality of life and thus causing the increased trend in negative emotions ruling the roost. The lack of economic opportunity outside this herd and peer pressure created once again by a 'group' identity of a different kind among parents kills off majority of the individual spirits.

Thus, it is not the IT companies that should be blamed for this, but the lack of a vision and lack of planning the urban fabric in Indian cities that is to be blamed. Individual development must be emphasized, and the community must be designed to enhance this emphasis. Migration to cities and single economic sector development must be shunned.

At the end of the day, freedom is not about having lots of money and having loads of intoxicated fun, rather freedom is the ability to make a judicious choice in the usage of one's time without being a prisoner to circumstance. Freedom is the ability to forge an individual identity to enhance one's ability and character. Freedom is the ability to live and forge a livelihood in one's place of choice rather than be forced to migrate. Change must be sought to achieve this sort of freedom, and it is the role of policy and government to provide opportunities for such a change.