Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness.

*It is a pity those who have no sense of morality act as the final arbiters of character.

*When we look critically around, we shall find we are in the company of soft criminals – soft because law does not detect them, nor bring them to justice.

According to Anne Frank, the German diarist, “Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness.” When we lose this basic goodness, we lose our character. Characterless. If we apply this idea to human life in general, we shall come across thousands of people who do not conform to the ideals of good character. Particularly, people who blindly make money at the cost of others, who play foul with the law, who take liberties with the life of others, specifically those who make adulterated drugs, and eatables and those who do not give proper education to the students, and who make millions out of the societal passion for competition, and sell human limbs in underhand deals – I wonder how many sections of society will fall in the category of the ‘characterless’.

However, only those who are sexually wayward  are often labelled as  ‘characterless’ while those who commit crimes as mentioned above  are the people whom the Penal Code recognizes as violators of the social code of ethical behaviour, but they are never designated as ‘characterless’. Moreover, our crime books do not account for the violence which is done to men on their minds and feelings. Law has nothing to say in such cases. In fact, all those who transgress the moral law fall in the category of the ‘characterless’ and deserve condemnation.

But society is very permissive and liberal towards scamsters and fraudsters, people who tell lies in public, and make millions while in offices of power – these are the people who deserve to be called ‘characterless’ and punished under the moral law, rather than simple sexual transgressors, who are after minor joys, which are often committed with consent.

If we apply the idea of taking liberties with the moral code to people, we will find a majority of them lack character and goodness basic to humanity. We care only for ourselves. Look at the corporate culture. All are after big profits. No one can become rich unless he has put his hand in the pocket of thousands of people. But, our lawbooks do not arraign such people. Making money, growing rich, is a sacred mission with men, unquestioned by any law. The law gets into motion only when some solid rules are broken. If you are walking on the right, instead of left, the law will pick you up. If you are spitting at a public place, it will frown at you. But if you are a scamster and a fraud, it is there to safeguard your life and limb as much as your personal wealth.

Money never speaks up to say, to whom it belongs, and how it has been collected. When millions are stashed in foreign banks, neither any dollar nor any rupee utters a sigh. It is lying piled up in banks, and in religious places too, where it serves no purpose. Banks recycle the money into the society, but shrines do not recycle it back to society. They are simply not concerned with human misery, or with human welfare. In fact, as a doctor is interested in disease, so are religious people interested in misery, so that the footfall at the shrines remains apace.

People come to the shrines, part with their gold, and leave, thinking they have given a part of their wealth to the deity. They will never come back to check where their gold has gone. Gods have never visited any shrines for the purpose of collecting gold or wealth in different forms. It is not in their character to ask people to give them small amounts of their money. Yes, they are happy if this money is cycled back into the society and shared with the people in the form of hospitals and schools, so that the poor people are given education and healthcare.

If this does not happen, and wealth keeps rotting in the safes, making only a few in power smile, it is clear, human character rooted in selfishness and parochialism does not allow any such wisdom to human mind. All our education, and our training has instructed men to make as much wealth as they can, so that it serves you best in your old age. If an officer has not built a spacious house for himself while he was in the service, and if at the time of his retirement, he has nothing beyond the Provident Fund and Gratuity, and if his family finds he does not possess a happy pool of money, – he has wasted his life on goodness. Society looks with a suppressed laugh at such people. On the other hand, we find no crime, no guilt, no sin, if a man makes money and luxuriates in undeserved and stolen wealth. Rather others look at him as a role-model. There are some services in which wealth comes by itself, and you need not lose your ‘character’ [in order to make money].

When a young man fails to get a job and he takes to the crime route, and if a young girl fails in her marriage or her mission, and diverts into making money at calls, we are very eager to class them characterless, while we have no qualms in giving respect to those sections of society, who have forced young men into crime and young women into prostitution. I wish this cutting sense must prevail, and we should be able to label as characterless and criminals, people who violate the moral code and make wealth which leaves thousands poor.

Published under International Cooperation with "Sindh Courier"