Action Delayed, Action Denied

A legal statement, ‘Justice delayed, justice denied’, can be extended to everyday life situations, for one has to make decisions – great or small – before doing something. People have a vast range of things they need to decide to do – from deciding to buy a pair of socks to choosing a life-impacting career, such as being a philosopher. Whereas some want to be a justice in the court, others choose to be administrators, teachers, engineers, doctors, and business persons. Whatever profession they choose to adopt, the rest of their life runs with that career towards the last breath of life. 

But the right decisions must be made at the right time for an action, which many of us fail. In many cases, we all fail to make decisions in time, hesitating to decide what to do. One famous English playwright, who is often hailed as the greatest dramatist of his time and probably of all time, projects a complex character, Hamlet, who hesitates to perform what he is supposed to do. Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, upon returning home after completing his study abroad, finds that his father is dead and his mother is married to his uncle. His father's ghost tells him a poignant tale in his dream about the father's murder and the mother's marriage to his uncle. As the ghost orders, Hamlet must avenge his uncle for his most sinful act of killing his kinsman and the incestuous marriage. As justifiable as it might be, Hamlet nevertheless delays in making a decision to avenge for which he suffers the worst. Hamlet is considered the tragedy of indecision and inaction.  

Modern Hamlet

There are numerous hamlets in our time, but in a different sense. Modern hamlets do not rely on the words of supernatural beings such as ghosts. Still, they are superstitious in many affairs of life, denying them to make the right decisions at the right time to do something worthwhile. We live in an age that is supposed to be governed by a scientific point of view, but we are overpowered by superstition and blinded by unfounded belief systems. Many times, we fail to make the right decisions and do the right actions, and if ever we do, we make wrong decisions, leading to undesirable consequences. 

There is one striking incident in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), where the people at Laputa rely exceptionally on a weird astrological system that compels them to make decisions before it is too late for action. In our time, too, we follow the astrological scriptures, which allow something to do and deny something else to do. Not simply astrological scriptures, but even the religious scriptures, which are supposed to be the words of God, are apparently superstitious. Whether in the Vedic scriptures or in biblical narratives, we find some farcical illustrations that blind people. Suppose, for instance, somebody is seriously ill and needs the right medical attention, but the patient's attendants begin to pray to God for a cure. Sometimes coincidently, the ill person gets cured not much due to the prayer but more due to the resistance power of the patient themselves. 

It is more than the ironical belief that viral infection of some kind recedes all by itself in a few days, but the attendants of the sick person falsely believe that God cured illness.  The worst scenario can be cited from everyday life situations, where ordinary people know no better and wait for decision-making until it is too late. One instance can be found among young people of marriageable age, who are reluctant to get married during their prime youth. They wait, saying that they have not yet been self-dependent for marriage, which indeed they never will, ultimately making delayed decisions about marriage, which means almost no happy marriage. Many people will have already crossed the age of reproduction by the time they get married. 

Even as they give birth to the little ones, they will not have adequate time to rear them properly in time. By the time the parents are too weak to work for the future of the children, the latter are too little to leave the nest. In modern times, this practice has been a common platitude both in the East and the West. This is a tragic situation much like that of sixteenth-century Hamlet. Out of indolence or reluctance, many people have the habit of procrastinating things. Instead of making decisions and doing things at the right time, they postpone what they are supposed to do instantly, not simply for one day or two, but for an indefinite time.

Remedy

They have to finish their home assignments or official tasks on time, but they procrastinate, doing nothing within the deadline. This is the habit of many common people, which not only prevents them from making individual progress but retards national and societal progress if the person involved is in charge of making public decisions. The individual loss is certainly worth considering, but the societal loss is irreparable. To make delayed decisions is just like not to make decisions at all because it denies the proper action in time. Without making the right decision with sound judgment, no proper action is ever possible.

But the problem is not without remedy. It is essential that we need to impart such education that impels us to decide things at opportune moments. We should admit that our present education system is faulty because it either gives us a lopsided or misleading education. In our country, never have we tried to make our children critical thinkers who are wise enough to make the right decisions at the right time. It is worthless to regret our wrongdoings in the past. Simple though it looks, the habit of procrastination is one of the serious evils of our society. Let us thus start imparting critical education, which makes our citizens knowledgeable, wise, and responsible for individual and societal development.  

(The author is the chairman of Molung Foundation. bhupadhamala@gmail.com)