A good friend of mine here in Bengaluru is a senior person in the advertising industry. A while ago, he wrote a personal blog post excoriating a multinational company for its supposedly charitable work that was, finally, a pathetic attempt to create a viral promotional video. In the post he offered suggestions about how the company could have combined brand promotion with honesty, and actually made a change for the better in the world.
I don’t know about the video, but what did go briefly viral (within the company at least) was the blog post. Finally, because of concerns about the client, my friend was told he should take his post down.
I commiserated. I’ve often been stuck with a story that’s begging to be told, but other concerns make me wonder whether to write them. Good advice I read in this regard is that a writer must never be fearful, for it’s true that writing is an illness of sorts — some stories need to be let out if they aren’t to start rampaging and smashing things inside.
But it’s not just psychological satisfaction. Whether it’s a blog, a local column or a world news scoop that brings down evil dictators, there is usually a truth that needs to be told, and some people are cursed with the drive to tell it.
As my friend and I spoke about him having to pull the post, we decided, like two self-admitted grouchy old men, that there was no courage left anymore. In an ideal world the disparaged client would point to the post and say, “I want to hire this person. I hate his guts, but I want to hire him.”
People in high positions who are any good at what they do know that they can’t surround themselves with yes-men. They need employees who think differently, and it’s fairly common “fast company” advice to have someone on your team you don’t like — to keep you honest and to keep the difficult questions coming. And then, quite simply, there’s the attraction of having someone who is so passionate about his industry that he blogs about it, and is angered by its mediocrity and insincerity. Sometimes the harshest criticism comes from people who care the most. Why lose the chance to hire someone who tells the truth not just about what he sees outside, but is willing to look inwards and tell the really uncomfortable truths?
Continuing to be offended
This courage, to be able to see oneself as one actually is, warts and all, is surprisingly hard to find. It really does seem as if people expend huge amounts of energy on being offended, and continuing to be offended, with everything stemming from this basic belief they have been hurt. It’s not hard to find examples on company and even country levels of the uselessness of wallowing in upset and anger.
India, for example, is regularly offended at portrayals of the country abroad. Instead of focusing on the issues raised and making attempts to fix them or correct unfair notions, the nation gets deeply offended and dramatically hurt, writing complaints that essentially question the right of others to criticise. It’s a very efficient way to make problems disappear: To make sure nobody ever talks about them. To not listen to the text of what is being said and instead ask for opinions to be recanted, movies to be censored, books to be banned, and yes, blog posts to be removed. Do what you may in the short term, but as Launcelot says in The Merchant of Venice, “at the length truth will out”.
Gautam Raja is a journalist based in Bengaluru, India.
