Beware, the Pseudo-Liberal Complex are all around..

This post is about people with a mentality based on double standards, whom I shall refer to as the Pseudo-Liberal Complex (PLC), even though this term would probably have been documented by some or the other anthropologist/social scientist by now. While this term is a generic one, the discussion in this post is centered on the PLC in India, who form a significant portion of India’s bursting-through-the-seams population, only for the reason that I haven’t personally encountered any non-Indian members of the PLC, yet.

Pseudo-Liberal because these people are characterized by a rigid sense of conformity and a lack of willingness to see logic and reason, wrapped with a shallow layer of what appears to be liberalness, but is more often a lack of discipline. These people want to appear to be liberal and “modernized”, but still advocate a “holier than thou” lifestyle ( I’d prefer saying that they are just sanctimonious b*stards/b*tches, if Dan Brown doesn’t mind me borrowing his terminology from one of his books).

Typical behaviour exhibited by the Indian members of the PLC generally involves not doing what one is expected to do by way of laws, duties, and ethics, but covering up for it through the garb of acceptable (but not necessarily logical) socio-religious behaviour. One of the most common examples is that of guys behaving rowdily by boozing, talking/behaving lustfully with respect to women, breaking traffic rules, etc but towing the line of society with respect to rituals social and religious. Another is that of girls behaving in flirtish / over-friendly ways with guys, but being willing to be handled like property by their parents/families in matters such as marriage. (This could get long, so I will give a complete list in another post.)

The danger associated with this trend is that adherence to conformity is being used as a cover-up for indiscipline. I regret to say that one of my own friends is a blatant breaker of laws and the least disciplined person in my friends circle, but is more acceptable to society because he conforms.

The PLC would definitely have problems with guys like me, who love and stick to freedom and responsibility. In fact, they’d view me either as a conservative only because I am disciplined in my duty, towards the laws laid down by Governments, and do not compromise in matters of ethics, or as a pervert because of my views which are based on my interpretation of things.

In all this, I do not bear any ill will towards my PLC friends, however I would rather not have made friends with them in the first place.