Let’s be ‘foolishly brave’!

Is the foolish rat really foolish?

People often frame stories to make their point. In business training, there is a story I have often come across about two rats. Two rats fell into a bowl of cream and were drowning. After struggling to stay afloat and climb out of bowl, one rat realised that he can’t make it, gave up and drowned. The other rat kept on trying and, though no help was coming, he didn’t lose hope. He kept thrusting his legs about in desperation and after a while realized that the strokes of his legs were producing butter from the cream. Minutes later, there was enough solid butter and the rat climbed over butter and jumped out of the bowl.

This story is usually showcased to demonstrate the value of the ‘keep on trying’ and ‘never let go’ attitude. However, working in the corporate sector for 20 odd years, I could not help think about the other unintended perspective this story offers. This story may also be interpreted as that the intelligent rats usually lose hope early because they can gauge the hopelessness of realities. The dumb ones are more immune to realities and keep on trying. And there may be truth in that too!

Let’s be fair. The anecdote of the rats is very linear. It says, you don’t give up and then only you succeed. Reality is much more complex and non-linear. Success is not just a product of effort, but also a result of approaching life intelligently and also a lot of luck. There are infinite books written in the world on what makes one successful. I’m not an expert to suggest I have anything new to offer. However, I can’t help think, being foolhardy may also lead to success at times in certain situations, especially, when there is no hope or no help coming. And especially when mere ‘survival’ can be termed as success. Does the situation sound familiar?

Look at today’s world. Dystopia personified. Science fiction falls short and Hollywood looks pale to this. Stars are committing suicide, state heads are sounding confused, black people being given a raw deal and countries are embroiling in war even before diplomats could get to their phones. And these examples are not even related to corona. There was enough in this world to feel the hopelessness already, to feel that no help is coming.

People have been setting timelines that things will improve by Eid, then by June and now by July. Some say September and some saying 2021. Recently, someone said it shall drag till 2023! How do we know when this will end and how do we cope till then?

And then there is corona. It has given us a raw deal. It has brought us to our knees. It has all that a dystopian world could offer. People are locked up like animals in cage, healthcare systems are breaking down, social norms are shattered and even frail family bonding have been exposed. Get to the social media and you get the news of close people dying, children leaving their parents to die, politician plundering government aid and a section of businessman profiteering even from this situation.

Bombardment of negative news has given rise to paranoia and sleepless nights to the masses. The status quo has put all in severe mental distress and depression. The frailty of life, the uncertainty of jobs and income, the meaninglessness of so-called luxuries of life, all has been exposed.

And this is not even the worst part. The worst part is that we don’t know when this will end. People have been setting timelines that things will improve by Eid, then by June and now by July. Some say September and some saying 2021. Recently, someone said it shall drag till 2023! How do we know when this will end and how do we cope till then?

This brings me to the second story. On 9 September 1965, Vice Admiral of the US Navy, James Stockdale, was flying on a Skyhawk, an advanced combat plane on the sky of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Suddenly the jet was hit by an enemy fire and got completely disabled. He parachuted to a small village but was caught and taken prisoner of war (POW). Stockdale became the highest ranking POW in the Vietnam War. He was captive for eight long years. During this difficult period, he was brutally tortured and there was no reason to believe he would come out alive. Yet he did, while most around him lost their lives. He came out alive in 1972.

In an interview he later revealed something which became famously known as the ‘Stockdale Paradox’. When asked how he survived for so long while so many gave up in a short time, he said that he never lost hope that he would come out alive. He had the discipline to confront the brutal facts and hopelessness of current realities and uncertainty, and yet he had unfaltering faith that he would come out alive at the end. This confrontational idea became known as the ‘Stockdale Paradox’.

When asked “Who didn’t make it alive?” he replied, ‘The optimist”.

“The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

The story of the rats may be a bit too linear while the story of Stockdale is anything but. Sometimes in life, we need to be foolishly brave enough not to lose hope and keep kicking till the butter is produced.

In this season, realities are grim and intelligent rats may realise that the light at the end of the tunnel is actually a running train coming towards him. In this season, I’d like to be the foolish rat, keep on kicking my legs till I come out of this bowl. As the Paolo Cohelo said, “And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

Let’s be determined to fight paranoia and firm to fight the uncertainty, to come out alive on the other side of this corona.

Shahid Ali works for a multinational in Dhaka, Bangladesh