There’s a video of Anant Ambani’s driver touching his feet at a celebration of the said employee’s (whether this is his driver is unclear, but my inference is from what I read on other people’s social media posts, though this is immaterial to my question) birthday aboard the employer’s private jet.
Many people who identify as liberals (apart from being rationalists, balanced thinkers, and social justice evangelists) were appalled at this, and I saw quite a few posts mocking the exercise.
Some said the employer was to blame for his nonchalant and, in fact, encouraging behaviour towards what seemed a distasteful and transparently sycophantic act. Some said the employee is to be blamed for stooping so low, literally in this case.
Various arguments were given from both sides. But all agreed that it was cringeworthy and is difficult to see, leave alone justify in favour of any of the involved parties.
Let us break this mockery down a bit and examine why one finds it easy to laugh or turn up one’s nose at this video. If you do indeed are a rational-thinking, non-ageist, liberal-minded person, you could, very reasonably, have one of the following two stands:
- Touching anyone’s feet is offensive and parochial, if not worse, and no one need indulge in it. This is a stand consistent with your beliefs, and you ideally ought to get a free pass mocking the video’s protagonists. However, that would mean you are taking agency away from the parties that are involved in the act and deciding on their behalf what is or ought to be right. If you were to bring the power-asymmetry angle to the table, I’d argue that there is no situation where the employer and employee are perfectly equal, and regardless of what behaviour the employee indulges, in, I could prove it to be an overly obsequious behaviour, because at the end of the day, where one draws the line is extremely subjective. Does being the first one to greet one’s employer count? Or opening his door? Or taking his bag away from him and loading the boot on his behalf? Or arranging the air conditioning in the car to be more comfortable for him than for you? I mean, it is impossible to form an objective and non-frame-of-reference-based opinion on what is just enough (‘respect’) and what is over the line (‘sycophancy’).
- Touching feet is fine, and if one feels like touching someone’s feet, one should, especially of those people one feels extreme respect or admiration for (as an example, I touch my mother’s feet when I leave the house; whether this is social conditioning or something I arrived at after rational thought is immaterial; what matters is I, a rational person, find it respectful, loving, and indeed, soothing to my soul; and no, Kym does not like touching anyone’s feet and so does not do so), there is nothing wrong in it, and that age has no role to play in this. In that case, who are we to decide whether the driver truly felt that he wanted to thank his employer and the best way he thought of was to touch his feet; and that the employer truly felt that to spoil the moment by taking objection to what seemed like a heartfelt gesture would be to rain on the birthday boy’s parade and to enforce his authority, and thus not only avoided acting negatively towards it, but was actually loving in his response? How can we, sitting here, decide on the level or depth of sincerity, love, and/or respect felt by that elderly man as he bent to touch Anant Amnai’s feet?
And now, the question: What part of the video did those who mocked it find humour-worthy or in bad taste? Why? Explain to me from first principles. Honest answers only.
