Volume 5 · The Great Indian Bazaar · Essay 81
Flipism
Flipism is a small handle on a large fact. Grip it, and the fact becomes easier to carry.
It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.
The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.
The village panchayat and the housing society meeting are the same animal in different clothes: five people deciding, fifty people complaining, and everyone leaving wiser than the minutes suggest.
Society is a long conversation; the only question is whether you are listening or merely waiting to speak. If this page made you think of one specific person, do not send it to them. Apply it to yourself first; that is how these things work.