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Status in an honor culture, ironically, seems to be about how much you can cheat 🤔 The gods are seen to favor you in proportion to how much cheating they let you get away with. This is a big theme in the Mahabharata. 90% of the cheating in it is by the god-favored ‘good guys’.
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would be nice to hear some more about the Mahabharata context. I thought there was a defining scene where Duryodhana had to choose between Krishna and his army. He chose army. Wasn't it a conscious choice..
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Yeah but that’s not a cheat. It was a choice Krishna offered. I’m thinking of Arjuna killing Karna while his chariot wheel was stuck, Ashwathamma the elephant incident, Bhima hitting below the belt, Bhishma getting killed because he refused to shoot at Sikhandin...many more
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Fair enough. though these are fairly nuanced conversations. I see Krishna and Bhishma as two parallels. One chose dharma (his oath) but supported a descent to evil. The other chose the path of adharma to establish dharma. Bhishma remained clean, but could've avoided the war.
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I see those big plot points more as big philosophy decisions made by the enlightened characters. The cheating is interesting because it shows how the ordinary characters related to the rules of engagement. It’s not so much nuance as how you think about rules.
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Rules are to followed when underlying baselines are kept. Duryodhana came in with an unfair advantage. MB is full of stories to let us realise that simply playing by the book when the system context is different doesnt work.
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Replying to @vgr and @snarayan
Its about knowing how to deliver justice. Duryodhana had come into the mall-yudh with an indestructible body -> in modern day sports, athletes are dismissed if found to be on performance enhancing drugs. Are those detection mechanisms cheat-sheets of under performers?
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I agree with your larger point. At the risk of annoyance, I thought Arjuna and Karna is a great case. Arjuna had lowered his bow. But, Krishna provoked him by referring to Karna's role in Abhimanyu's death. That incident basically changed the course of the rest of the battle.
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