Opinion Hurray to the underdog

Similarly, the 7-minute Louvre heist has turned into terrific comedy material. However much the French are lamenting the “national disaster”, the audacity with which the thieves operated has given an audience exhausted by the news of war and starvation, a much-needed chuckle. The thinking goes, no one died. There are no victims. The offence is serious, but since most of us were never going to own priceless precious stones dating back to the 17th century, it’s not a relatable loss. In fact, there’s lots to admire about the nimble-footed scoundrels storming into the most public of places and successfully looting a revered institution, designed to keep them out. The sad truth is that people gloomily believe honesty doesn’t pay. Most of humanity is trudging along in dead-end jobs, trapped by their own choices with no faith in their government to improve things. Along come these nobodies who dare to wrest back some autonomy via a brazen crime. It’s something a lot of us fantasise about — a caper  Ocean’s 11 style — since we don’t have the guts, we cheer those who do from the sidelines.

Throughout history, the idea of a noble bandit dispensing vigilante justice against a corrupt system has held a romantic kind of appeal. Think Robin Hood, Julian Assange or even Luigi Mangione. These outlaws are legends because we intuitively know that ethical and legal principles are interconnected, even if we sometimes disagree about their applications. Most of us conduct ourselves based on a loose and mysterious form of perception called a “moral compass”. We know murder is wrong and not performing our roles is a dereliction of duty. Yet, whatever our set principles, when certain dilemmas arise, our moral stance shuts down.

It is worth noting the toll firm staff are drawing a salary, ostensibly, for breathing in toxic diesel fumes, day in and day out. The firm isn’t obligated to give them anything extra, but instinctively, the arbitrary quartering of the Diwali bonus from Rs5,000 in 2024 to Rs1,100 in 2025 feels offensive. For an individual, their life is a serious business. If the powers that be seem intent on stripping off staffs’ dignity, it’s hardly surprising they reached the rational conclusion that petty bosses deserve their comeuppance.

When the economic and social order feels like it’s teetering on a rocky precipice, our ethics and values are bound to change, too. The outpouring of support for Mangione, who allegedly shot dead an insurance CEO in New York, suggests that people even in far richer societies derive great satisfaction from making the powerful squirm with fear. There are complicated emotions at play; resentment and frustration mostly, but at its core, it’s a desperate longing for fairness, that’s all but vanished. When someone finally points the gun and shoots the so-called perpetrator of injustice, for a brief moment at least, it feels that those who’ve benefited from inequality have lost. Even if ethically, killing is hard to justify, no matter what the provocation. It can only be understood philosophically, that imperfections are embedded in human nature.

The writer is director, Hutkay Films