we the people

​Chatting up a guy who works at an old-age home(वृद्ध आश्रम) resulted in the revelation of these seemingly counter-intuitive facts:
1. Parents abandoned by their kids don’t usually do a ‘Baghbaan’ on them. They keep missing them to the very end and can even be found saving their meagre pensions for them.
2. Even though the residents are doomed to spend the rest of their lives with each other(and that they’re each other’s only emotional support), they seldom develop a harmonious relationship amongst themselves. Squabbles abound.
3. The free boarding & lodging doesn’t automatically result in people queuing up at these philanthropic institutions. Beggars who make 300-400 rupees a day can rarely be persuaded to enrol.
I guess the above observations lay bare two well recognised tenets. One: Schopenhauer’s ‘intellect’ will always be that lame and emaciated person which the strong but blind ‘emotion’ carries on his broad shoulders. And two: Once the stomach is full, most people will prize liberty over a lot many things.
Most governments are well aware of that first tenet. They sometimes tend to overlook the second.