Recently if you have been
following news in India and the politics you would have noticed some
unprecedented polarization in various segments of the society. Media is
divided, Lawyers are divided, even the mass populace seems to have ‘strong’
opinions about issues like – election results,
government policies, the great intolerance debate, nationalism issue and numerous
ones in between.
It’s easy to be discouraged by
the passion which these arguments bring. Never before young mid 20s and 30s population got into ‘intellectual’ and seemingly
‘boring’ and ‘unrelated’ policy discussions. And I say discouraged because we aren’t
used to debating ‘intolerance’ or ‘nationalism’ in our drawing rooms or as part
of our ‘water cooler discussions’. Everything said and done, we love to argue,
we love to take sides, find faults in other’s arguments – technically or sentimentally
and we are good at that. In the digital age the scope of these deliberations has
expanded to unimaginable breadth. Social networking sites and applications
which can spread word around faster than the blink of an eye are doing a great
service to the quantity and quality of the conversations happening all around
the world and for all democratic reasons this is a very good sign for the flora
and fauna. Think about child labor, clean India, traffic rules, human
trafficking, international relations, epidemics spreading across the world,
terrorist attacks around the world, democratic uprisings, general elections in
some countries, world economic health, price of oil and other commodities –
even if you don’t know everything about all of them, there is a good chance that
you know something about each one of them.
I chose to write about two
aspects of the debates I have observed being conducted formally and informally
around me. First one is about how we secretly enjoy it and outwardly resist
(read desist) or feel guilty about it when it’s (partially) over. Second one is
a more important issue. It calls for caution in terms of what we read, watch or
spread or shall I say what we believe.
Incessant love for debates.
You pick a topic. Any topic.
Start with international issues if you are globally aware citizen of the world,
or pick a national issue, perhaps a state issue? How about local ones? State of
traffic, road conditions, waste management in your region. If none of these
interest you, then let’s talk about homely issues, food, upbringing of kids,
choosing your career, kids’ schooling, or how to spend the next extended
weekend. Cliché – ‘Man is a social animal’ should be changed to ‘We all love to
argue’ about something or the other. Only the topics change depending upon what
clicks for you. We love to deliberate, talk about them and more often than not
get back to usual routine. In line with what has been happening throughout
human civilization, a handful of us take the concern seriously enough to start
doing something about it. Without taking names, there is an endless list of
great people(proven examples) and work in progress ones, and I am not even
talking about people in social space. Consider those who created business
empires (not that their goal was to do that in the first place) around a
problem they were trying to solve, or gave up (significant sometimes) part of
the wealth they have amassed for the good of the people.
Bottom-line is – keep arguing.
Keep questioning. Encourage your kids to ask questions, try answering them. Ask
questions yourself, try getting the answers. It is in line with the human
nature and is for the benefit for the society that we keep questioning
everything and everyone (Don’t take it literally). It keeps things in check.
Let me back track a bit here. Let me not say that everyone should keep
questioning everything/ everyone. What I imply is that keeping an open mind is
the important essence here. Keeping an open mind is as much about being okay
with new answers as it is about finding alternate to the existing ones.
The Caution and the need for it.
Another cliché in the new age is
around how the social media has changed the world. It has indeed. I am tempted
to use the name of a particular messaging app and a social networking site
(both under same flagship). But this blog-post is not about them. It’s about
the people who use them and how they use them.
This is the year of presidential election
in the US. I get to talk to some of my colleagues there. I know politics doesn’t
feature in the list of topics you should converse on with your office
colleagues but it comes up every once in a while. I mention this because of the
one thing which is common in the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s
largest one is the anger and frustration which the common people have. While
this is the first time we are getting the opportunity to get first hand/ or
filtered information in real time, it is also the first time when we can vent
out our anger and share our views and it is out there in the open. There is
nothing wrong with that. It just calls for a little caution.
Please keep in mind that the
venting which you are doing over the internet is out there in the world for everyone
to see. This is a fantastic thing and many great ideas have come up when people
collaborate. Internet is a great place for unprecedented scale of collaboration
happening. On the other hand there are people who have the capacity to harm
others when they take in those sentiments seriously; it creates havoc in the
society. There seems to be some investment in this field where some serious stakeholders
are trying to make the most of this opportunity to sway the emotions of people
in their favor, or may be deflect the attention from what’s more important.
I know I can go on and on this…
but as good things end, this one will as well. ;)
Passion is good, so are the arguments,
or having opinions, defending them, taking it to the larger masses (like I am
doing right now) but as a superhero once said (in a Hollywood movie) – “With
Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” I think this is the time to show some
restraint and be a little more responsible. Don’t trust everything you hear or
see, don’t jump the gun to verdicts and conclusions. That’s a lot of serious
talk and ‘gyaan’ as my friends call it. Just follow the beautiful vision of this
great nation which is relevant beyond timelines – ‘vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ – ‘The
world is one family’ and you can agree, disagree with your family but not harm
them.
Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!
