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Thursday, May 29, 2014

Majority -Minority debate


Majority -Minority debate 

Socially and politically naming, labeling, branding and creating a clear cut classification and identity are inevitable in many domains of life, but to adamantly insist that a particular way of labeling and specific identities are superior and that all the rest must fall in line with it is a clandestine and catastrophic method to homogenize the variety in nature. This has been the problem of or the creation of not Abrahamic religions, why blame them, but the very thought process, philosophical approach and political manipulation used by the West to hegemonize the rest. They have applied this methodology in almost all spheres and it has only been either destructive or counter- productive but they have failed to address this faulty ideology because they seem to be caught between two urges one as a social group the comfort that an affinity to particular identity offers and the other an impulse to dominate through homogenization and hegemonization which has proved to be a successful political tool.

“Human race, unlike other species, because of its sixth sense and enhanced faculties and its inherent urge to perform things beyond just the physical alone, tend to perceive, act and react at different levels with varying degrees of intensities based on the multiple influences that it has been and is being constantly subjected to. So manifestation of variety in each individual not only in physical form but also in psychological perceptions and ensuing actions and reactions is inevitable.


At the same time human beings will have to live inevitably as interdependent social beings. Society is an organization formed and functions to carry on collective living of individual human beings. I am not getting into the merits and demerits of different forms of social set ups. I am approaching the basic fabric of what a society is. So this social set up has to frame certain rules and regulations for the collective smooth functioning that can help the activities of the various individual psyches and souls. Very often interdependent human psyche also becomes gregarious and willingly accepts certain set codes of conduct and helps formation of specific social set ups in certain geographical areas with specific socio-cultural commonalities and common religious beliefs. In such situations the specific social set up helps the life and enhances the life aspirations of many individuals. So far, so good.

The problem crops when the promoters and proponents of a specific successful social set up with its tested brand of socio- cultural characters, geographical suitability and religious activities try to replicate and enforce it in other locations. They carry too far and presume that their brand of homogenization that has worked in a particular area should be the best option for the rest of humanity.

History bears witness to this obsession with homogenization. The obsession is because homogenization also offers opportunity to hegemonize. It has time and again disturbed peace and harmony and delayed the progress of 
western civilization and destroyed global development. It has been carried out in various ways through indoctrination, by force, through cultural invasion, through war etc and throughout history it has failed miserably, be it the Roman Empire’s greed to spread its tentacles, be it the attempt at religious homogenization which failed with the Spanish Inquisition, be it Nazism, be it Colonialism, Communism etc. Now that these same proponents of homogenization perceive economic power to be the panacea for all human ills have got hold of GATT and making trips into the global economic activities through TRIPS.

Now all types of homogenization are carried out very easily through the mass opinion molders, the ubiquitous Media. The 
negative effectsof media are like the negative effects of nuclear technology.”-from  http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2009/10/peace-and-non-violence-harmony-and.html
And on religious front more and more thinking and intellectually advanced individuals have shunned traditional religions and dumped them along with their rituals to seek greener pastures elsewhere to satisfy their spiritual seeking and that has created  NRMs which I have written about almost 20 years back you can find that article in this  link
All these are more in the realms of society, politics, religion etc but human race is actually beyond the confines of all these confining concepts of all isms and ideologies because all of us are inter-dependent, inter –related and interact with one another either obviously or otherwise.
As R.W. Emerson used to say “ Nature expresses unity through variety” and he writes in his Essay on-I on The Poet “We stand before the secret of the world, there where Being passes into Appearance, and Unity into Variety”.


This whole write up is in response to the following article 

http://www.firstpost.com/india/minorities-heptulla-said-the-right-thing-but-at-the-wrong-time-1548461.html?utm_source=mail&utm_medium=alert_post

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