The complete uselessness of a badge

One should never underestimate the power of discussion. Conversations and open discussions are usually killed at the altars of religion, politics, and patriotism. The people who wear these badges are usually the most intolerant and a discussion does not get to prosper in this vile atmosphere. As I am an ardent advocate of a healthy discussion, I am waging my war on these badges. Why do we need them at all?

What follows are my views (reinforced with what I had read, continue to read and with innumerable discussions that I keep having with friends (and a very vocal daughter and son) scattered across the globe)

Why am I putting it here? For each of us to have a look at what someone else is thinking and participate in a discussion/debate so that the concept of individual thinking gets polished, hammered, modified, subjected to scrutiny, given alternate views.

Never to conclude.

Concluding is final and closes the most beautiful thing that has ever evolved between active minds.

DISCUSSION.

I have said this before, and I shall say it again.

Discussion tries to arrive at what is right.

Argument targets who is right

None of us have anything to prove to anyone at this point in our life, least of all among ourselves.

So, just indulge me.

What is nationalism or patriotism?

Is it something tangible? J.Krishnamurti once said that his main goal is to set a man free. Hence, he disbanded the Order of the Star in the East (Founded by the Theosophical Society in 1911, that declared JK as the Head of the Order) in 1929. The speech he gave while dissolving the order has been a great influence on me personally. If you want to read that speech, for the first time or for the nth time, the link is given below.

https://jkrishnamurti.org/about-dissolution-speech

What is special about being an Indian? Or an American? Or a Bangladeshi? Or “xxxxx”?

Do not we all realize that this is just a birth lottery? We were born in India and many of us grew up in India. Some opted to stay, and some opted to leave. I never understood this passionate obsession with a country. (or a religion for that matter). Why someone who left India must demonstrate his love and blind faith to the nation and why someone staying in India can’t criticize the functioning of the nation? After all what is a nation? An organization that is run by a set of appointed people (or dictators where applicable). How many of us have stayed in the same job that we joined when we graduated from college? And what happened when we left our first organization? Have we become traitors? Do we silence anyone (or encourage anyone on the other hand) if they speak or mention the first organization that we worked at/for? What happened when we changed the job a second time, a third time, or started something of our own, employed people, had people leaving OUR organization, and proceed to the next? We do not hold (there is no need to is my point) any special attachment that can drive us to kill or question the relationships, consider the sanity level, or the loyalty quotient of the individual who expresses an opinion about the first organization.

I hope I am making some sense and you guys have not given up already and closing the phone/tab/laptop with a resigned facepalm.

I shall continue at the risk of being called names. Let us look at a sport that I associate well with (parallels can be drawn to IPL if Cricket is to your liking).

Soccer. In Europe.

The Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A are all followed closely in India too. As a matter of fact, India is one of their prime markets. Look at the players. They move from one club to another club seasons after seasons and the fans who loved them in one club start hating them when they move to a rival club and the fans of the first and second club start hating them when they move to the third club. Same for the manager. So, what should they do? Stay in one club till they retire. It is a rarity like a Paul Scholes or a Ryan Giggs. The astute ones keep moving.

Look at the most famous face of football.

David Beckham.

From a non-descript Rovers, to Spurs, to Man U, to Real, to Galaxy, to Milan, to PSG, to making his own team!

I am not deliberately bringing in the national team part because that, in my opinion, was the millstone he carried around his neck. England! He kept playing for England in every WC that he could play and never won a WC medal. Somehow this weighs him a down and even portrays him as a failure. Same for Messi today – I have heard people say Messi needs a Xavi to play football. Look at him perceived as miserably failing as an Argentina player.

The same was said of SRT. The poor chap was visibly relieved when India won the WC in 2011.

Because he knows that history will always remember him as a player who never won a winner’s medal for his nation in the world cup, which pits nations against nations. IPL brought in a level field where players of the world could come and play for a substitute-for-a-nation. You call them mercenaries or you call the teams ManU or Delhi Daredevils or Patriots or Bulls, but they play for a tangible thing called money and when they switch teams, they switch loyalties and life is far simpler.

What do we call an obsessed fan who stabbed Monica Seles? What do we call the rabid fans who camped outside Wayne Rooney’s house when Rooney indicated that he might move to Manchester City from Manchester United? (that Rooney did not go was due to SAF and his guile and was also good for his health in short term from those fans). What do we call the Mafiosi of Medellin who shot Eduardo for his own goal in the 94 WC?

If we are not going to be kind to them, why do we justify slandering and killing when it comes to nations? A nation is just a fictional identity.

If I take Czech citizenship tomorrow (just for an argument) do I become Czech and no longer Indian?

Or should I continue to be a Czech but Dil Hai Hindustani?

Will any of the options that are chosen, come to define me differently to the people who have known me all my/their life?

What, as a human being, if I continue to be the same? 

Does not that matter? Or rather, should not that alone matter?

Instead of trust in being an accidental inhabitant of a particular part of this world.

What are the odds of any of us being born (a horny dad and mom, correct time of the month, the winning sperm, the receiving egg, X, or Y chromosome)?

Now consider the odds for surviving childhood and reaching the teens? (Pox, measles, jaundice, typhoid, dog-bite, accidents, near-hits, cholera, hepatitis A B C or D (or there more?) heartbreaks 😉)

And now add the chances of getting a go, to be educated, and if yes, the chances of completing high school and reaching college?

And if we do reach college, the chances of graduating

After graduating, landing a few jobs and surviving to this age with a handful of friends to share these views?

Let me summarize my views here (for the impatient ones who straightaway jump to the bullet points)

•    Nation or nationality is an intangible concept and to me, it only means a document of proof to stay and travel
•     We are all global citizens within the difficult prevailing practices
• .  If we choose our loyalty to something, it should be born out of our own free will (Chelsea, Porn Videos, Sunny Leone, India, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1986 KREC batch), not because of some factor that was imposed on me and in which I do not believe  (Country, organization, marriage, customs, culture, Trump, BJP, Nehru….)

Let me close with a favorite quote from a man I most admire “To observe without judgment is the highest form of intelligence” It is not easy, and we are all guilty of sitting on our judgmental chairs and give out our fatwas like

“let us not discuss”

“do this”

“do that”

“that is forbidden”

“This is wrong”

“This is unacceptable”

and so on and so forth

My only request is, please never stop the discussion. Do not put preconditions to discussions other than these two. (even these two must be discussed 😉)

Decorum is non-negotiable.

Respect for each other is a must.

And for everything else “let us discuss till we see what is right”; one may individually see what is right and may not come to an agreement. That is ok.

You stifle a voice; you stifle the future.

For the good or for the worse!

Choose wisely.