Mountain of light

 

It was the Independence Day last week and since then, I have wanted to write about the state of my country as I see it. I mean we as a free nation are now 60 years old and now is a good time as any to talk about where we are now, where we are headed etc.  The thing however with talking these days is that no one seems to just talk. Everyone is out to impress her opinions on you and at any cost. So they will shout you down, flood you with information that takes weeks to digest, anything to prove that they are right and you are an idiot if you do not support them and an even bigger idiot if you do not have an opinion.  

 

It is very unfortunate that this is now the standard of public discussion in this country. This very country whose first Prime Minister, Nehru, quoted Voltaire "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." The standard of discussion whether it is with our politicians, media, various interest groups etc is now so bad that I can’t remember the last time I saw/read a good debate. Yes, we have a Parliament where good debates should be the order of the day, we have a media that is constantly interviewing experts from across the board, plus we have discussions with our friends and acquaintances. Increasingly I find these debates are becoming useless and one sided. Either you just hear one party or the debate has degenerated so much that it has become a shouting match. It is the same in Parliament, in the media and increasingly so in my day-to-day discussions with people.

 

People are increasingly bringing their pre-formed opinions and biases into their discussions and refuse to even listen to the other person. Even if two people are on the same side, they still end up trying to outtalk each other. So much are we in love with our own voices and opinions. This is exactly the sort of bias I now increasingly see in television anchors who sometimes end up talking more than the interviewer and keep interrupting him in the middle to prod him to the answer they feel that their viewers want to hear. I am ok with that as long as the anchor is well informed about the subject in question but that is very rarely the case.

 

I wonder where are we headed with this sort of behaviour. We constantly criticize the US for being too self-absorbed but I think we have all the makings of a self-absorbed nation ourself and God help us if we become like that. For all our talk of India being a great civilization, a melting pot (ok a salad bowl), unity in diversity and what have you, I do not even want to think where this path will lead us too.

 

Jai Hind.