Love to hate?

 I am sure all of us have read the following two stories. The first one is about the seven (in some versions, six) blind men and the elephant. Each one of them could feel, could touch only one small part of the animal, and thought it to be the whole big animal.

 The second story deals with an old man who has two daughters. The elder one is married to a farmer, and the younger to a potter. If the elder one wants her father to pray for rains, the other one wants him to pray for sunshine.  The poor father is thus eternally in a quandary. 

The European variety of the second story has a mother who is always crying because her elder daughter sells umbrellas, while the younger one makes noodles. If it rains, the younger one would go without any food as the noodles she makes would not dry. The other way round, the elder one would go hungry as none would require an umbrella!

Well, in my opinion, these two stories by Aesop are perfect parables for a proper perspective. Perspective indeed is a  great mental ability to have in my opinion. If we lack it, we love to hate, I would say.

Without perspective, we are literally blind to any other point of view. As a result, a kind of arrogant jingoism,  narrow narcissism and a solidified, rather ossified, prejudice poison our positioning. We stop thinking, and react hoarsely but most predictably to anything under the poor sun.

Let me give you an example. Yes, I am talking of the furore over "The Kashmir Files", and, to quite some extent, over  "Zund". The extreme negativities about the Agnihotri film are almost visceral, while one is almost forced in to liking the Manjule film.

I have watched neither. I would not hence comment on either. But I do find disgusting the entire politicking that is going on in the name of reactions which is rather a free for all. Any semblance to truth, any verification of actual facts, such issues are impossible in such a fish market of a debate. People are out with hatchets. Ideologies seem to blind people. I am a member of a wapp group that I would have liked to call progressive. Well, venom spews while attacking the director they do not like. 

Ideologies are inevitable. But if they breed hatreds through falsehoods that can be counter checked  even through a simple Wikipedia entry conveniently laughed at otherwise, we are indeed in the post truth era.

Personally I feel that if a film is passed by the censor, nobody should continue blue pencilling it, acting as a super censor. If you are viscerally opposed to a point of view, do not watch the film. 

Why the dirty politicking as consciously giving a film just One Credit and thus faking its response?  None can make anyone else, an adult with some experience of life,  like or dislike any film, or for that matter anything else, including a point of view. That, in fact, would be quite childish, rather, that would be the real fascism.

Anyone could always disagree with the other side, but with a perspective that they, too, have their own version of the truth. If a debate has to emerge, its language cannot be vitriolic. If we cannot agree to disagree decently, it is rather clear that we love to hate!

Pratima@ Hate, says Maya Angelou, has caused many problems in this world, but has not solved any!