Currently, the world over, there are echo chambers in abundance. You can belong if and only if you make the right noises which that particular group loves to listen to. Even if you were to deviate by an inch/iota, the entire gang is sure to harrangue/hassle/harass you like a pack of hyenas.
This tendency is much worse and more markedly predominant in the so-called intellectuals. So drunk are these mafioso on their forever being the correct, the right, the i-deal voice(s) that nuanced self-reflexivity which doubts any monolithic formats would not dare to be anywhere near their shadow(s), so absolutely convinced they are of they alone being sincere, authentic, progressive, blah, blah, blah ad infinitum!
Do not you believe me? Okay, just try saying that we should re-look at 'Manusmriti' as a product of its times. A beehive would blush at the attack that would follow. 'Scholars' who have not touched the text with a barge pole, 'activists' who are most often hypocritically interested in furthering their own, at the most, their gang's, welfare and agenda would reduce you to persona non grata, and in a jiffy!
So, you have to be either pro Palestine, or you are a retrograde traditionalist conservative! Iran may shield the worse terrorists. If you were to bring this fact in to debate, all the atom bombs in whole world would be directed at you!
No better is the other side! Currently, in India, for example, thinking of Marx is a crime. NO, I am NOT a Marxist! Nothing in the whole world would induce me to be one!! NO, I am not a Urban Naxalite either!!! Believe me, such would not like any truck with me!
Yet, YES, for sure, I do think that Marx is a poet of transformative change. Do not you believe me? Okay, actually read his stuff, his writings on literature, for instance. Well, not interested in such theory? Read his "Manifesto". It is a poem of progress.
Oh, yes, Marx always thinks in and through metaphors. He was a minor litterature, though he majored in philosophy, political economy, and sociology. In our so-called interdisciplinary etc, etc, etc era, we conveniently forget how thoughtfully we could critique wor(l)ds through his paradigms.
Just as it is stupid to criticise the never-read "Manusmriti" by quoting some one-liner out of context, it is equally ludicrous to talk and talk and talk about the "religion as opiate" in a de-contextualised way.
No, the so-called disciples' crimes cannot vitiate a thinker. A Stalin or a Mao, I can go on listing names endlessly, cannot tarnish a way of thinking which Marx himself would not mind being opened up, being questioned, being critiqued! Hence this tribute to Marx on the day of his birth anniversary!
Pratima@ We have nothing to lose but the shackles of our silly-silly prejudices if we keep an open mind! Beyond partisanship, there exists a sphere where genuine conscientious aware wor(l)ds await us!
Quote of the day: "If partisanship makes us abandon intellectual honesty... we become mere political short-sellers, hoping for bad news because it's good for our ideological investment, " asserts Kurt Andersen.
Word of the day: partisan Partisan means showing excessive support for one person, group or idea, especially without considering it carefully and/or critically.
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