The political and the personal

It has been quite a week for thinking. Between Indian Lok Sabha elections, the ever-resurgent abortion debate, the end of the LTTE, crusade-like dispatches for the Iraq war and The Reader. The last is personal- but all too often the lines between the political and personal blur- all too strongly indeed.

 

The Congress won the elections in India. With a pretty hefty majority. Good solid democratic proof of the fact that people shunned extreme left-wing and overt right-wing politics for once, selecting the most stable configuration for a government. A government, which with a mild mannered Manmohan Singh should last another 5 years.

Despite their unfortunate forays into dynastic politics, a not-so-squeaky-clean corruption and development record, they are the best choice for India. Because unfortunately the others are just that much worse. The Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan touting Right is way too wrong- while the Left with strange communist utopia visions are as out of touch. India is a mélange of cultures and ideologies- to reduce it to one particular version of one particular religion is wrong- it does the all-embracing nature of that religio-social tradition a great disservice by reducing it to the caricatured talking points of a few ignorant people. And let’s face it, socialism is not really the way to go- the Socialist state has not really paved the way to development for India. A good market is required(not an ungoverned free market, but one freer than under a State-sponsored yoke).

 

On May 17^th, 2009, Barack Obama, the president of the USA was asked to speak at the Notre Dame commencement ceremony. For the Catholic University to have a president with decidedly pro-choice views as their invited guest, was the cause for several pro-life protests. Personally my views have been “No uterus no opinion, my uterus, my opinion”- as pro-choice as you can make it. But Obama’s words made me think. He talked about finding middle ground and proceeding with ideas that people can agree on, like reducing abortions, making it easier for women, making contraception and adoption easily accessible, reducing child care costs, even while keeping to ones ideologies. He said “we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature.” It is not a fight between abortion clinic bombers and people who use abortion as a resort to inadequate contraception. Of course those elements may exist, but they are not the ONLY sides this complex issue has. No one is callous, or unthinking with decisions like these and reducing it to a black or white plan is just irresponsible. It takes moral courage to look at something- hold strong views and then understand that people with opposing views are just as right as one is.

 

Which issue of complexity, I felt as I watched The Reader. I have never before viewed the Nazi camp guards in this light before. I always thought of them in terms of pure evil, consumed with a blood lust to destroy everything. Not as people who could have been as fragile and by another turn of fate on the wrong side. Weak people, unable to stand up to evil orders of a soulless machine, the product of a deranged madman and his supporters. Were they wrong, yes, a million times so. But as people they do deserve, if not sympathy, a thought of what mindless obeying of orders can do. The realization that it does not take too much of a push to cross the line between acceptable and totally unacceptable behavior. And it is just a small thing at worst or best- which can make all that difference.

 

The Rumsfield memos with their over-the-top Biblical imagery to report portions of the Iraq war are very clear signs of what was used to manipulate a God-fearing Christian president. But that president also got manipulated, if not by the crusade-like imagery, by the very basis of the belief that what he was doing was right. Religion is a great force, and can move mountains- or bring down skyscrapers- depending on whether it is used to inspire good or evil. But it does tend to reduce things to a black or white with no room for the several shades of grey. Surely, the leader of the free world knew better than that. Maybe at times, it is better to approach something with doubt, rather than plunge right in and cause immense harm, no matter how righteous it may seem.

 

And today, the newspapers reported that V Prabhakaran has been shot dead. Bringing to an end one of the most bloody conflicts that has ravaged South Asia. Twenty six years of fighting for a Tamil homeland. Now the Emerald Isle can probably heave a sigh of relief and go back to being the beautiful place it is. History, is like memory, one remembers what one wants to. And the rights and wrongs of people over hundreds of years is one such thing. Minorities need to be treated like people. But a cause remains just only as long as there is a difference between the oppressors and the oppressed. Once suicide bombing or child soldiers enter the picture, it becomes terrorism.

 

What did I learn from all this? That things events and people are way too complex from Black and White definitions. That the Golden Rule is the one thing that helps tide over differences and make moral and value judgments. Sorry, Barack Obama, but you got that part of your speech from my professor.