If you are familiar with this character from Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird", i can tell you that you know a lot about me. Like any other individual, i have evolved with experience too. I am really amazed to see the way i have transformed from a short-tempered college student into a "highly" tolerant...err...college student! The transformation phase is almost 8 years old now...
Scout: "It's ok to hate Hitler?"(given that he is a dictator and is ruthless)
Atticus: "It is not. It's not ok to hate anybody"
Scout is Atticus' 9 year old daughter and that's the kind of advice Atticus keeps offering Scout and her elder brother Jem, throughout the book. I think my character(for the past few months) is one that is very similar to Atticus'. To me, it's more than a coincidence that i read this novel only now! Just as i realized what kind of a person I was, Harper Lee's book reassured my realization.
Yes. I find it so hard to hate people, of late. When someone tells me something wrong about someone else, i try to defend that person. I guess, it's because i have started believing that there is no one particular way to do "anything". If i can be right, the other person can also be right. Maybe, i am contradicting myself here. For example, X tells me that Y is bad. I say Y needn't be bad and start defending Y. What i essentially do here is, saying that X is wrong in assuming that Y is bad. So, i am depriving X of his right to express what he thinks(which can be right too)! It's some kind of a puzzle that i am still trying to decipher, myself.
On second thoughts, i dont contradict something arbitrarily. It's only when people say wrong things about someone that I get into defense mode. And more often than not, only after making sure that they dont have enough evidence to back their statements. I think I live by a simple rule- "Dont hate anyone".
One of my friends remarked that I shud be a saint to live the way i live. Is this true? Is it so "unhumanlike" to not hate people? i dont know. I have been able to do it with considerable success(yes- there's the odd one here n there hinting that i am a possible hypocrite!) for some time now and am really happy to live life this way. It gives me a sense of satisfaction. Isnt that what people yearn for? Satisfaction in life...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
have a lot of friends like u...trust me...for someone who cant tolerate a lot of ppl/their activities, it is TOTALLY irritating...everytime i complain abt xyz to my friends, they defend xyz who may not even be an acquaintance/friend..thats the worst crime u can do..the least the polambee can give the polamber is a silent hearing without aggravating the situation even more :)
"dont hate anyone" policy may only work for gandhiji, my friends & u!!
glad to know that am not the only one:) and flattered to see only your friends separating me from Gandhiji! :D
Dude,
Am I right in assuming that by defending the people you know, you are actually being judgemental ?
And the previous sentence was a paradox.
If you have a "no hate" policy- its perfectly ok if it applys to you & your views. By trying to speak up for other people means that you are crossing the fine boundary b/w a personal choice & a biased judgement.
btw, thats just my take.
B-ork
If i can be right, the other person can also be right. Maybe, i am contradicting myself here.
It's some kind of a puzzle that i am still trying to decipher, myself.B- i mentioned what u said myself dude. Yeah, i know i am not supposed to impose my views on others and by defending some Y, i do impose my views on X(who in the first place tried to impose his/her views on me). So, is this not like an argument any two people have? Does the fact that i dont hate other people take the right to argue away from me?
These are questions directed at myself rather than somebody else...and am yet to find out the answers...
Hmmm.. Nice blog. Came here from CM :D
UC huh? Endha Dept.? I graduted from Ohio U. in November...
anti- u may not remember me cos i was "just another guy" who travelled with 16 more people from chennai to cincinnati in the same plane as yours! am in the systems engg. department.
thanks for the compliment.
Actually that was why I was asking which dept.! Well.. I am bad with names, but I am good at faces. That is, I remember the faces without the names :( For me that Cinn crowd is a huge list of nameless faces, barring a few :(
lol...ok :)
"I detest what you say, but I'll defend until death your right to say so" Voltaire
generally i jus came across this...an arbit connect to the subject of ur article....
Sudh- perfect :)
Post a Comment