Awake: To A Better Way To Social Progress
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
~ Emily Dickinson
My hopes for 2023 are ambitious and lofty. Some may even think high to a degree of naïveté.
I hope that our our world truly becomes a bit more kinder, a bit more equal, a bit more just, a bit more compassionate place.
But it won’t just happen on its own by magic. It won’t happen without an awakening, and a course correction.
At present I see a serious disconnect between the pursuit of noble goals such as equality, justice, and human pluralism, and the methodology we have adopted to achieve those goals. The goals and the methodology seem to have been at odds and out of sync with each other since a few years. It will take a serious and honest attempt to align the two, so that the effort leads to real progress, so it actually benefits those who it is meant to benefit, and thus benefits society at large.
I know that most folks have good intentions. But you know what they say about the road to hell being paved with…
Good intentions have to be matched by wise and sensible methods, so that they translate to doing good in reality.
My hope is more and more people will realise that we need to figure out a wiser, better, more enlightened way than the one we have now. A way which does not separate people and divide them on lines of race, gender, or any such superficial difference, but instead brings us together and reminds us of our shared humanity. A way that doesn’t foster and foment divisiveness and resentment in society, but instead builds empathy and understanding between people.
I hope for a way that is not so deeply steeped in arrogance, self-righteousness and zealotry that it lacks the openness and humility to consider voices and perspectives that challenge its certitudes and its orthodoxies, even when those voices come from those belonging to groups they consider marginalised and victimised. Acceptance and celebration of human diversity is a wonderful thing, but it can’t be limited to race, faith, and gender. It has to also include different perspectives and worldviews (as long as they are not universally abhorrent or immoral in some way). My hope is we change our way to one that does not vilify, demonise, or ostracise those who disagree on the means to the good ends, but instead allow the expression of and consider differing perspectives. There can be no real social betterment in a society that is divided and torn apart. The populace has to come together and work together with mutual respect.
The worst thing you can do to a people is to make them think of themselves as victims. So that they are perpetually dependent on the benevolence and “help” from those who used to be their oppressors or colonisers, and they can never take charge and rise up on their own. That’s the biggest injustice to a people. Staying mired in a sense of victimhood never helped any peoples, except maybe some of their self-serving and cynical leaders who continue to reinforce the narrative of victimhood to stay relevant and profit from it. My hope is that we will adopt a methodology for social progress that doesn’t create a culture of self-pity, grievance and victimhood, that does not benefit those who make a profitable industry out of it, but instead truly benefits, empowers and lifts up those who have been pushed down by unfair disadvantage or past unjust treatment, those who have been deprived of a fair chance, have been marginalised, or silenced.
I hope for a way that has less of virtue signaling, tokenism and hypocrisy, and of corporations and institutions resorting to things like quota-hiring to demonstrate their progressive credentials; instead I hope for more of real, honest, genuine effort toward making our world more fair.
My hope is that we can figure out a way that does not foster an environment that rewards the whiners and glib-talking opportunistic charlatans whose chief talent is to use and milk the system and exploit guilt. Who have no qualms whatsoever to play identity politics if it helps their careers even if comes at the cost of social harmony. But adopt a way instead that rewards all those good, hard-working, upward and forward looking people with noble hearts who refuse to play identity politics or the victim card, or wear ethnicity-based acronyms. Who on principle refuse to accept corporate or public hand-outs, quota-based hiring, and insulting affirmative action initiatives.
All social activism is not the same, or as virtuous. I hope that our way to social progress does not enable and enrich activism in its toxic, ugly, vengeful forms that is based on narrow agendas, and that seeks to replace one kind of prejudice with another, reverse type. Instead I hope we can heed and support activism that is enlightened, selfless, and morally disciplined, that seeks equality, justice, inclusion, etc. at a human and universal level rather than a political or ideological one.
Every human being is an individual, and a complex one. My hope is that we may drop the dehumanising, reductive acronyms (such as BIPOC) that put people in boxes, and imply that an individual’s aspirations, capabilities, worldview, knowledge of different cultures and histories, interests are all somehow determined by their racial or cultural origin. That makes no sense.
My hope for 2023 is that our way to social betterment has less of the big, complicated words being foisted upon us by the inhabitants of the twitter universe and faculty lounges; the terminologies and jargon words that form the lexicon of agenda-driven activists and privileged “progressives” but which the vast majority of ordinary, working people, trying to survive in dignity, don’t understand or use in speech. Instead I hope we focus on the good old words that everyone does understand and relates to, that are universal and bring people together; words like kindness, respect, justice, love, tolerance, compassion. For all human beings no matter who they are, where they come from, what their ancestors might have done or endured, whatever be their gender, sexual orientation, or faith, or linguistic or cultural origin. I hope we focus on the content of people’s character and their merits, and see each person as a human being, instead of seeing them in terms of race, gender, religion, language, sexual orientation, or whatever. Doing so will create empathy. Diversity, equality and inclusion will follow naturally from that. I hope we discard the classifications and the acronyms that separate, and instead emphasise all those things that highlight our shared humanity and remind us of all that we have in common. Everyone smiles in the same language. Everyone’s tears can be as bitter. Everyone needs love and wants to love. Everyone feels fear, everyone cherishes joy. Everyone needs hope. Everyone is first a human.
That’s quite a list of hopes, isn’t it.
Too ambitious? Too idealistic? Too unrealistic? Maybe.
As sang a musician once, “you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, I hope some day you’ll join us…”.
Here’s to a better, kinder, more just, more equal 2023.
