We are, as historian Primo Levi once described, in the “grey zone” of human existence: situations in which individuals strive to survive through a mixture of personal weakness, collective courage, and social dignity; all operating in the context of a history of compromises.
At the heart of our existence—social, political, cultural and economic—lies the fact that our “individual” aspirations are not in line with our “collective” societal aspirations. Or perhaps it is the other way round. There is disconnect between what we aspire for ourselves as individuals and what we aspire for the society.
So, let the first resolution of 2018 be that our societal aspirations will be in line with our personal and individual aspirations! What we want for ourselves, lets desire that for the whole society.
Let us resolve this New Year that a job does not have to be “naukri” funded by the Government; a business does not have to be an enterprise which is profitable because of a subsidy; a venture does not have to be successful on the back of tax and electricity concessions.
Why we are not able to do it today is because we have lost confidence in our capabilities; in our creativity, in our own comprehension to run our own affairs. Let us resolve to believe in ourselves and our capabilities.
We now talk about ourselves in a way that portrays us only as victims. This defensive attitude has made us incapable of thinking positively and acting honestly. Starting today, we shall not think of ourselves as victims, but as normal human beings. We have and have had lives; unhappy and tortuous as these may be. We have a history; tormented as it may be. We have faces and names; sad as these may be. Yet we can make a future that is bright and certain.
We have made ourselves into a story. We are not a story. Or even a series of endless stories. Worst is that and at some stage, this story of ours has got fictionalised. The result is that we are now living in fiction. Let us resolve to alter this and live in reality.
Our biggest concern today is we are every single day losing some bit of our social and culture heritage and history. Some of it by design, some of it by default; but lots of it because of the apathy of our people. Because of the apathy and cynicism of the youth. Let us resolve to change this.
Let it be resolved that efforts to homogenise everyone and everything must stop; it is at the expense of losing our thousand years of cultural identities. This is how the process of radicalisation, polarisation and denationalisation has started in many of the conflict-ridden societies. Lets us resolve not to go that way.
Let us resolve to hear the yearning of the youth. This is being articulated in a language that is contemporary. Their idiom may seem to be isolationist; their methods may appear to be medieval or their strategy may look anarchist. Be that as it may, we have to not only face it but own it and address it as a society.
Our problem, as it stands today, is that if a youth is educated, then he/she is not employed; if a youth is employed, he/she is not socially engaged; if he/she is socially engaged, then he/she is not politically empowered. Lets us resolve to break this vicious circle and turn it into a virtuous cycle of social peace, ethical progress, and economic prosperity.