This is an exchange (over sms) I had with Madhav. It's two conversations after a point.
Sidd: The least corporate-subservient, least corporate-reliant, least corporate-benumbed, least socially indifferent, most literate, most panicked lot of us that seek answers to the big questions in facts and ground realities are often conveniently labeled far-left or far-left-liberal or radical-liberal, when we scream upon finding the answers. Those of us who can't sleep at night after reading Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn or even just comfortably tune out. Those of us who can't conveniently dismiss the hard realities and harder solutions tirelessly researched and evinced by the likes of Ralph Nader and Michael Moore.
Madhav: Zinn, Chomsky and Nader have well defined causes. Most of them spurred on my personal experiences.
Sidd: Yes. And they're always either glossed over as scholars, or berated, in Nader's case, as some sort of spoiler or perennial wolf-crier.
Madhav: I'm just asking you what you're outraged about. Where does that stem from?
Sidd: Tell me how much bearing, if at all, their work has on public policy. And how much representation, if any, they have in the mainstream media.
Madhav: What media? What issues? Which country? Why are you this pained by it? What causes are naturally closer to you? Are these?
Sidd: YES, YES, YES. As an Indian, American foreign policy has immense bearing on me. As a member of a more imperfect democracy than theirs, the systematic dismantling of US public dissent and the neo-liberalization and corporatization of American power is of immense concern to me.
Madhav: That would be of academic interest. What action is that going to bring?
Sidd: Why academic, man? How delineated are cross-national domestic policies these days? Dow chemicals, Citibank, McDonalds, Nike, Exxonmobil and Shell operate in almost every country on earth, so why shouldn't I be concerned? I resent the idea of it being of mere academic interest to me. I think certain human rights, and consequently, laws, are of universal concern to everyone everywhere.
Madhav: What can you do? Is my question. You have to get to core influences and understand your place. Otherwise it is just pointless romance. A long distance relationship with a girl who couldn't care less. Always ends badly.
Sidd: That's a flawed analogy. Here's how I see it - if their corporations are feeding my kids feces - Hollywood, McDonalds, Coke, I had bloody well be concerned about what's happening there and how. I also believe that knowledge empowers you in ways you cannot estimate yet. A keen understanding about American constitution (or rights in UK) will empower me here in India, a less transparent, more noisy scenario. Think of it conversely as well - if pockets of informed resistance hadn't protested their own foreign policy, from out there in US soil, we might all be in US outposts by now. It matters, immensely, for a literate person. I don't feel disenfranchised that I can't vote in the US, I feel enlightened knowing that some day, I might be able to use similar premises to hold my authority figures' feet to the fire.
Madhav: Yeah. While you do that, I'll be in power. So it'll work out well. You're talking about a general understanding. I'm talking about using it.
Sidd: How do you think you're going to be in power without understanding the political and capitalist power structures in place there? How do you think you're going to get any civic activism done seriously without negotiating or battling these interests. I think you're wrongly dismissing it as general information. The things I sometimes read are not general by any stretch of the imagination, believe me.
Madhav: I like being deluded. Just don't let Zinn change your day even when others are begging for attention. Look at immediate things, man. Look more at things to DO.
Madhav: John makes his own way. Always.
Sidd: Well, we'll see about that! I won't be unhappy to see you succeed. I'm not letting Zinn get me on my knees and cry, even though that would not be entirely out of place. Look man, I know my personal interests lay immediately ahead of me and I wouldn't even have maneuvered the turnaround I have, if I had been foolish about it. My point is, there's indeed a thin line between being ignorant and being overwhelmed. If you are the latter, you at least have the chance to recoil and contribute usefully, but if you're ignorant by choice, you'll lose your intellectual capacity and moral will to ever come back from being another tool in the system.
Madhav: You think I'm ignorant? You also think there are two states to be in - Ignorant and overwhelmed. That's very naive in my opinion. As far as being a tool in the system is concerned, you should look at what we make of ourselves, not what they make of us.
Sidd: I don't think you're ignorant, I find fault with your argument that being concerned with the national premises of some of the most tirelessly researched intellectuals is useless. Well, sadly, a lot of truths one might have been ignorant about are overwhelming when one finds them. Chomsky's writings on US foreign policy being an absolute case in point. Being overwhelmed is a matter of managing opinions, man. You're also being defensive about the tool comment, I don't see why you should. Though working at Citi might be, I suspect, one of the least morally appetizing jobs to do, you made superb personal strides against it, and you should know by now, that I think so.
Sidd: I never said that being ignorant and overwhelmed are the two states we can be in. What I mean is that where certain below the surface information is concerned, the choice one often faces is to really scratch the surface, forget Google News and CNN while doing so, or just stay put without taking any of that trouble. If you do look for this information, it is often shocking and overwhelming to the general public, which IS the reason such news is underplayed.
Sidd: For e.g. someone in the UK attempted a citizen's arrest of John Bolton recently while he was in Wales, on the basis of a full list/motion he had written up, citing him responsible for high crimes, disrupting peace and making the case in the UN for the invasion of a sovereign country on no legal grounds. The person who attempted the arrest said he did so, albeit unsuccessfully, to remind people about the biggest war crime of the 21st century, that has, in five years, become all but forgotten or passed over. The information I took from that is that citizen's arrest is indeed a constitutional provision in the UK and maybe in India too, and under what circumstances it might be. I also took a profound feeling of satisfaction at the idea of the fear that moustached lying asshole must have felt when it seemed like the only things stopping him from being arrested were two (300 lb gorillas) security guards.
Madhav: I guess with time, you'll see what it is to pick your battles. And outrage is good. Just make sure it's your own.
Sidd: Man, in this world, there is no need to borrow any ire, indignation, outrage or umbrage.
[a few hours later]
Sidd: You said pick your battles. Serious question - What exactly are your battles against?
Madhav: My angst comes from my intestines. It lives there. I do what I can but loud idle chatter is my biggest achievement.
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