Gather the pieces

 An excerpt from ‘Let us talk about privilege’

A country that was colonised for 100 years and more, yes we have the right to talk about privilege. But first we have to make sure that amongst us there is nobody who has more right than us to talk about privilege.

Let us remove the Dalits and the Adivasis from this gathering. What do they know of privilege? It is we, and only we, who have grabbed whatever privilege was available to us, from here and there, stuffed it in our mouths, chewed it slowly, gobbled it up and digested it. Only we have the strength now, to talk about anything, and if today’s topic is privilege, then so be it.

We have the words, and we have the art. To convince anyone about what requires no convincing at all. To talk about things that are obvious a bit more so that we can procrastinate on the acting part a bit more.

There comes a time in human life, when all talk seems to only be adding to the chaos and bitterness. The above excerpt is from what one would like to say about privilege. The topic was chosen as there is no human whose voice is being heard, who can claim that there has been privilege of some sort in his/her case that their voice is being heard. It is an example of a paradoxical argument where within the argument lies a fact that destroys the argument. In that case, one can invoke anger or sarcasm from within oneself, to keep talking about it as else the paradox in the argument would kill it the moment it begins.

We all keep thinking or talking of starting all over again. With Covid-19, such talk is heard often, let us start all over again. What we fail to understand is it is near impossible to do so – scientifically and even in terms of human abilities. On the other hand, if a society really wants to begin again, every member or group of the society has to begin again at exactly the same point in time.

If we see the divisions in the society right now, some say it is split the society right down the middle (as in the case of the US) – though it is a contestable thought. Even in the US, it seems like the society has been split right down the middle only for the right wing—as for the liberals or democrats it is more like every individual is speaking in a different voice. But if we assume it is split into two groups, then how can both the groups want to go back and start from a clean state at the same time? Indeed the spilt itself comes from the fact that one of the groups is satisfied with things as they are and the other group wants a change.  And so the analogy of two persons trying to move a sofa out of a room with one trying to keep moving it back to the room and the other moving it out of the room due to a communication gap,  comes alive here.

But, why in this case is the liberal getting more tired, frustrated, while the right wing seems to come across smug and united?

Well, it is because they are – smug and united. And we are scattered and blown into pieces.

I began this article with an excerpt from ‘Let’s talk about privilege’. The tone of the excerpt is of someone who understands that most people talking about privilege in today’s world are the privileged themselves. What comes across from the author is a sense of moral high ground. It is a dangerous ground to be on, fellow liberals, let us come off it immediately.

Though identity politics is an important part of our politics, we cannot be in silos anymore. Our struggles are the same, no matter which country we come from and having an understanding of what is going on in the world is imperative for us to speak in one voice.