Self Evaluation

By Aloka Roy

One thing our socio-cultural norm avoids like a plague is self evaluation.
Many writers in this forum sound very angry and frustrated. A mind that is
truly liberated may have its reasons for this frustration, what is going on
around us in Bangladesh, in our subcontinent as well as in the rest of the
world cannot be reasoned or justified using any formula but insanity. I
often ask myself "Why can't they see where they are heading to? They are
going to crash and along with them they are going to take the rest of us."
It is like dealing with that irresponsible, turbulent child. You love them,
you want them to be happy. Only if they could see what you see, only if
they understood what you understand. But alas! they don't and they won't
till it is too late. We are to learn from history you say, you cite books
after books, examples after examples.You keep repeating and hammering your
mantra to no avail. And in doing so, we lose track of our social
parameters, of the mind set of most of our people, the framework within
which they operate. In my opinion, there lies the biggest mistake of this
movement, if it is a movement after all.

If we are to win people (our own people) over, then anger is not what we
need to show. For anger reveals human weakness, it reveals that you are not
in complete control of your mind. No matter how justified the reasons for
your rage is, there ought to be restrain and control and there need to be
respect in dealing - even the wrong doers.

Atheism does not have a grass root support in Bangladesh or in our
subcontinent - it never will, that is a given. This observation is perhaps
true for the rest of the world. I can travel far but I cannot haul my
mother sitting on the prayer rug along with me. So I end up being the
monkey on the slippery pole, I take one step forward only to slide back
again. Atheism may be the most logical course in terms of reasoning but for
the minds that are not strong enough, it is not possible to grasp that
logic. For the past years, you have relentlessly dished out reasons, and I
consider it a social service, a pioneer for our land as there are not many
avenues open to our people to get informed. Unfortunately, being
emotionally involved also makes us explode occasionally.

I wish there was a way to rewind and retrace the path of human civilization
and demonstrate the 'what ifs" of course of events. A simple way to prove
or disprove that had the people opted for this path instead of that, they
would have been on a different pace and in a different place today. But
that is something impossible. We can only make empirical observations,
again it goes to waste on an adolescent mind set which can only see so far.
For many, the world starts and ends with me, mine and myself and it is
always now and today.

I remember a time when it was fashionable to be liberal, an educated mind
was equated with being liberal. At some point of time, at some crossroad,
this trend has taken the wrong turn. Now it is fashionable to be a
fundamentalist and boast "My way is the only way, my faith is more on the
right than your logic." It may have stemmed from the uncertainty of events
and the spread of a global culture. For many of us, a strong hold on the
rein of life has slipped away from our hands. We are not in control of
events surrounding us. That is one root cause of giving up.

I wish I could end on a positive note, on a hope for a return of some
semblance of sanity and normalcy in my world and yours. Right now, I do not
see much into the future.