Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The Real Real Life Heroes


Our world is going hither and thither with political instability, risk of domestic war, skyrocketing prices of food, health, clothes and education, high level corporate crimes, global warming(while I write this Nepal has recorded one of the hottest year in its history) and an economy that seems to befit only rich and ruthless. The time is such that we feel nothing at all is in our hand. It is difficult to combat these alarming concerns when day to day demand for job (and education for it) and family require much of our time.

The shutdowns a few days back- I didn’t want to walk to my college but there was nothing I could do. We cannot do anything when politically privileged announce impunity of their scandalous carders but still we live with the fact that much of our lives (and thus addressing the concerns) is much determined by these untrustworthy and recalcitrant (mis)leaders. In such condition feeling of impotency is understandably inevitable-will our stand on these critical common problem make any difference? Why should we continue making the effort?

Amidst these we cannot neglect those great changes that the world has witnessed.The civil right movement of USA (Rosa parks and Martin Luther King Jr.), fall of apartheid (Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu),Indian subcontinent's fight for freedom against East India Company (Mahatma Gandhi) (We might not know much about the movements but we do know about these people and its through their life stories we witness these great achievements) . BUT WHO AM I COMPARED TO THESE GREAT PEOPLE? 

'Invictus', biographical sports drama film, depict Nelson Mandela as a perfect human being and mentions very little about his family life. The story of Rosa Parks (probably in 4th grade Gulmohar) pictures her as a black woman who on one lucky day decides to take stand (or the seat) against the unjust system in America. Mahatma Gandhi, he is a person who never lies; does all his work by himself and does nothing wrong! This is how most people see these real life heroes. 

The unreal stories of the real life heroes set up standards that are impossible to meet by an ordinary person. I have friends that don’t even know that Nelson Mandela did too have a family like a normal person and despite having to meet the same day to day demands he managed to get himself involved for justice. He was an ordinary person with ordinary flaws. The conventional telling however portrays him as saint who always fought for justice and never as an ordinary person. This gives us an idea that these people were never ordinary like us. They were gifted and that’s why they made the difference- an unreal story with ending up a misleading moral, making it harder for us to get involved.
The real story, however are very ordinary and thus less intriguing.

Conventional telling of Rosa parks' story presents her as a virgin to politics, and one day just like that she decides to not to give her seat to the white guy. The real story is lot different. Before refusing to give up her seat, she had been active for 12 years n local NAACP (National Association for Advancement of Colored People) serving as its secretary. She was motivated by her husband (so she does too have a family like all of us) to be a part of NAACP in the first place. So parks didn’t make a spur-of –the-moment decision and started the civil right moment in USA, but was a part of an existing moment of change. 

Also the lesson of the conventional telling seems to be that if any one of us suddenly do something heroic, that would be just as great. That might sound powerful but it doesn’t happen in real life. the real story however tells us a that she started with modest steps(and so did Mandela and Gandhi), that all of us can take. Hesitant, at first she slowly gained confidence and keeps on despite a profoundly uncertain context. 

Parks story tells us that change is a product conscious, incremental action, where all of us join together (see how she is motivated by her husband to join NAACP) and not something that comes just in an instant. Also her story tells us about the "chain of inspiration", throughout her term as a NAACP member she must have been inspired and helped by so many people that we don’t know(just like her husband, ED Nixon who served as one of her mentor). May be its difficult achieve something that Rosa park did however we can always be part of that" chain of inspiration" that made Rosa Park.
Once we know that all these great people were ordinary people with ordinary flaws and yet they were able to bring critical change and the chain of inspiration we know that our stand will make a difference. feels like even i have a shot at bringing a change!!!
Read
Real Rosa Park by Paul Rogat Loeb

4 comments:

Social Junkie said...

People think that the Real life heroes don't fail once they succeed. But if we sink a bit inside history we can say that they often fail as what ordinary people do. Everyone knows the great achievements of Newton and Einstein but I'm pretty sure most(almost all) of them don't know about their last about 30 yrs of their life. So, I believe success and failure are just the two sides of a coin. Only the thing that matters is an effort. Sitting idle is more painful than the failure in the efforts we apply.

Anyways good post to get started with. I rate it four and a half ;) and yes continue this effort for the long run.
~Kafle Vinay

Arun Upreti said...

"Real life heroes don't fail once they succeed", i never looked at things that way!

Go to the link at the end! its quite awesome!

Social Junkie said...

What about the alchemy Newton practiced in last 30 years of his life and the Einstein's paper on Theory of everything discarded by Einstein himself which he worked for last 30 years of his life. Both of them had got enough fame and success before those 2 projects! The History we're taught hides those portions of their lives ;) and I'm pretty sure many had gone through these kinda situations no matter how much they succeed in any part of their lives!
~Not being pessimistic but giving benefit of doubt to Russel's problem of systematic doubt ;)

Arun Upreti said...

That certainly is one way for looking at thing:tells you that even life(of many other things that is same for all of us, things as essential as air and sun) runs on same terms for everyone! It not necessary that your efforts will always give rise something monumental, even works of great people have been now ridiculed! But its essential to know that these efforts do too signify success in certain way; " for all those time when people said i failed i actually succeeded in learning 999 ways the bulb wont glow" Thomas' efforts helped him invent the bulb finally, our efforts the same way may be lessons for us and others too. God played it fair with thomas alba addison and let him have the final say with the bulb. things might not always work out this way! what if it was someone else who invented the bulb..people might say Thomas failed but the real story would be the fact that the other bloke who did it pulled it off standing on Thomas' failures=learning= expertise.
~An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field- Nelis Bohr