Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Absence of Darkness

In wake of the brutal gang rape in Delhi and the consequent protests, the social media too flared up and we expressed our views on the matter and on all related matters. Once such meme circulating in the social media is:

"The problem is men... Men shouldn't be allowed to step out of the house after 9pm unless accompanied by his mother, sister or wife !!!" - henceforth to be referred as original phrase.

Many shared the post, some shared the thought as well though seemingly unlikely to be true. Some thought it's funny, some shared it out of concern for women, some seriously believed in it. I have something to say to those who considered this post worthy to any extent.

How would you react if I say "always satisfy your wife's jewellery needs, else she might fuck other men to get those", i.e., ALL WOMEN are potential whores. That's gross, disgusting, and would make no sense to anybody whatsoever. One might say that these words can come only from the minds of a psychopath.

Now, consider the original phrase. Doesn't that mean "ALL MEN are potential sex offenders." This too is equally gross, disgusting, in the same manner. And yet, I see morons liking and sharing this meme all over the social media. It is a proof that most people don't scratch beyond the surface when it comes to thinking and reasoning.

Both the sentences are absurd. The first one may sound funny but is equally sexist and gross as the second one. It is an irony that the same people who think this way also shout that racism is bad. What it is if not racism?

Opposite of darkness is not absence of darkness, but presence of light. There is no such thing as absence of darkness. We often fail to understand this fallacy in our logic. The irony of liberalism is that those who think they are liberal, go to such extent to oppose conservatism that they themselves become conservative of opposite color. Those who oppose superstition with blind faith in science are superstitious as well. Freedom to women doesn't mean curtailment of freedom of men.

Women who hate men are considered feminists  and the society projects an image of feminists as anti-men, men hater who vow to keep distance from men. That's an illogical perception. A women who hates men might not be interested in welfare of women (except self welfare) at all and a women interested in women's welfare might be in deep love with a man as well.

Our prejudiced society gives us molds and we try to put everybody around in one or other mold, and often end up putting ourselves in one such mold.

One can either go with those predefined molds, think, talk, and do what everybody else is doing or think for herself/himself and decide. Those who liked, shared, and loved the original post had given no thought to what it actually means.

We love outsourcing, but don't do it with "thinking."