Today we see a whole range of labels ; old labels and new labels ; and also many old labels acquiring new meanings..
Anyone expressing an opinion on any issue is slotted into some rigid compartment and each compartment has a name for what they call themselves and what others call them, for eg anyone calling himself a ‘pure vegetarian ‘ may be called a racist or a bigot by a ‘ liberal’ who himself would be labelled a woke by a ‘traditionalist’.
Identities and labels could be global or local; like Liberals, Indian liberals, libertarian, dem , republicans, wokes, Islamists, christoislam, sanghi, hindutvavadi, secularists, feminists , feminazi, black feminists, leftists , rightists, raita wing, trads and so on.
For the unversed , please follow the link to understand the ‘raita wing’ or Rayta wing’ politics.
https://www.opindia.com/2022/
Most of these labels are so defined to make it look beautiful or ugly as seen by the definer.
To someone an idealist would mean a person of character pursuing lofty ideals .
To someone else it could mean an impractical, head in the air , useless person.
I feel any label is better understood when you can identify the antithesis, so as to be able to choose between the two.
Idealist or practical ?
Idealist or an opportunist ?
Secularism has different meaning to different people.
Are you a secularist or spiritualist? Makes sense to identify yourself as one or the other.
Secularism or communalism ? (Makes no sense to me but the Indian liberals define secularism as opposite of communalism which itself means just living in a community,any kind of community)
Secularism or equality of all religions ?
This question makes sense in India where secularism has come to mean privilege for certain religions.
I would definitely choose ‘equality for all religions ‘ over ‘Indian secularism’.
When it comes to finances,
What is ‘saving’ ? Mostly it is taken as opposite of spending.
Can it mean something else, say the opposite of investment, or sheer indifference to money ; that precludes any conscious saving , spending or investment ?
The winds from the West are blowing all over, unsettling anyone not anchored to his roots.
‘Living’ in modern times means following your passion, following your interests and living for yourself.
Paropakaram idam shareeram is an ancient Indian concept.
Well, a libertarian idea of ‘living ‘ appears to mean ‘death ‘
as seen by Swami Vivekananda .
Nurturing your gifts of talents is wonderful ; but what purpose does it serve if that talent is not used freely and unconditionally to help the community or the surroundings such as to include humans, animals and vegetation?
Share whatever you have ; knowledge, wealth, or a state of peace and tranquillity . Serve unconditionally.
That’s also a way to enjoy life, perhaps that is living.