{"id":2431,"date":"2023-08-31T11:07:55","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T05:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/?p=2431"},"modified":"2023-08-31T11:07:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T05:37:55","slug":"labels-and-identities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/2023\/08\/31\/labels-and-identities\/","title":{"rendered":"Labels and Identities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Thesis and Antithesis: Courtesy The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today we see a whole range of labels ; old labels\u00a0 and new labels ; and also many old labels acquiring new meanings..<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 by a ‘ liberal’ who himself would be labelled a woke by a ‘traditionalist’.<\/p>\n

\n

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.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nFor the unversed , please follow the link to understand the ‘raita wing’ or Rayta wing’ politics.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.opindia.com\/2022\/01\/trads-vs-raitas-and-rw-fights\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Most of these labels are so defined to make it look beautiful or ugly as seen by the definer.<\/p>\n

To someone an idealist would mean a person of character pursuing lofty ideals .
\nTo someone else it could mean an impractical, head in the air , useless person.<\/p>\n

I feel any label is better understood when you can identify the antithesis, so as to be able to choose between the two.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Idealist or practical ?<\/strong><\/span>
\nIdealist or an opportunist ?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Secularism has different meaning to different people.<\/p>\n

Are you a secularist or spiritualist? Makes sense to identify yourself as one or the other.<\/p>\n

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)<\/p>\n

Secularism or equality of all religions ?<\/span><\/p>\n

This question makes sense in India where secularism has come to mean privilege for certain religions.<\/p>\n

I would definitely choose ‘equality for all religions ‘ over ‘<\/b>Indian<\/b><\/span>\u00a0 secularism’.<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to finances,<\/p>\n

What is ‘saving’ ?\u00a0 \u00a0 Mostly it is taken as opposite of spending.<\/p>\n

Can it mean something else, say the opposite of investment, or sheer indifference to money ; that precludes any conscious saving , spending or investment ?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The winds from the West are blowing all over, unsettling anyone\u00a0 not anchored to his\u00a0 roots.<\/p>\n

‘Living’ in modern times means following your passion, following your interests and living for yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Paropakaram idam shareeram is an ancient Indian concept.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Well, a libertarian idea of ‘living ‘ appears to mean ‘death ‘
\nas seen by\u00a0 Swami Vivekananda .<\/p>\n

Nurturing your gifts of talents is wonderful ; but\u00a0 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?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Share whatever you have ;\u00a0 knowledge,\u00a0 wealth, or a\u00a0 state\u00a0 of peace and tranquillity . Serve unconditionally.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat’s also a way to enjoy life, perhaps that is living.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we see a whole range of labels ; old labels\u00a0 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 … Continue reading “Labels and Identities”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2435,"href":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions\/2435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}