I recently listened to an interesting interview with a world famous author and environmental activist, Arundhati Roy, author of the book, God of small things.
One of the answers she gave when asked about her nation was that she is an anti-nationalist, which resonated immensely with me.
The only difference, of course, is that I prefer to see myself as a human being and all further attachments – descriptions like colour, race, religion, customs, traditions – are banal, useless, unnecessary and at times, terribly divisive and completely out of sync with living in a modern cosmopolitan society of critical thinkers.
John Lennon, captured the essence of what I am trying to say, with some profound lyrics in his song “Imagine”. He wrote the lyrics back in the 70s. He was truly advanced for his time.
In spite of all our learning and technological advancements, the world is becoming a progressively divided place, where ethnicity and nationalism are becoming the new buzz words.
It is extremely hard to live in a world full of fanatics of all types, all wanting to be right using the most puerile justifications and arguments to defend their point of view, even if they don’t have one.
Reminds me of an old song: “It’s a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack”.