Are we divided already?

Don’t you think, now a days, as far as political arguments are concerned, we notice a pattern in the arguments? So much so that we are tempted to judge a person leftist or rightist. Irony is that most of us don’t know very well about the history, leaders and ideologies of these two sides of political spectrum.

We are speaking a language of politicians/leaders. Our social media feeds are biased. The polarization is so evident and effective that as soon as you start taking interest in politics you are bound to take sides. And the concern is there are not many sides. There are only two — left and right (not in literal sense but basically two opposite political groups)! If we login to our friend’s (who as per our judgement is on another side) social media account, we will know why the person is speaking particular language. The common thing about the people on both of these opposite sides is they think people on OTHER side are brainwashed by propaganda of xyz. Who knows, maybe both of them are right.

I was discussing with my best friend recently. We have some difference of opinions but we like to have constructive discussion without getting pissed of at each other. We almost guessed each other’s social media following. Isn’t that awesome? Or wait.. are we both brainwashed?

I am trying hard to stay away from social media despite my strong interest in social and political discussions. Because it has started making me furious. I get angry and feel helpless that I cannot do anything about all the wrongs that are happening around. I am most worried about the fact that lot of people try to defend the violence and hatred. I think some of my friends talk bullshit. I think lot of people are idiots. I recently blocked one on WhatsApp and had heated argument with other so much so that we agreed to not speak to each other again. But thanks to him, he called me after couple of days and we had a chai-sutta together. We might never debate on the same topic though.

This situation is making politician’s job very easy. They just need to add fuel to our anger and create virtual enemies for us. They don’t need to discuss about issues and solutions in detail. Opposition parties will demonize ruling party and ruling party will paint opposition anti national. This debate is never ending and we are so engrossed in proving each others wrong that we don’t have a time to think about real issues.

Shouldn’t we rather discuss about better infrastructure, education, healthcare, jobs, farmers, cleanliness, pollution problem, water crisis. We have so many issues and they are complex. I think that if we spend our time and energy discussing about solutions it will be great help to the government as well. If hypothetically we have no heated debates, there are no social tensions, everyone is respecting everyone else (irrespective of religion, caste, class, gender), which issues do you think should be on priority for us as a nation to solve?

P.S. Most of the statements in this blog are my personal opinions and I could be wrong.