Where I stand. And where I do not.

A Facebook friend and I had an invigorating discussion about my allegiances and ideologies, specifically wrt the USA and Russia, and I realised that maybe my friends were not clear about where I stand. Perhaps it is time to put this to rest: I stand with neither right nor left. I have made that clear in my earlier posts. So, it might be slightly unclear where I locate myself and who (and what) I stand with.

I stand with democracy and capitalism (I said this first because the context is my stand on USA and Russia, but this is by no means in any order). I stand for freedom and justice. I stand for fair representation to the majority and even fairer protection of the minority voice. I stand for equality and equitability. I stand for the right to dissent and the expectation of fair play by all parties involved. I stand for love and respect as default. I stand for principled stands and honourable intentions. I stand for consistent approaches and nuanced views. I stand for loyalty and friendship. I stand for hope and reconciliation. I stand for brotherhood and kinship. I stand for keeping one’s word and offering the benefit of the doubt. I stand for gratitude and mercy. I stand for evolution and reform. I stand for science and rationality. I stand for music and art and scholarship and learning. I stand with children and for their rights. I stand for intellect and emotion. I stand for…this a long, and incomplete, list. Indeed, it is difficult to define everything I stand with or for.

Be that as it may, I know what I do not stand for and who I do not stand with. That part should be easier to list. So, here goes: I do not stand with dictators or Fascists, dogmatic religionists like Saudi Arabia or dogmatic communists like North Korea (or what Putin is trying to turn Russia into) or dogmatic anyone. I do not stand with monopolies and cartels. I do not stand with oligarchies and magical capito-communism (what I think China’s model is: on the table is the communist hat, and inside it is a capitalist rabbit, with no democracy or freedom, creating the worst of all sides, best of none system that may work for the short term and take the world by storm, but will not last, to the detriment of the world and the Chinese people). I do not stand for majoritarianism or ethnocentricism. I do not stand for repression and persecution of minorities and the powerless, regardless of circumstance and ideology. I do not stand for xenophobia or religious nationalism. I do not stand for bigotry and othering. I do not stand for violence and intimidation. I do not stand for racism or casteism. I do not stand for artificial hierarchies created by birth and limitless inherited privileges (even though we all, including myself, are the inadvertent beneficiaries of it and can only atone for our winning this genetic lottery by allying with the just causes of those that did not). I do not stand for woo and superstition. I do not stand for pseudoscience and the supernatural. I do not stand for irrationality and stupidity (which I define as a refusal to learn, not an absence of knowledge). I do not stand for the imposition of dress or diet or language or faith or sexual preference, and I do not stand with occupation without the consent of the inhabitants of the land. I do not stand for religion, even while standing with the religious (there is a difference, in my mind, between Muslims, who are people deserving and have a right on, our love, respect, and fair treatment, and Islam, which is an idea that must be open to mockery and dissection, even ridicule and dismissal). I do not stand for inequity and injustice. I do not stand for hate.

Confused? It’s easy: If in doubt, all you have to remember is that I stand against oppression and with love & understanding where I can find it. And so should any sane human with a clear heart and honourable intentions.

P.S: Note that much of this is aspirational. It is what I hope I can be. It is what I think I ought to strive for. It isn’t where I have reached. It is where I want to reach. It is not descriptive of my current situation, but simply a moral lodestone to use so I could be on the path there. That said, I don’t believe it is ever possible to get there. One can get close. But never completely arrive. That’s not an impediment to trying to move toward it, of course.