Spare me, and yourself, the labels please..

Recently, I chanced upon an individual, in a casual setting, who announced he was a “liberal” barely fifteen minutes into our otherwise benign conversation. There was no political discussion leading up to that proud announcement. It was more of a preface to that person’s description of what he liked in a particular situation he dealt with.

I was a taken aback at a little at first, perhaps at the abruptness of it. Then I gathered my wits to decode what it meant. My mind scoured all the liberal positions that I knew of, so I could associate them with this person. Open borders, gun control, abortion rights, higher minimum wage, what else?

 

However, what does all of this have to do with our introductory conversation, I thought. There was a chance that I may never see this person again. Why was he so anxious to lay it all out there so earnestly? Was he really that invested in all those positions?

 

Clearly, he was not. Clearly it was a casual comment that he pulled up from his stream of consciousness to share, what he felt was an essential part of his identity. Like religion is, for some. I am Muslim; I am Catholic, Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist. In political realm, I am Republican or Democrat, liberal or a conservative.

 

However, the net effect of it may end up being some-thing else many a times. These buckets, that we identify ourselves with, end up being unintentional requests to bracket us. In essence, they become requests to take our individuality away and allocate us in a bucket of nice little balls of similar shapes and size. Judge me based on all that is good and bad about these groups, they say. Please do not wait to discover me and my preferences and choices, as a person. Go ahead and paint me in a generality. Ascribe to me everything that the “group” subscribes to, becomes the inadvertent import. They therefore may create artificial and unnecessary divisions amongst us.

 

This can be good consequence only for religious and political leaders. That is because they, by design draw their power from these buckets of similar balls, as different from other balls mind you. The power therefore comes from division amongst men that are created by these labels. 

 

In political realm, all political movements or parties take up some rational and “good for the whole” policies. Then, there are other policies that are more questionable. Those that are driven by vote bank politics, by creating a set of dependent constituents by giving handouts that are carefully crafted by the political elite. The average Joe may feel like he is getting a deal. However, the political thinkers are always two steps ahead of an average Joe, in any society. They are the ones who get the real deal by getting you. Hence, they walk the corridors of power while others barely scratch a living.

 

Typically, though, these constituents, i.e. Republicans, Democrats, Liberals or Conservatives are drawn towards their preferred political affiliation due to some significant issue that is meaningful to them. Perhaps it is adherence to the constitution, or fiscal responsibility or social justice. One political party likely speaks more favorably to that critical issue and we end up hitching our wagon to that horse. So far so good. The problem lies in the fact that once the wagon is hitched; there are 50 others positions that we have to now have to swallow also. As an example, I may like better border control, but by hitching my wagon to republican party now I own their position on gun laws as they exist or abortion rights, which may be completely antithetical to my thinking and sensitivities. 

 

In religion, which is the grandmaster of this divider in chief methodology, once I accept the God message and the associated specific Messiah message as God’s preferred way of engaging in Human affairs, as shared by the evangelist that is in front of me, I am now by default accepting the entire theology behind it. Worse still, my generations and I will parrot it to others all my and their lives. No matter if, I accepted that in duress, under the benign sword, or for a few bowls of rice or as retaliation for the status quo of my situation in society, as has happened historically many a times. Once the label is attached, I learn to swallow, big giant chunks of lies. Slowly then will come additional demands on how women need to dress and animals be slaughtered. Why and how to get to heaven and what to do there. How and where to pray and which religious order needs our money. If I push back and suggest that even though I accept the initial premise, half of what is written in this “holy book” and all the additional diktats that keep coming are total nonsense, I am not being faithful to my original sin, of accepting their initial narrative. My wagon is hitched you see. I have to swallow the whole ball of wax. The branding iron on the cow has been seared on its skin. Now I am part of the flock and have to accept my leaders doing extremely dumb things in cartoonish garbs of different colors, the color choice being solely a function of who got you to say “I do” first or what family you were born in. You now not only have to accept the fantastic conjectures on how human kind came to be and what will happen after death, you have to reject everyone else’s version of it. This knowing fully well that majority of humankind, no matter what religion you are, rejects your version of events. 

 

And how did all this come to pass? A simple acceptance of a label that they ever so eagerly and cunningly hung on your lapel. That one act, created massive conflict in your heart, if you are a thinking person anyway. It created more separation between people than any other action of yours and mine. It has created more wars and more distress amongst us than all natural disasters put together. 

 

Now most of us think that we are above this “labelling” morass. That this applies to those dumb ones out there who were conned and really do not have critical thinking. Perhaps you are right. However, perhaps we should hear ourselves speak sometimes. To me whenever a discussion about our understanding of truths( political or metaphysical) veers into “As a Muslim/Christian/Hindu/liberal/republican I believe that….abc is true”, to me is sign of suspension of rational thought and beginning of parroting based on the bucket I have been assigned. A scientist (another name for truth seeker) never lays out his argument on the premise of “As a physicist/mathematician/Biologist I believe that ABC to be true” The assertion is always that “upon studying abc, in my field of work, we found XYZ to be proven true and here is the evidence”. The specific field of science is only incidental.

 

So what are we to do? 

 

The answer could be as simple as rejecting these labels. If someone asks me what is your political affiliation, why can’t I answer that I am happy to share my opinion on issues with you. Similarly in spiritual matters, why is being a person with a name not enough? Why must I be a particular religion? Why not just a person who is happy to choose any traditions or ceremony they feel like that enhances their understanding of the Universe and its spiritual dimensions, if any exist. 

 

That does not in any way forgo our ability of choosing a political party’s candidate when it comes time to vote. You can still vote based on the net effect of the overall policy framework of each different candidate. You are just not voting a certain way because you are a democrat or a republican. You are not defending egregious policies of you chosen bucket. Imagine what if majority of the country votes on policies. Would we see political parties coming up with better ones for the country, rather than for their base. No magic bullet here, but food for thought? 

 

In religious parlance, would we be able to clean up our respective traditions rather than defending those that do need cleaning up? May be so... One can only hope. And could it be a way for beating back identity politics? Whoa! Now I am being too ambitious.