Is it wrong to be a modernist?
How do you differentiate between a modernist and a conservative? How can you judge someone and who exactly is the right authority to judge? However there isn’t any such prevailing authority and hence humans consider it their birth right to judge people. It is intriguing to know how this ‘superior’ category called homo sapiens analyse people; is it their looks or clothes or their etiquettes or their way of talking and presenting themselves both in public as well as the modernist. Such a harsh methodology would only emphasise the degree of lameness attached to the human psychology. It is inexplicable to call a person who wears jeans as a modernist and one who sticks to traditionalist as a conservative. The attire of a person can hardly be enough to assess their ideology. You may never know but a person under a sari may harbour a progressive attitude.
The whole question that comes down to whose notions of these terms do we follow. We aren’t aware of the minds who coined these terms and under what conditions and environment did they do this. According to the preconceived ideology, I would be called a modernist because of my way of dressing and probably also due to my way of interaction with the society. However it does not imply that I am incapable of interacting with the so called, ‘conservatives’. I live with one and I think we get along perfectly well. We may have a difference of opinions at times, but I do not dislike the concept. Rather I am of the opinion that one should harbour equal amounts of both the values. We live in a comparatively liberated city if not country which allows us to have the best of both the worlds.
Some people in our country often confuse modernists with either being too shallow-minded or being too dull and simplistic. To be fair enough, each individual should be given an equal opportunity to take their own decisions and form their own opinions. Nobody should be forced to follow a certain set of rules irrespective of their religion, culture or gender. People should be given enough liberty to take actions. A certain action shouldn’t be criticised but rather applauded or respected for the respective individual’s frankness. These notions have to some extent created a divide in our society, which leads to several perceptions. These perceptions lead various individuals to fake their notions and kill their actual opinions. The pressure from the society forces them to take up a different set of ideologies which they are totally against or uncomfortable with.
