For over four years now, TVNEWS4U.COM has been bringing you news, views and analyses from across the spectrum of Media, Marketing, Advertising and Entertainment.
Obviously, there is a personal side to the thought leaders and executives we feature in our reportage, and sometimes, we come across some intensely personal and extremely relevant expressions of thought by professionals from our sectors of interest, which we feel deserve to be taken to a bigger audience.
Hence, we are delighted to announce the new and occasional series, Personally Speaking, which will feature interesting, seminal thoughts that may not be limited to the business of MMA, but are extremely relevant to us as human beings.
What sparked this series is a piece we chanced upon by the brilliant Bobby Pawar, whose LinkedIn profile says he is Managing Director, Chief Creative Officer, problem solver and writer at Publicis Worldwide.
Read on, and you will agree that in the current national and global phenomenon of intolerant, extremist thinking, a viewpoint such as Pawar’s, if emulated and propagated, has the potential to solve one of the most deep-seated problems of mankind.
Do share your feedback, please.
For is not against: Bobby Pawar, Personally Speaking
For Islam should not mean against other religions. For police is not against Black Lives Matter. Pro women’s equality is not anti men. For gay rights is not against straight living. Being a liberal is not against being conservative. Democracy is not against other form of government. Marriage is not against divorce. Or vice- versa. Pro-life is not against abortion.
‘For’ is the language of love. ’Against’ is the language of hate. Unfortunately, it is the people who speak the latter who are the loudest. The most spoken about. They are very same folks who talk about enemies and wars. They simplify the issues around your fears and create camps. It is easy to fall into their trap, because we have been told, and have come to believe, that good is versus evil. They say you are good, therefore anybody who is not you is evil. It is a seductive argument. After all, who doesn’t like the feeling that comes with thinking you are right and feeling self-righteous?
This is the path that leads to intolerance. It ends in night club shootings. Executions in the street. Suicide bomber attacks at concerts, in churches, near mosques, in schools and places where innocents live. It ends in mass graves in places with unpronounceable names. In wars that the people in whose name they are fought do not want. It turns children into orphans. Husbands into widowers. Wives into widowers. And it plants seeds of hate into those who survived.
There is another path, acceptance. Accept that different doesn’t automatically mean against. Accept the other person can be right, without you being wrong. This is the debate. And the prize is our future as a species.
