True nationalists recognize and work on drawbacks

It is not hard to notice the rise of nationalism among the social and political circles of different parts of the world. Nationalism has become the new political mantra to succeed in most of these parts. A stereotyped image of nationalists is propagated and even accepted in most places. True nationalist is supposed to do the chest-thumping about their country, shout from their rooftops how theirs and only their country is better and superior to all others. They are also supposed to protect their country's history as a glorious one and defend even some discriminatory or oppressive periods by galvanizing with some justification or even by twisting facts. Finally, the most important duty, they need to vilify anyone who does not agree with their views, if possible, brand such dissenters as anti-nationals. Is this what really nationalism means and what nationalists must do? The answer is an unequivocal NO.

True nationalists do not shy away from the drawbacks or weaknesses of their country. No doubt, they are proud of their country's achievements and try to highlight them wherever and whenever possible, but they also recognize and work on the drawbacks. Without diligently recognizing and working on the drawbacks no nation can become a real superpower or leader of the world. Singing praises about past glories while completely ignoring present realities is a perfect recipe for failure. Loud chest-thumping and shouting that their country is greatest might create a notice, a social media trend, or a media buzz, but it will do hardly anything on a ground level to change any realities. This is dangerous for a developing country like India, where a lot needs to be done, as well as for a developed nation like the USA, which needs to keep up its pace ahead of other countries that are trying hard to catch up with them. When people get into the habit of only reciting past glories and hiding or ignoring present problems, they enter into a dangerous illusionary zone that blindsight them to real challenges. It takes tremendous courage to accept as a society that we committed a mistake and be willing to rectify it, it's not easy. But courageous and just societies dare to accept their mistakes, correct them, and move forward.

History should be remembered and lessons should be derived from it so that we do not repeat the same mistakes, but the real challenges always reside in the present and future, our eyes and ears should be open to those challenges. Also, people need to remember that not every criticism is meant to demean or hurt, many times listening to criticism offers an opportunity to improve ourselves. So, nationalists or non-nationalists please honestly try to recognize the drawbacks and weaknesses of your country and work on it, this is the only way your country stands a chance to become a truly great nation. This is an extremely hard path, but this is the right path, all the very best.

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Randomness

Randomness plays a huge part in our day-to-day lives. Whether we like it or not, we want it or not, it does affect us in many ways, shapes our behavior and thinking, and many times, the path we choose is the result of how we react to many random events in our lives. People may call this randomness by different names, some may call it destiny, god's will, luck, opportunities, or whatever name they find fit to describe that event. The reason why we don't call it randomness is that we humans hate randomness, we love and crave predictability. Humans love to find answers to all their questions and this is one of the main reasons for our progress so far. The innate curiosity of the human mind has resulted in many inventions and discoveries which transformed our lives dramatically. Our need to have certainty in our lives is monumental, it is evident from the ways we have structured our surroundings. This need for certainty is the reason why we invented and preserved the concept of family, marriage, homeownership, money, national boundaries, laws, etc. This list is very long and can go forever. The point is, that we strive to have certainty in our lives as much as we can, we are not comfortable when things become uncertain. At the same time, humans are curious about what's next? At some point in our lives, most of us ask the question why me (when something bad happens to us)? Or why not me (when something unusually good happens with others)?

Randomness is so prevalent in our lives that it is hard to ignore it, that is why we give call it by so many different names. Many things that happen around us are a result of random happenings. We can always find reasons once the event occurs, as it is said, it is always easy to connect the dots backward. It is easy to explain once you know the full picture after the event has happened. Most of the time we can find out why an ambulance arrived within minutes and saved someone's life or why it was late and the person couldn't be saved, why some team lost from the winning situation, why we got the job, or why we didn't, why some businesses work and why some don't. However, it is hard to predict any fullproof formula for any of these things. As I said, we try our best to structure things around us so that we can avoid randomness as much as possible, but it still plays a huge role in our lives.

So, what shall we do? Just keep quiet and wait for random things to happen to us? Definitely not. We should try our best to do what we want to do and factor in the role of randomness. If things work, good, if they don't, move on. If we try our level best, the result is not in our hands, and if it's not as per our expectation, not our fault. Remember, there are many things apart from our own efforts which can be a deciding factor towards the final result. The purpose of this post is not to discourage or demotivate anyone but to make readers aware of the role of randomness and appreciate it. Once we recognize the role of randomness we tend to focus on our own efforts and not worry overtly about the end result. Anxiety, stress, tension, etc. are parts of our day-to-day lives, many times, they help us to stay focused and act as a reminder of what needs to be done. We must use all these feelings to our advantage. Appreciate the role of randomness, maybe it will help to understand or ignore some things happening around us, including some election results that even experienced pollsters get wrong. 😀

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