Why resistance, no matter how small, matters

 
This powerful image of a man refusing to give the Nazi salute is well-known to most people, it serves as a timeless reminder of the courage it takes to stand against oppression, even when surrounded by conformity. It’s easy to assume that resistance is impossible when the majority either supports or silently accepts injustice, but this man proves that even a single symbolic act of defiance can be profoundly significant. His refusal to comply speaks to the importance of standing by our values, especially when minorities and vulnerable communities are under attack. Showing your support in whatever form you can to vulnerable, people or groups that cannot defend themselves matters. Silence and passive acceptance allow oppression to thrive, but resistance—no matter how small—can inspire others to question, challenge, and ultimately dismantle unjust systems.

I always wonder, in a crowd of people all performing the Nazi salute—whether out of fear, obedience, or genuine support—why only this man alone had the desire and courage to resist. He was not the only person who may have noticed bad things happening around and harbored doubts about the regime or disagreed with its actions, yet he was the only one who acted on those convictions in that moment. Why?

Fear often keeps people silent. Many in that crowd likely understood that failing to conform could lead to severe personal consequences—loss of livelihood, imprisonment, or even death. Some may have convinced themselves that one act of disobedience would change nothing, so why risk it? Others may have gradually accepted the ideology over time, or at least justified their compliance as a necessity for survival. Some may have thought that they are not the ones doing any of the bad stuff, so, they are not responsible for whatever bad is happening to anyone around them. But this man—standing in a sea of raised arms—refused. He understood the cost and defied the pressure to conform. He took the risk. He looked in a direction that others ignored. Perhaps he believed that even a small act of defiance mattered. Perhaps he could not, in good conscience, participate in a display of allegiance to a regime built on hate and persecution. Whatever his reasons, his choice is a reminder that courage is not always loud or grand; sometimes, it is as simple as standing still when the rest of the world moves in the wrong direction.

His act resonates because it asks us a difficult question: In the face of oppression, will we choose the safety of silence, or will we have the courage to stand alone if necessary? May we find the courage to refuse to salute when faced with oppression. May we stand up for those whose voices are silenced. And may we never forget that one act of defiance, no matter how small, can echo through history.

Thank you for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

*Vinay can be reached at thevinay2022@gmail.com

Stop worrying about sounding less than brilliant

Social media has transformed the way we communicate with each other. Nowadays, a major part of our communication happens through written or visual (video or photo) mediums rather than spoken communication. We have many platforms available for us where we can read other's opinions and share our own. However, this abundance of platforms has also made many of us worry about sounding less than brilliant or getting criticized for our views. However, we all must remember that just because someone criticizes or ridicules us our opinions don't become any less important or irrelevant. Also, worrying about sounding less than brilliant just makes us hold on to our thoughts at places where we should speak up. 

First, it takes courage to speak up, we may or may not be affected by certain things because of our social and economic status. But this does not mean we should not speak about issues that are affecting others. Raising awareness about important and sensitive issues is important because many times people who get affected by these issues do not have proper platforms or resources to raise these issues. That is why people who have these resources must take responsibility and use their resources for the benefit of the ones who can't raise their concerns. It is normal to be conscious about our presence and take some precautions so that we don't become targets of online bullying but self-censoring is not a good option. 

Second, if we wait for a day when we will sound brilliant and flawless to voice our views, such a day may never come as there will be always someone who can articulate the same thing better than us. Also, there will be always someone who will find some flaw in whatever we say or do. So, stop worrying about sounding less than brilliant, share your opinion or views freely and fearlessly. Of course, we need to be respectful of others and follow some basic etiquettes that we follow in our everyday lives, but apart from this nothing should stop us.

Finally, perfection is an illusion, it's a relative thing, if we are sincere about what we do or say, it doesn't matter if others like it or not. Therefore, enjoy the social media platforms that are available to you, and use them to connect with people and raise awareness about the issues you care about. Stop worrying about sounding less than brilliant, be a free thinker, and behave like a free thinker.

Thank you for reading and please share your opinion about this topic. 

Silence is an enemy of social justice

We all must have seen something wrong happening around us sometime in our life, either directly or indirectly we all witness such things. Sometimes we choose to protest or object to these things and many times we decide to ignore them and move on for various reasons. Many times we are scared to protest or think that it's none of our business to interfere in these matters as they are not directly related to us. We all might have our own valid reasons for opposing or not opposing these things. But it is true that sometimes we do ignore social evils like bullying, discrimination, and harassment happening around us. One of the most common excuses people offer is that one person can not bring change, so what's the use of protesting? They think if these incidents don't directly affect us then why should we interfere? Many people also think that keeping quiet and not interfering in others' business is a good habit (yes, it is a good habit but not when some injustice is being done right in front of your eyes). I agree that losing patience is not a way of addressing any problem but that doesn't mean keeping quiet or ignoring them are any good options, rather I think they are worse. We must register our protest in some form whenever we witness injustice, we need to voice our opposition to such incidents in a very strong and clear voice. Many times silence is considered as an indirect approval for such acts, it encourages perpetrators to commit these crimes again and again. 

Ignoring such incidents purposely or choosing to keep silent is as bad as committing those crimes. This bystander approach is very dangerous. When we choose to remain silent we give a message to perpetrators that people are okay with such behavior. We tell them that they can do such nasty things and get away with it. They get the impression that they can bully others, harass others, or trouble them and no one will dare to protest or confront them. The bystander approach provides encouragement to them. In private many people express their displeasure and concern about such things but this doesn't really matter if they ignore these things when they personally witness the real incident. As I said different people have different reasons for not reacting or ignoring these things, but I believe there is a strong reason and duty not to ignore them. Many times, perpetrators of such crimes try to physically intimidate the victims and because of this other people also get scared of them, they do this to spread fear with the hope that no one will protest, and many times they succeed. But if even some of us show little courage to speak up they might not get away so easily and will think twice in the future before committing the same crime. No one likes confrontation or enjoys any unpleasant scenario but many times that's the only option we have to stop social evils like bullying, discrimination, or harassment. If anyone remains silent even after facing some unjust due to lack of support from their surroundings they offer themselves as easy targets for similar incidents in the future. Such silence is an enemy of social justice. 

We should raise our voices against any injustice or harassment. Nationality, race, religion, caste, political affiliation, gender, or anything else should not be the criteria behind criticizing any such crime. Mahatma Gandhi said once, "Hate the sin, not the sinner," we need to oppose injustice, not individuals, that individual is just a representative of that sick mindset we need to fight that mindset. So let's fight social evils together, silence is not an option, silence is an enemy of social justice.  

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Violence and silence

I listened to this TED talk by Jackson Katz, this talk was a total revelation for me, by far the best TED talk I heard to date. This guy said almost everything which I think but struggled to express in words (actually he told much more than I think) about the problem of domestic violence and sexual abuse in such an effective way. Jack said all this with such clarity and simplicity that I could not have done it in 100 blog posts, a very big thanks to him for doing this. I am really impressed by the way he communicated his ideas and emotions so effectively.

I liked the way he proved that domestic violence or sexual abuse is not only a women's issue but mainly it's men's problem as many perpetrators are men. He raised very valid points like how the dominant majority always gets the privilege to remain unexamined, and how the entire blame is put on the victim in most of these cases. Because of the exclusion of the dominant majority most of these issues get stereotyped. For example, people think gender issues mean women's issues, and racism means things related to minorities. I am also impressed by the way he objected to our silence to many of these racist jokes or rape jokes or all other stories or jokes who are in some way demeaning to a particular gender or to people with a particular sexual orientation. We all hear these types of jokes or posts somewhere, many times we protest, or many times we ignore them considering them harmless, but every time we ignore any such incident we silently give our approval for that incident to get repeated (he calls this a bystander approach). Many people offer this type of silent approval and slowly these things spread, and communities are stereotyped. People suffer and get discriminated against, but most of us prefer to take a bystander approach. We can stop or minimize all these things if we stop silently encouraging such incidents. By keeping quiet if something wrong is happening in front of us we give our silent approval to that thing. People keep quiet for so many reasons, some of us are scared of name-calling or getting labeled as man-haters or any other insulting term (shoot the messenger attitude). We need more courageous men and women who break their silence and become vocal about these issues. Jack also reminds us that this is not easy to challenge these things in a powerful male-dominated culture. It's not easy to question this type of behavior when most people choose to ignore or to keep mum, raising our voice against such things requires courage. We need to create an environment where such abusive behavior is unacceptable in peer culture, where remaining silent is not an option. Most of these perpetrators are normal people in most aspects but this type of environment where others remain silent encourages them to commit these types of acts. He also calls this problem not a sensitivity issue but a leadership issue, and nicely explains this in his talk. I also like when he says that only caring deeply about these issues is not enough anymore, I also want to stress his point that we need more gutsy people who not only care but also take some action to break this complacent silence.

I think Jack mentioned many thought-provoking points in his talk and we all should think about them. Next time any of us hear any racist joke or insensitive remark about any gender or community we should protest or at least express our disagreement to indicate this is not acceptable. I think this will at least make people around us aware that these things are not funny or that it's not okay to say these things. Our job is to tell them that these things are not only not funny but also disgusting and insulting. If we can take away just this one message from his talk and work on it I think it will serve the purpose of his talk. I encourage everyone to listen to this talk, also please watch this brilliant video and let me know your opinion about this topic.

Thanks for reading.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:
1. http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Violence-Silence-Jackson-Katz-P
2. This Powerful Video Shows Men What It Feels Like To Be Subjected To Sexism And Sexual Violence