Debt crisis in the U.S and uprising in India against corruption. Things are really getting interesting. It seems to me that all that flocked from India to the U.S will soon want to flock back from the U.S to India. I myself, for one, am starting to feel insecure staying in a country whose government is unable to pay its bills. Looks like the current trend is eastward.
I feel bad though, that people like us just hop around based on circumstances and opportunities, but are not directly and seriously involved in building any place. When things were not ideal we were ready to leave our homes and fly miles away. When things are great back home, we will shamelessly fly back. At some level, I feel guilt just in entertaining the thought of moving back but not being part of the ongoing Satyagraha.
It seems like the modern idea of global citizenship brings with it a misplaced sense of having the right to relinquish responsibility towards all societies on the globe.
Hmmm...
I feel bad though, that people like us just hop around based on circumstances and opportunities, but are not directly and seriously involved in building any place. When things were not ideal we were ready to leave our homes and fly miles away. When things are great back home, we will shamelessly fly back. At some level, I feel guilt just in entertaining the thought of moving back but not being part of the ongoing Satyagraha.
It seems like the modern idea of global citizenship brings with it a misplaced sense of having the right to relinquish responsibility towards all societies on the globe.
Hmmm...
2 comments:
There's a book I particularly love for a similar contradiction- the Angry wife, by Pearl Buck. (it has a lot about relationships, but just as much about where we choose to draw our personal 'battle lines').
To me, this isn't about relinquishing responsibility for a place/ society, but the courage to do what it takes to create the society you want around you, wherever you go.
I strongly agree with your thoughts and sentiments. In being nomadic and wandering from one green pasture to another, there is indeed an incomplete sense of having "created" or sustained a society or community. If everyone tends to be so, there isn't going to be an enduring society anywhere. I also believe one gets a deeper sense of belonging to a place if one plays a role in the development of the society in addition to just growing roots there. I think some families, like mine, grew roots in India, but most of us have never played/shown a vested interest in its development - perhaps because we were unaware of how to. So when we look back at "home" we only look at the remaining fragments of roots and long for them, but not for the society.
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