“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” ― Mark Twain
I had started writing this
article months ago, but found time only today to complete it. From now on, I
shall be more regular in posting articles.
Have you ever come across
this term, ‘spiral cone’ before? It would embarrass me to a great extent if
some of my readers answered ‘yes’, to the above question. At least I would like
to believe that this metaphor is coined by me for the purpose of explaining a
peculiar human behavior.
So what is this spiral cone? Literally it’s a conical
structure, starting at one point, increasingly becoming narrower and narrower
to the final point. Think about it for a while and then try to figure out where
you come across such structure in your day to day life. If not literally at
least we all come across several people whose thoughts replicate the exact same
model.
Most humans exhibit this
structure in thinking. Below scenario might
ring some bells:
- My country is great
- People from my state are greater
- People from my region of the state are even greater
- People of my hamlet in that region are even greater
- I am the greatest
The
greatest possible remedies to this problem are:
A)
Travel
B)
Have an open mind
C)
Stop Judging
Unless
people give up believing that they are the best or always right, differences
would always appear as ‘wrong’ and similarities as ‘right’. Being an
eternal optimist, I hope this structure of thought will one day change in many
societies.
9 comments:
I totally agree! Having the opportunity of living abroad made me grow up in many different ways and now I can also see my own country with different eyes. I guess you feel the same.
I totally agree! Having the opportunity of living abroad made me grow up in many different ways and now I can also see my own country with different eyes. I guess you feel the same.
Wanessa, thanks for your comment once more! Yes, I first got this feeling nearly four years ago and it's only getting stronger and stronger. You have known me and my Lexington life... right? some inspiration came from there as well :)
Hmmmmmmmm I now feel embarrassed to comment on this blog as I have also shown similar behavior or attitude......remember our fights on Bengali culture. :P.....Nice one and great thought....I hope to follow them as far as possible :P
@Sutapa:
Ha.. Ha.. See, patriotism or pride in certain culture must not be by this logic, "My culture is great, because I was born into it." It should be, "I am lucky to be born into this culture." Very subtle difference, I suppose.
Thanks for your comments!
This is a good perspective. This seems like an original post. But don't you ever experience this spiral cone effect personally? Please answer.
@Anonymous: Well, I'm glad that you found this article as original. As far as your question goes, I prefer not to answer.
Very nice article Vijay.
Judith,
Thanks for your comments. Very kind!
Vijay
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