homosexuality and playing it 'cool'
Just came across an article (http://students.iitm.ac.in/thefifthestate/2011/07/standard-deviation/) by a student from IIT-Madras, chronicling his attempts to 'come out'. Saddened by the amount of hypocrisy that exists in Indian society. Most teenagers today would claim to be 'cool' with it and make lots of jokes about it, but when someone from their own tribe 'fesses up, equations change. This is the problem with 'cool'. Everyone wants to be cool and therefore lies/misrepresents themselves, in clothing, in attitudes, in habits they claim to have. One of my friends, doing her PhD on a related subject, called it "Impression Management". I hate it, but I do it too. Everybody does it, but some people let it take over their lives. And this, I believe, is the real barrier towards opening your mind to ideas/concepts that you don't agree with.
When one expresses an honest disagreement, there is scope for debate and there is scope for reconciliation. But when you profess to be 'cool' with it, no one really knows if you really agree with it, including yourself. Because, when you have a mask on for a long time, the mask merges with the real face and soon, it's difficult to take it off.
When you're really cool with something, you don't think about it. You really don't spend any time or thought deciding on how to react. When was the last time your decision about a person, to be friends with or not, to marry or not, to respect or not, hinged on whether they were left-handed or not?
When one expresses an honest disagreement, there is scope for debate and there is scope for reconciliation. But when you profess to be 'cool' with it, no one really knows if you really agree with it, including yourself. Because, when you have a mask on for a long time, the mask merges with the real face and soon, it's difficult to take it off.
When you're really cool with something, you don't think about it. You really don't spend any time or thought deciding on how to react. When was the last time your decision about a person, to be friends with or not, to marry or not, to respect or not, hinged on whether they were left-handed or not?