Will Abdur Rehman write an "american dream" script ?
Abdur Rehman, lives some 20m. away from my house in a little shelter on the streets. I saw him first some six months back standing next to wall of the building next to my builiding. He had just one bag then. Now he has found a small shelter for himself in between two buildings where he can atleast avoid rain and snow (may be). Now he has a nice mettress, a thick one, a nice warm looking quilt, there are lots of bags around him, he seems to have accumulated lots of stuff. Slow and steady he has installed himself in that little corner. He is no more homeless, he has become my neighbour. He has shown impressive survival qualities. Can he rise and shine ? Will this "liberal" society let him realise his American Dream, sort of Will Smith realises in the persuit of happyness ? What will happen to Abdur Rehman ?
J. S. Mill, father of liberalism once said, if we can take care of inequality liberalism is the best possible system. And inequality is where he blinked. Does Abdur Rehman stand any chance. Shoulnt liberalism let him persue what he wants to ?Does liberal cares for him ? Yeah does liberals cares for him, or its just a system which tends to favour the most privilege ones ?
Yeah, liberalism favours the privileged ones. It just leads to the "privilezation" of society. Media space is "privilegized", educational space is "privilegized", culture space is privilegized, even the most radical of trade unions are privilegized and are run by private property owners. And the whole political sphere is privilegized. Can the society change ? Can Abdur Rehman write his dream scripts ?
Society may not change at all. The condition of Abdur Rehman will keep the privilege ones from springing any changes. Its scary, its unattractive. As Slavok Zizek comments in his documentary on cultural capitalism, "We will keep misery alive with socialistic charity, without really any efforts of irradicating it". And what about Abdur Rehman ?
He is without paper or rather his paper doesnt worth anything on this peice of land. He might be thrown out as soon as city goes behind their fixed numbers of expulsion. If he is not it will be a dream in itself if he servives this winter in that little shelter ...
J. S. Mill, father of liberalism once said, if we can take care of inequality liberalism is the best possible system. And inequality is where he blinked. Does Abdur Rehman stand any chance. Shoulnt liberalism let him persue what he wants to ?Does liberal cares for him ? Yeah does liberals cares for him, or its just a system which tends to favour the most privilege ones ?
Yeah, liberalism favours the privileged ones. It just leads to the "privilezation" of society. Media space is "privilegized", educational space is "privilegized", culture space is privilegized, even the most radical of trade unions are privilegized and are run by private property owners. And the whole political sphere is privilegized. Can the society change ? Can Abdur Rehman write his dream scripts ?
Society may not change at all. The condition of Abdur Rehman will keep the privilege ones from springing any changes. Its scary, its unattractive. As Slavok Zizek comments in his documentary on cultural capitalism, "We will keep misery alive with socialistic charity, without really any efforts of irradicating it". And what about Abdur Rehman ?
He is without paper or rather his paper doesnt worth anything on this peice of land. He might be thrown out as soon as city goes behind their fixed numbers of expulsion. If he is not it will be a dream in itself if he servives this winter in that little shelter ...
posted by Tanuj at 1:44 AM
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