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Coronavirus Diaries #2 What is a Civilization under a Lockdown?

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Civility of a modern people is to be determined by their ability to debate without getting offended.


I don't use Twitter a lot because it is a dangerous place for the faint-hearted. It is a bustling market for dissent but not the one that you will like. People are digitally spitting on each other. 

Amid this, an English teacher of mine thought of bringing together a few of her students and insightful friends to discuss life. Every Sunday, she started arranging video meetings with topics as sobre as "self-discovery during the lockdown" and as debatable as "the post-pandemic future of introverts" on the agenda. These were virtual debates with participants ranging from kids as young as fourteen years to musicians from Bollywood.


Macbeth and Criminology

A recent topic was regarding the relevance of Shakespeare's Macbeth in today's world. It seemed dull and mainstream at first. Scholars have debated the play's themes for centuries — ambition, good vs evil, deception, guilt, the supernatural — and the Internet is too easy to access. What could we possibly contribute? Is it going to be another English class from six years ago?

However, as we began with the discussion, we strayed into a vast range of subjects. It began with "Were the witches real, after all?" and "Is ambition necessarily bad?" and within half an hour, we were discussing criminology. Does nature produce a criminal or is a criminal nurtured by the society? Everyone was given an equal chance to speak. There were those who agreed and those who politely disagreed — those who blamed it all on the society while those who believed that since freedom is with the individual, it is the individual who must shoulder a greater burden. 


Roles and Responsibilities

A friend of mine asked what our duties were pertaining to criminals and a society which is invariably criminal, and followed it with an uneasy suffix — where do our duties as a citizen end? I replied at that point that ours should be a pursuit of truth, guided by Gandhi and the Gita.

Some then reminded me that there is nothing true or untrue, for everything is subjective. For the flexible human being who is always ready to admit his or her mistakes, the definition of truth must change with his or her understanding of the world. Thus, it is extremely important that there shall be questions, and in this respect, it is important that our first questions should be to ourselves.


What is a civilization?

This came as a respite to me, for I had been numbed and quietened by the disheartening march of the moral corruption that presented itself on platforms like Twitter. These talks were blind engineers. They created and demolished opinions. The speakers unknowingly ravaged the comfort zones of their listeners and the listeners made space for their ideas, moderating their own ideas in the process. 

Whereas, during our talks, opposing views were not only welcomed and encouraged, but demanded. Speaking slots were reserved specially for countering ideas. The teacher mediated the discussion, praising the innovative and creative ideas, but shunning none. Being the unbiased mediator, she did not present her personal views. After all, it was meant to be a space for us to present our views, not to decide the correctness of opinions. That is best left to the individual to decide. Through these, I had rediscovered the utility of dissent and discussion.

Under a lockdown, amid an air of disharmony and suspicion, how do we call ourselves civilized? Conference with your friends and tell them about your and their prejudices. After all, the civility of a people is determined by their ability to debate on the basis of evidence, without being offended. Lately, it seems too much to ask for.


This piece was originally submitted to The Hindu. As you might have expected, it was rejected. Dejected by its dismissal, it awaits audience on this sad blog now.

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