I was listening to the local lefty station KPFK in the car the other day
and heard this phrase:" the narcissism of small differences" in a
discussion about why the "left" is so inclined to devour its own, and
is rarely able to act coherently.
I thought I'd pass it on. We all have strong convictions, and believe,
often rightly, that our convictions have momentous implications. We are
prepared to fight to the death (at least figuratively) to defend our
convictions. This is certainly far better than the alternative, which is
apathy. And what is life without zest and passion?
But we should stop once in a while to recognize that our outlooks and tastes
are not all that different. And they all converge. Visvanadha was an
admirer of SriSri. And Nannaya would probably have got along just famously
with SriSri. Maybe if Tikkana had lived in these times, he would have
been a radical.
I don't mean to revive a dead thread. I just thought the phrase evocative
and wanted to share it. It doesn't mean that we all fit into some
arbitrary "left" category. But our values are not all that different
fundamentally.
Bapa Rao