thesocratespot: AAUW : The Grey Side of Retrospection : Chapter: C...: AAUW : The Grey Side of Retrospection : Chapter: CXXI : Evolution of Angst : It was a grey rainy day, Annie's father was sick but was at his home work desk doing his usual routine of scanning through every single page of a dozen odd newspapers of all hues and languages - included the very bigotic, rightist, to Capitalist or Marxian Economics, partisan, political, non political and such including some Global news editions of NYT & The Telegraph ( London edition ) or the Le Monde etc., Annie often used to wonder how in the hell did the man manage to read so many news dailies in such detail and yet find time to prepare for his lectures and seminars as well as read or write on many other subjects and it is that image of a patriarch perched on a pedestal - far beyond her reach - that kind of revolted her, She wanted to be better than him, bigger than him.
Annie was giving a lecture on Nationalism, extracting excerpts from various thinkers each contradicting the other on the idea - from Diogenes to Taoists to Godwin and Rabindranath Tagore - the energy and passion with which She expounded on the subject seemed to transport her and the audience onto a zone all her own almost as if she lived the idea of anarchy and she beleived that everyone listening to her lecture shared her passion on the subject.
Annie pretty much had the audience entranced, even the most convinced Nationalist in the audience would have found a resonance in her argument on Anarchy being a better state of social existence than Nationalism.
Soon after her lecture a few eager students and media personnel chased her as she was rushing out and begged her to spare some time for their questions and Annie very reluctantly agreed - Annie was always apprehensive to talk to anonymous people, people whose views of society, religion, politics, authority or law were not clear - but somehow the people chasing her managed to corner her and she agreed to a Q & A
Journalist 1 : Hi Annie, thnaks for that wonderful talk on Anarchy, will you consider that just as a lecture or is that and idea you believe in ?
Student 1 : Ma'm that was a great lecture, but please tell me are you an Anarchist ?
Journalsit 2 : What do you think will be the fall out of a soceity devoid of a Nation ? Of an identity ? How can alien humans belonging to different geographic, social, racial, religious thinking accept and agree to welcome another human of contrasting ideas into his / her home ? If you have a home will you allow me who does not agree with your thought to live in your house ?
The questions were rapid, Annie was hearing them out with calm & patience - She was a rebel and an intellectual / social vagabond ( with four broken marriages across four continents ) and so for her it was not a problem handling chaos.
She first allowed all the Media people and the Students to throw all that they wanted to ask her and then decided that it was best that She addressed all the questions thrown at her through one common answer and so she replied -
So what according to you is a Nation ? And what do you think is the purpose it serves ? according to me a Nation is a cannibal and it can devour it's own patriots creating a frenzy around its own importance, the idea of a Nation can be usurped, hijacked and or condemned depending on its state of being, so according to me true Nationalism is a myth, most of what we believe as Nationalism are ideas that we are made to believe, none of it is really our own idea.
So saying she left .
Annie was giving a lecture on Nationalism, extracting excerpts from various thinkers each contradicting the other on the idea - from Diogenes to Taoists to Godwin and Rabindranath Tagore - the energy and passion with which She expounded on the subject seemed to transport her and the audience onto a zone all her own almost as if she lived the idea of anarchy and she beleived that everyone listening to her lecture shared her passion on the subject.
Annie pretty much had the audience entranced, even the most convinced Nationalist in the audience would have found a resonance in her argument on Anarchy being a better state of social existence than Nationalism.
Soon after her lecture a few eager students and media personnel chased her as she was rushing out and begged her to spare some time for their questions and Annie very reluctantly agreed - Annie was always apprehensive to talk to anonymous people, people whose views of society, religion, politics, authority or law were not clear - but somehow the people chasing her managed to corner her and she agreed to a Q & A
Journalist 1 : Hi Annie, thnaks for that wonderful talk on Anarchy, will you consider that just as a lecture or is that and idea you believe in ?
Student 1 : Ma'm that was a great lecture, but please tell me are you an Anarchist ?
Journalsit 2 : What do you think will be the fall out of a soceity devoid of a Nation ? Of an identity ? How can alien humans belonging to different geographic, social, racial, religious thinking accept and agree to welcome another human of contrasting ideas into his / her home ? If you have a home will you allow me who does not agree with your thought to live in your house ?
The questions were rapid, Annie was hearing them out with calm & patience - She was a rebel and an intellectual / social vagabond ( with four broken marriages across four continents ) and so for her it was not a problem handling chaos.
She first allowed all the Media people and the Students to throw all that they wanted to ask her and then decided that it was best that She addressed all the questions thrown at her through one common answer and so she replied -
So what according to you is a Nation ? And what do you think is the purpose it serves ? according to me a Nation is a cannibal and it can devour it's own patriots creating a frenzy around its own importance, the idea of a Nation can be usurped, hijacked and or condemned depending on its state of being, so according to me true Nationalism is a myth, most of what we believe as Nationalism are ideas that we are made to believe, none of it is really our own idea.
So saying she left .
Annie's Story will soon be a Web series !
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