Dear Jeyamohan,
Hope you are taking enough rest after the America trip.
When a man reaches a certain threshold of popularity, his voice gains power to have an influence in current politics/policies, however tiny an influence it might be.
You have undoubtedly crossed the threshold of that popularity, and I know you don’t involve yourselves in current politics in public forums. I understand you would have convincing justifications why it is the correct approach.
For comparison, Albert Einstein was relatively away from associating himself with any religious/political cause. But after he gained enough popularity, he says, he faced a moral obligation to talk for the fellow humans of his time, even if it meant it caused trouble to what he really wanted to be spending his time on—doing research. So he voiced his opinions a lot on political aspects.
I am curious if you ever felt that kind of moral obligation towards fellow humans to have an immediate impact on their lives. If you had, how have you overcome that?
My assumption here is that all the great work you are doing will benefit our children and grandchildren, but not necessarily the current generation. And to have any immediate impact on the current generation voicing political issues is one of the effective ways.
I also understand involving oneself with the political side will have a huge impact on other work, which could be a bad tradeoff.Please correct me if this assumption is wrong.
How did you come to a conclusion to focus on the future generation and leave the current generation… Actually, as I was typing this sentence, I remembered, in one of your videos, you said, I am paraphrasing,
“indha generation oda kadha avlo dha.. avangala kaapatha mudiyadhu, naama idhukapram vara generation ah dha sari seiya mudiyum.”
(The life of the current generation is over. We cant call them. We have to concentrate on the next generation.
So, I think I almost got my high-level answer in the last paragraph. But would like to hear about your journey on coming to a conclusion to ignore the current generation.
Thank you for everything.
Wishing you the best of health.
Regards,
Ilamparithi
London
Dear Ilamparithi,
The first thing is, I am not a ‘popular’ man or an influential personality. In Tamil Nadu, the maximum number of persons who know my name will not exceed one percent. I have no media attention, nor do politicians know my name. So, my political opinions will make no impact.
On the other hand, they may cause harm to the creative activities I am doing. Today almost all political parties have barking squads, and facing them is a big task for any individual. We have to spend our time and mental energy on the continuous slandering they create. So I never say anything political. If anything I said was political, they are part of my cultural discourses. Most of these are minor corrections or refutations of popular political propaganda. I am paying for that discourse almost every day.
You mentioned Einstein; similarly, Amartya Sen and Venky Ramakrishnan have been discussing politics and social issues in public forums, but only after they were awarded the Nobel Prize. But unlike Einstein, nobody listens to them. Their only benefit from the Nobel is that political ‘barkers’ don’t harm them.
Regarding the current generation, we are calling them incessantly, but they are not interested. Modern entertainment and social media have captivated them. So we are pinning hope on the next generation.
Jeyamohan
