Of self-righteousness and glass stomachs

Before I begin to scratch viciously at the latest irritant to cause me to itch, I would like to direct your attention to the following blog:
The Self Proclaimed Little Indian

Without the shadow of a doubt, the specimen involved in creating and putting up that collection of writing, seems to be doing a thorough job in keeping tabs on the latest news from Kashmir. Additionally, said specimen also seems intent on disseminating information and recommending other reading that visitors to his/her blog can explore. All good so far. There are a number of people — members of non-government organisations, journalists, veterinarians, lawyers etc etc. — who are similarly passionate about causes and do what they can to enlighten people.

And then there are those others — I will widen the net now so as to avoid making that pathetic little indian (no pun intended for that is the aforementioned specimen's moniker) the sole focus of my rant, because quite frankly, he/she doesn't deserve it. The world is packed to the rafters with self-righteous idiots whose heads are rammed so far up their own backside that they would require (and probably already possess) glass stomachs so as to be able to see the world.

What these glass tummies — yes, let's call them 'glass tummies' from this point on — fail to realise is that not everyone sprang out of the womb with full encyclopedic knowledge about everything that the glass tummies expect them to know. So for instance, glass tummy A who enjoys Jean Luc Goddard films expects the entire world to know everything about Goddard — right from the number of appearances he put into his own films to the name of the boy who brought water for Jean-Paul Belmondo on the sets of Breathless. Or take for instance, glass tummy B who runs a pretty little blog and expects everyone to know everything about Kashmir, to have spoken to everyone in Kashmir, to know all the stories of the dead and downtrodden of Kashmir and so on. Where did the process of learning and acquisition of knowledge go? What happened to the concept of an awakening?

This whole air of superiority, of "I know everything and you know squat — you should know everything or you're not worth my time" is not only sickening, but also greatly diminishes the value of their knowledge. Knowledge becomes more valuable when it is shared. It also undergoes a hell of a lot of sharpening, in terms of accuracy when it is subjected to scrutiny AFTER sharing it. So, to the glass tummies of the world, I say, keep your take on the 'knowledge' you claim to possess. No one wants it, especially if it's doled out by the likes of you.

Pleasantly enough, that's killed most of the ire that was percolating inside me and aimed at the glass tummies. All but one, that is. Mr/Miss little indian states on his/her blog that:
" To all bloggers
who disagree with my opinion on this issue,
please voice your opinion, your contradictions on your own blogspage.
Arguing on a comments section simply becomes lost from most readers view."

So basically, your blogspace is some sacred place, where your logic — as twisted, elitist and dicktatorial (typo?) it may seem, is gospel truth and may not be argued against or scrutinised. Symptom of a glass tummy, if I ever saw one. But, your privacy is your own personal choice and I respect that, which is why I dearly hope you can take the time to drag your self-consumed posterior to a new browser, thereby tearing yourself away from your beloved blog and read this.

Next up, said little indian goes on at one point to claim:

"No, I cannot have respect for anyone who can make such an important statement without a fair and balanced assessment or judgement of facts and the truth."
This statement is later followed up by some bull-honkey (God bless the Simpsons) about evidence and how he/she had all this evidence lined up.

What evidence are you talking about? There isn't a shred of evidence on your post, whether statistics or official reports or anything. And let's get one thing nice and clear, there is no fair and balanced assessment in the poppycock you are peddling — that's for damn sure!

My patience wears out and so I'll draw to a close now with this person's ridiculously paranoid and deluded ramblings about propaganda:
"What you write here proves the power of good propaganda. You will never see the truth, for you will never seek the truth you will only believe what you have been told to believe and will not independantly (sic) explore the facts and events of history to form an INFORMED OPINION."

Yes, Zach de la Rocha, preach on! Sadly, apart from sounding like lyrics from a Rage Against the Machine song, you sound like a Michael Moore-esque twit who thinks the whole world is out to wipe you out in your sleep. Why don't you take a cue from your own advice and create an informed opinion of your own, rather than continuing on your "Everything's so messed up! No one but me knows anything and only I understand their pain and it's all your fault" trip. Grow up.

And finally:
"I am sorry, on issues of importance of such severe magnitude, where thousands have been killed, or raped or ethnically cleansed, I do not let emotions cloud my judgement, and I will not even consider “…where the person is coming from, and where his or her emotions stem from"

You are right. I concede. The issue of Kashmir and the unimaginable atrocities being committed there are certainly worrisome. Human right's violations, human exploitation and violent brutality are rife there and in our present political climate (spanning 1947 to date) and for the foreseeable future, there IS no solution to the Kashmir issue. That is where I cease to agree with you. I'm not even going to bother going into your ludicrous "I do not let emotions cloud my judgement" remark or your immature inconsideration for where people are coming from. That's cool — your life, your prejudices.

I will however say this and it is upto you whether you wish to take the message or not:

There is no clear and objective information about the Kashmir region.

All info emanating from that area is encoded and sent out by some stakeholder in that region, whether an army official, a victimised resident, a "terrorist", a separatist, a person crying out for independence etc. The point is EVERYONE has their own biases and their own agendas, so there is no way one can claim to possess facts, unless one has actually been on all sides of the equation and looked at Kashmir from all the angles. So you see, little indian, perspective is of paramount importance. Knowing where everyone is coming from is vital to finding an answer to this situation. Crying about propaganda isn't the solution... jackass!