OD2017-18: Contemporary Debates and Mario Vargos Llosa

Contemporary Debates and Mario Vargos  Llosa

Liberalism simply means ‘freedom’. As Mario Vargos points in his talk concerning liberalism that “Liberalism defends some basic Ideas: Freedom, individualism, the rejection of collectivism and Nationalism- in other words, all the ideologies or doctrines that limit or annihilate freedom within Society”.
                                                        

LAUREN BACALL , the famous Hollywood star observed that “being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you are liberal. You do not have a small mind…I’m total, total, and total liberal and proud of it”. But today while liberalism thriving in Hollywood, lights are going out in Bollywood. Shahrukh khan, the once out spoken bearer of liberal discourse, has vowed to keep his opinion to himself and not comment on especially on political and religious issues, after blundering into too many controversies. “Unfortunately, because of the reaction I get when I answer something political or religious, I don’t think I will answer this question”, he told reporters when asked to comment on cancelation of Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali’s concert in Mumbai recently. Ditto Aamir khan, he too has gone uncharacteristically quiet after his last controversy coast him a lucrative advertising concert. (Suroor- Click here to read full article)

I do agree with his(Mario Vargos) second point as he mentioned that, “Nationalism involves a kind of Racism and Racism inevitably leads to Violence and the Suppression of Freedom”. By promoting one country or religion, you deliberately present yourself superior over other- “The not belonging group”. In between he makes a good point about literature that is, “literature and morality don’t get along. They are enemies and you have to respect literature if you believe in Freedom”.

We are living in digital era and because of social media sometimes (well, very often) reality of News gets violated. Very often we find news on social media like ‘so and so actor died’, we come to know that he/she is alive when they tweets. Same happened to me when I heard about Shree Devi’s death, I could not believe because many time I’ve came across these kinds of news about death of some stars which afterwards was proved wrong, though it was right in the case of Shree Devi. Fake news spreads very fast. We really can’t rely on one source and we have to go through some other sources to make sure whether the new is true or fake. 

Works Cited

Suroor, Hasan. "Death of Liberalism in Bollywood, The Tribune." February 10 2016. Tribune.com. Ed. Harish Khare. Indian english Daily.