My Way. My life. My Yuvalution.
-By Charu Puri
The salmon in its rebellious journey upstream, changes color, the brilliance of which increases as it reaches its destination. The predators downstream are fewer, and the going with the flow easier but it defies Piscean laws and goes upstream. When a fish with no backbone shows such pluck, it becomes incumbent upon humans to take charge of their lives.” My life. My way. My yuvalution” suggests the right for freedom, which if denied will lead to revolution .In this article we explore revolution through the ages and the need for revolution and its importance for personal freedom.
Blast from the past
When it comes down to revolt, the quest for personal freedom, how much has society really progressed or are we just selling old wine in a new bottle. India became independent in 1947, but is now bonded again by corruption, terrorism and poverty. When we find ourselves exasperated by these situations, do we stand up? If the media is anything to go by, we debate heatedly but to no avail. Where are the Bhagat Singhs that laid down their lives to fight for their right? Laughingly, they exist in movies like rang de basanti.
Students often moan about learning history, but, should you choose to do so it is a veritable guide to success. We have our specific goals, a vision and the desire to not get bogged down by societal norms. When our freedom to exercise free will is challenged that is when these individualistic goals merge into collectivistic rebellion. On a fateful day in July when French peasants stormed the Bastille, Louis XVI asked an informer “Is it a revolt?” the informer replied “No, Sire, it’s a revolution.” Merely raising our voice is not enough, we need to take action, we need to send our metaphoric aristocrats to a virtual guillotine. We need to change.
Change before you have to
A revolution is but a collective demand for change. The most glaring mistake humans make is to not anticipate change; in fact we resist it instinctively. Lewin suggested that we need to unfreeze our thoughts, challenge the existing state of things, if we need to change. Youth has the advantage of passion, of flexibility, which are the very cornerstones of change.
In the previous US presidential elections, a nation reeling from the impact of lack of foresight was swayed by the promise of change. Although he gets flak for not meeting promises, he put up his hand to save a tottering economy. If we dissect his presidency we will see many subtle measures towards change, a crucial requirement for a country stuck in its past glory. It is the case of the complacent hare that did not see the tortoise coming. But it is the age old problem of getting stuck in a rut, of letting rationality overpower the desire to revolt.
Freudian slip
We try to suppress the rebel in us. That pesky teenager that wants to live life on his own terms intrudes our minds and conversations sometimes. That naïve, idealistic teen that wants that wants to accomplish his dreams and cares about setting the wrong right. He gets weighed down by the odds and compromises and becomes an adult. The teenager who envisaged greatness dreams about it, talks about it but does not do anything about it. But our subconscious manifests in our thoughts and beliefs which enters our conversation.
Eventually there comes somebody who challenges the societal beliefs and the teen in us rises again. Sigmund Freud wrote “A civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence”. We need to revolt because we need natural justice to prevail. Last year the world saw the revolutionary whirlwind sweep the globe. The downfall of dictators, organized virtual revolutions, the triumph of freewill were the result of yuvalution. Somewhere in the world a mini revolution is taking place, do we have the courage to fight for our rights? Ironically for there to be freewill for an individual, a collective uprising is required.
Poetic JusticeThe onset of revolution is mostly the initiative of a single person, whether it is a frail 74 year old man going on a hunger strike against corruption, or the son of Russian peasants who lifted the iron curtain from his nation.
A revolution may just be an improvement like the green revolution, or the fight of a man against himself like Professor John Nash who gave the world game theory despite suffering from schizophrenia. It may be the David and Goliath story of Erin Brockovich’s quest for uncovering the fraud committed by a powerful organization, or the story of one of the greatest cyclists in the world who did not give into cancer but chose to livestrong. In true Darwinian fashion it is the survival of the fittest, of people who chase their dreams to get their way, which if denied needs a yuvalution. It is the journey towards change for personal freedom, but like all great journeys, it needs the first step, the will to want things your way.