Virtual engagement on issues of social concern come with caution notes. Unless there is a followup of concrete action, reading and commenting becomes an indulgence, and actually even an
entertainment.
If I sound judgemental, I have walked on that path myself. In my twenties when I was in U.S. briefly on work, we made a 'Naramada Support Group' and wrote passionate letters to each other and the authorities that be. We drafted eloquent arguments against the dam. But it was only after I returned to India, took a train to Baroda, stayed with the people who were going to lose land and hearth, and did routine and mundane and sometimes less mundane activities there for a year - that I realized how meaningless and worse that e-engaement was.
One simply has to give of everything that is dearest to us for the cause we espouse. Otherwise virtual engagement can simple dissipate the fire that otherwise would have maybe burned in a real and strong way.
If I sound judgemental, I have walked on that path myself. In my twenties when I was in U.S. briefly on work, we made a 'Naramada Support Group' and wrote passionate letters to each other and the authorities that be. We drafted eloquent arguments against the dam. But it was only after I returned to India, took a train to Baroda, stayed with the people who were going to lose land and hearth, and did routine and mundane and sometimes less mundane activities there for a year - that I realized how meaningless and worse that e-engaement was.
One simply has to give of everything that is dearest to us for the cause we espouse. Otherwise virtual engagement can simple dissipate the fire that otherwise would have maybe burned in a real and strong way.
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