| There
are many things in life that we can select. For example,
as long as we have enough resources, we can select what
we eat for lunch or dinner. We can also select what
clothes to wear, books to read and car to ride. Our
resources, such as money and power, will enable us to do
that.
But there are things in
life where we don't have much freedom to select no
matter how much resources we have. The very obvious one is our parents.
One may wish to have a guy that she admires to be her
father but as long as the guy has nothing to with her
biologically, her wish is just fantasy. One may wish to
have wealthy parents, but as long as she was born and
raised by another family, her wish is nothing but empty
hope. Regardless the bulk resources one has, she can
never change such reality. The best one can do is to
accept the reality and work to serve the best interest
of herself, her parents and the people around her.
There is another thing
that we don't have much freedom in selecting what we
want: our neighbors. One may be able to choose people to
live with, get along with or associated with. But all of
them are still people, her neighbors. What I mean as
neighbors are people, not certain people who live
closely to one's home. When there is a proverb saying do
unto your neighbors what they want them to do for you,
this means that do unto all people, not only to the
people around you or your friends.
When it comes to this
matter, therefore, it becomes a binary choice, either
one lives with people or not at all. One may have
abundant resources, but one cannot choose to live with
aliens or animals without affecting her being. One may
decide to live in a jungle or an isolated island, away from human beings but
as we have seen from the movie Cast Away, what one gets
will be a total alienation.
The complexity of life
has often limited our horizon in understanding who our
neighbors are and what is the maximum that we can do for
them. Even worse, some people, not to say
majority, not only fail to understand the real meaning of
neighbors but also develop an attitude that tends to
choose who will be their neighbors. In case they cannot
choose their neighbors, they will define
who will be their neighbors and if necessary change
other people's beings to be suitable to their
definition.
The end of humanity is
if people start thinking uniformity as the golden rule
and imposing that rule to others. By thinking uniformity
as the golden rule, the person automatically defines who
will be his neighbors and who will be not. In other
words, he will build strict boundaries in his life
as to which people he can get along with and to which
people he cannot. This person not only fails to
understand the real meaning of neighbors but also falls
short to comprehend his own being.
Such ways of thinking
and life can also happen to a group of people. A group
of people can build strict boundaries and apply them to
their neighbors. Once they impose their rules strictly,
the humanity is essentially vanished. Take for example a
simple case. Once I build a boundary in which only
people who are studying economics to be my neighbors and
impose my rules to them and to the people who are not
studying economics, what my life would be? Nothing but
misery and chaos.
The problem with a very
diverse nation such as Indonesia is to find people with
great sense of humanity and unity. People tend to ignore
or less appreciate the beauty of a life when they live
in a diverse nation/society. Heterogeneity is viewed as
something that needs to be transformed into homogeneity.
This view fails to understand the fundamental need and
character of human beings: liberty and
diversity. No two
people, regardless their backgrounds, have exactly the
same character. Even if two people have the same DNA
structure, through cloning for example, they will
still have different character since they will have different
perception about life. This is a fundamental reality in
life that every one must know.
In the same spirit, no
one is willing to be a slave who does not have liberty.
This is another fundamental reality that every one must,
and most actually already, know. Therefore, when someone
imposes his rules on another person, essentially the
first person is trying to take away two of the most
fundamental realities from the latter: liberty and
diversity.
We, of course, are
living in
a real world where no one can never please everybody.
However, rules and boundaries are something that people
can make in order to promote the liberty and enhance the
mind of all people.
No rule that destroys
liberty and diversity can be called as noble rule.
When it destroys liberty and diversity, it essentially
annihilates humanity, and when it annihilates humanity,
it only brings misery and suffering. No prosperity in
such circumstances exists at all.
The future of Indonesia
will be completely determined how its people view
diversity and liberty as two fundamental realities that
need to be maintained and enhanced. Any intention and movement that
tend to destroy the two realities will result in a chaos
and misery, not only to the ones who are out of the
boundaries, but also to the whole people. The energy
required to make a universal rule to promote liberty and
enhance mindset is less compared to the energy we will spend on imposing a specific
rule for all. It's up to us, which way that we want to
develop.
We can select our
clothes for not to suffer from bad weather, but we
cannot select our neighbors without creating suffering
to all.
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