Tomorrow will mark an important day in my life: I will attend my last undergraduate college course. After noon tomorrow, I will only have a handful of finals to complete and then will declared an official undergraduate of UND. I was reflecting today about my four years in school and if there is one thing I have learned it's that things aren't always what they seem.
An example of this is one that I came across today when reading an article about India in this weeks issue of Newsweek. After a little research on the India Independence movement (led by world's foremost saint Gahndi) I was shocked to find out what followed the indpendence of India from colonial Britian. The usual story of Gahndi goes something like this: Gahndi led the movement for Indian independence from the totalitarian grip of the evil, tyrannical, Anglo-Saxon, Britian. Because of his protest and teachings, India finally won its independence and Britian was defeated. However if one digs deeper, the story becomes much more interesting. Churchill supported the so-called "home rule" of India, but didn't believe they were capable of doing so at that given time. He called India a "geographical expression" rather than a country--highlighting the fact that there were so many opposing factions within India that any sort of movement toward independence would ultimatelty lead to bloodshed and civil war. He was exactly right. After the British handed rule over to India (splitting the area into modern day India and Pakistan) an estimated 1 million people died as a result of a bloody civil war between the secular and Muslim forces within India. It's one of the most ironic events in world history: a non-violent man's quest for independence is realized, and what follows is the death of 1 million of the recently liberated.
Things aren't always as black and white as we would like them to be. I guess that's just the kind of world we live in. It seems that every college grad leaves school thinking of some way they are going to "change the world." Or at least that's what we are supposed to feel anyway. In high school we were greeted everyday with a sign in the main hallway that quoted Gandhi as saying "Be the change you want to see in the world." However, after leaving the hallways of that school fours years ago I can honestly say the question needs to asked "Do we really want to change the world?" As shown above, change can be a deadly thing.
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2 comments:
I attended the University of Montana and received a degree in journalism. My first job was at a weekly newspaper in Beach, ND...not exactly the dream job but it was a start. I learned more about journalism in the first six months of my job than I ever did at college. Don't be surprised if you, like me, feel that college simply helped you get a job in your field, but the real learning occurs on the job.
i would argue that bloodshed and civil wars are not change, or atleast not in any way a "changed" vehicle for a people's revolution. it would be quite a change to see a truely "civil" revolution.
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