“If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything”
- Malcolm X, 1960s
During the turbulence 1960s in America, racism had reached its peak. The Blacks, after being enslaved by their White masters for 400 years, has had enough. They were angry. They were sad. They want change. They want to be free from the chains of slavery that has burdened their backs for 4 centuries straight. They want to be free from senseless tortures and brutal beatings by the Whites. They want their basic constitution rights that was enshrined in their Amendments to be restored to them. They want to be recognised as human beings. And not any “Second class citizens” which is just a sugar coating for “20th Century slaves”.
Malcolm X was one of the critically outspoken, outstanding individual – he was a Civil Rights leader, championing the cause of the Black’s right. He highlighted several key issues facing the plights of his Black people during that time. And in one of his fiery speeches, he said, “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything”.
Such words indeed have profound effect on me. I must say that it all makes sense. If an individual do not believe in anything – be it his own principles in life, his gospels, his religion, his human right to freedom, his beliefs that every man and woman is equal and whatsoever good that you can think of, that poor man will fall for anything, bad.
During that time, Malcolm X was addressing the problem of racism that was rife in America. The main message was clear – the Blacks must stand up for their human rights to fight for their freedom. The first thing to be done to break that rusty old chain that has been shackling their knees was to restore their self-confidence and their dignity. And to do so, we infer back to his message, “stand for something”.
Now, the days of the tumultuous past is over – in America. Now, is a different era, a different context altogether. But, you might ask then, “Why do I bring up the past and what has it got to do with the now, the present time?”
I say to you the same thing then. That the words of Malcolm X’s should still be echoed and reiterated in today’s context. Although we are facing a different problem now, the notion still stand. In today’s era, remnants of racists ideologies or practices are still prevalent in certain countries. But, we have to take a step back and even look at the bigger picture – the world as a whole. Only then, can we discern the greater problems and the small problems facing the entire humanity today.
I did mine. I took a step back. Today, we have problems such as poverty, war crimes, inflations of economies – you can name anything else bad that you can think of. And I came to a conclusion that all the problems we are facing today are merely secondaries. They are not the root of the problems. They are merely the reactionaries, the consequences that stemmed from the root. I believe, that the real problem of today’s society as a whole is simply due to the decadence of religions in the world today. But why?
Let’s go back to basic. All religion espouses peace and harmony. They all focus on the same basic objectives – the betterment of one’s individual self. Although they all appear in different forms, the nuances are minor. At the end of the day, they all teach you to be good, courteous abiding citizens of the world and etc. Although I am simplifying religion as a whole, we all have to agree that if the religion does not teach good, then it’s not a religion, it’s a cult.
But when Man strays different from their religion, look at what it has done for us? Ideas such as Nationalism, Capitalism, Communism and all the “-isms” you can think of has created an artificial separation between Man. It drove these types of wedges between us, that we all are slowly separating from each other. People has adopted such contemporary ideas that religions have been placed aside. In fact, on a general basis, we can assume that there are 2 domains now in a person life – the “Spiritual domain” and the “Living domain”. I am not talking about any ghosts or spooks. I am referring to the person’s way of life that has been artificially classified into such ways. Man has distance themselves in such way that both tend to be contradictory. These factors that cause the decay of religions can be look in 2 ways;
Firstly, the “Spiritual domain” has been altered to fit into the “Living domain”. For example, in today’s world, everyone has become so fixated with ideas of Capitalism that it’s all about the dollars and cents. Everyone has become so materialistic that the things that we anticipate are things like i.e. the next iPhone, the next iPad, the next Playstation, the next and the next. It has become so that we are not gratified with the things we have right now. And we should be thankful for what we have but we are not. Instead, the constant inclination towards such causes the urge to “keep a lookout” and “keep ourselves up to date” and be “in fashion”. We always end up wanting more. And to have more of those things, we have to have more money. So how does Religions fit into these then? I must admit, and I hate to say it but we all have make Religion a laughing stock with our own hands. People nowadays go to pray not to seek forgiveness or contemplate on their lives. But we all tend to ask or pray for abundance of wealth, for abundance of “goodness” in this world, for abundance of comfort, for that numbers that we have placed our bets on to strike, for abundance of windfall, for longevity of health (so as to enjoy the comfort when we get old). Everything has revolve around money; that the basis of religion that should have made us to worry about how the poor around the world is doing – or need not be the poor, rather how our neighbours themselves are doing – that has all been placed aside.
Secondly, the “Spritiual domain” and the “Living domain” has been completely isolated from each other. This is the greatest contradictory in a person’s life. Today, we are seeing a lot of these problems in the world today i.e. War crimes, Injustices, Poverty and etc. For example, you can have someone who is a practicing i.e. Muslims, Buddhist or whatsoever and when ask about his view on life, he adopts a drastic perspective i.e. “Ouh, it a dog-eat-dog world out here” or “Every man is for himself”. And you always end up wondering how in the world the rich gets richer and poor gets poorer. To give is to cause one’s loss and perpetuate the possibility of another to rise and take over you. We became scared, we keep the money to ourselves and money does not circulate. The masses at the bottom will forever remain at the bottom. Then, we have to ask, “whatever happened to your religion which encourages charity?”
Finally, the “Spiritual domain” and the “Living domain” are mashed up together into one great domain. This is the most dangerous of them all. When both inter-collide and become so weld together, it will be hard to discern contemporary and religious ideologies. This is when dangerous ideologies such as Terrorism, Zionism and etc flourishes under the guise of religions to perpetuate violence. People are now killing each other in the name of god. For example, the idea of creating a Zionist regime of Israel. This, I need not say anymore for it has been said many over times by others before and now.
The Solution
The only solution I see fit to restore the whole of humanity’s condition as a whole is the alteration of the “Living domain” by using the “Spiritual domain” as its basis. This is what we all should stand up for because without it, we all will fall for anything and everything. To simplify things, if religion is good, and religion form the basis of living, then the living becomes good. If one were to really become a practicing Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Taoist, Jewish, Hindus and whatever religion that comes at the top of your head, then can you envision the world we would all be living in the world today? If we were really practicing our religion, then we would not have fallen so low now as to adopt Capitalism, Nationalism and all the “-ism”. The only thing that would have separate us now is religion. But you might say, that religion itself is THE division.
Then, I refer back to what I have said above that if Religion is good, and religion form the basis of living, then the living becomes good. If religion espouses tolerance, and religion form the basis of living, then the living becomes tolerant of each other. Then, what division are we talking about here? It’s not a division. No. At the end of the day, it’s just an identity.
In my conclusion, I have to admit that this essay falls short of a lot of things which are not properly expounded upon and certainly there are many questions left behind unanswered. I will insyaAllah, write again to cover up the empty plots and holes to make it wholesome. But, at the end of the day, my main intention is hopefully clearly translated into words that religion should play an emphasis on the people’s lives today in this contemporary world. The moment we seek to divide and separate religion as its own entity and allows it to decay, people will have nothing to fall on. All they have at the end of the day is ideologies that tend to stem from individuals or “thinkers” with vested interest. And when there are vested interests, the whole idea becomes selfish and it only seeks to propagate and promote other’s losses for one own’s gain.
- Pao, the hypocrite.
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