Transcending conventional methods
Our hope of changing the world has to transcend conventional methods, writes Amira Ali, if we want to create a world for our children in which they are able to live, to grow and ‘become their best possible selves’. This will not happen, muses Ali, ‘unless, we are transformed, re-developed and renewed’. The alternative is to turn ‘our backs on atrocities and malaise, contributing to the cataclysms of the world and succumb to the spiritual hollowness of our lives.’
If we are poignant by hardened images and ideas represented by words – euphemisms – our hope of changing the world has to transcend conventional methods.
At the limits of our historical context, we can think outside the system that define us, decide to arm ourselves with our unshakable truth and faith in humanity knowing that it is more important than power; even with doubt of knowing that some are more powerful beyond measure, by transcending what detains us the most, ‘fear’.
Still, we can recreate ourselves to become the kind of humanist who bypasses conventional traditions and approaches, employing instead an eclectic blend with the knowledge and awareness of our own self. Realising and allowing our light to shine and allowing it to transcend, first on ourself, and then building the capacity of compassion to offer strength to others, to see their light.
This will require wisdom, and thus, wisdom demands perspective, with the keen insight that the evolution of the world has not modified the balance of power. And through all the labyrinth and intricacies of our new world, as inhabitants of it we have an obligation to understand it and take all measures to make an attempt to change it for the better.
The alternative is to live life filled with contradictions and seemingly senseless juxtapositions, allowing it to go on the way that it always has, turning our backs on atrocities and malaise, contributing to the cataclysms of the world and succumb to the spiritual hollowness of our lives. For to be satisfied with mere moral condemnation would simply be a mistake.
If we choose not to accept and prefer to be of service to our world we have to recognise the global scenarios; understanding the real social injustice from a geopolitical and social perspective, and how it affects our culture and identity.
Through understanding, the operative principle is to open up avenues for real truth and openness, for we have entered an era, in this global world, where one needs to be courageous to speak the truth. But, with relentless truth and belief in humanity we ought to seek optimal solutions that will assert fairness and equality, rather than use it merely for propaganda and self-promotion purposes.
For to change the face of the world, namely consciousness, is power. Realising that, as described in Vincent Harding's picturesque language, there is a world waiting for us; indeed, many worlds await us. One is the world of our children, not yet born, or just beginning, but wanting to live, to grow, to become their best possible selves.
This will not happen unless, we are transformed, re-developed and renewed. The future of our children depend upon these rigorous transformations.
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* Amira Ali holds an MA in international relations and conflict resolution. She is a freelance writer, poet and activist.
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