Already I have raised the all-important question that Plato asked soon after the death of his teacher Socrates. Plato asked the axiomatic question: How are we to live? This question opens us to the choices, options and possibilities of being human.
We have tried to reflect on the possibilities of being Goans at a time of Hindutva. We know that the Athenians falsely charged Socrates of corrupting the youth, when all that he did was opened a critical distance to the premises of the ruling benches of his time.
Socrates opened the mind of the youth to the critical and not just the intelligible. He led them to question the status quo. Interrogation of status quo and the power equations was then and as also today is construed as an act of corruption.
Today, dissent is not so much welcome and the dissident is labelled as anti-national, urban-naxal etc, and viewed as a danger to our society in our country. Socrates opted for critic over mere explicatory ideology that only distorts reality.
This option of critic was further sharpened by Emanuel Kant and reached its climax in Karl Marx who famously said, ‘it is not enough to explain the world but what we need is to change it’.
Socrates inaugurated the primary task of philosophy and Marx took it to a new transformative height. This means the original task of philosophy is ‘to corrupt the youth’ or challenge the status quo and bring about a transformation of our society.
Socrates was its first champion as well as its first victim. This means all thought has to produce emancipative practices. But one has to also scrutinise practices to preserve their emancipative character.
Michel Foucault brings this critical dimension to the analysis of practices and examines how they can be oppressive. Thus, in Foucault the task of philosophy seems to reach it’s full circle where effort is made to wash its stains of oppression sustained by our theory and practice.
Being Goan is a dynamic process of becoming. It is a process of letting Goa and Goanness happen to us. It is transformative by its very nature.
Hence, our Goanising has to opt for the critical over the mere intelligible. It has to carry on the Socratic task of interrogating the establishment otherwise it will degenerate and enter a phase of decadence.
But being critical is not enough. Often, it is the strength of armchair theorists/critics. Our Goaninsing is letting authentic Goa and Goan-ness happen to us. Hence, it has to be dynamic, transformative and emancipative.
We have to allow Goa to happen to us. But we cannot be passive to what may masquerade as Goan-ness without bringing the critical dimension to scrutinize it for its emancipative or oppressive potentials.
This means that all thought and practice that marks our Goan-ness and Goanising has to be constantly washed clean of any leanings and stains of oppression. We have to turn the Goan polli (chapatti) into our frying pan otherwise it will be burnt.
This means Socratic examined life has to become central to our Goanising. It assists us to determine what denudes Goan-ness and impoverishes our Goanising.
We can already trace a steady discontent haunting Goans everywhere. A sense of loss afflicts us all. Mismanagement of land, water, ecology and mineral resources has brought Goans of all walks of life on the road.
We can already trace several counterpublics (Nancy Frazer) in our society that are striving to save what is left of Goa. They work to halt the destruction of Goa and Goan-ness. The struggle for Goa and Goan-ness is an ongoing process.
Thankfully, it has become part of our Goanising in recent days. To enrich our Goanising and to instil into it an emancipative character, we have to bring to it what Alain Badoiu calls a true task of Philosophy.
For Badiou and Jacques Lacan Philosophy is an afterthought. It is a response to already reining ideas and thoughts. The ruling ideas are the ideas of the rulers (Marx) and hence we are challenged to think the (un)thought and interrogate the ruling ideas, practises and ways that adulterate our Goan-ness and pollute our Goanising.
This means, becoming Goans is an ongoing process of choosing emancipative Goanising. This would require us to mark our distance as well as fight to dismantle anti-Goa modes and processes already at play in Goa. It will involve the choice of the critical and the transformative aspects of Goanising that are profoundly emancipative. We may have to continuously follow the times tested Jesuit mode of operation that invites us to see, judge and act.
The seeing will lead us to observe the modes of Goanising that come in vogue from time to time in our society. Judging would be an ethical task that would enable us to sort the emancipative from the oppressive modes of Goanising. Acting leads us to choose the emancipative modes of Goanising.
