Securing the Rights of Tamils: Six Arguments Tamils Must Start Avoiding Now

Hello World,

The entire nation is reeling under the clutches of a fascist right-wing regime since 2014 and the developments so far has been disastrous for the entire population. While the racist right-wing supporters disagree with any of the criticism, the more pressing issue on hand is the inability of the general population to differentiate stupidity from facts. 

My focus is more asserted when it comes to the same inability of my fellow Tamils. When I put together my observations of the arguments my fellow Tamils presented, I see an alarmingly dangerous trend of Tamils skipping the essentials in arguments. The way I see it, it is the inability to establish a negotiation table and debate the needs that is keeping Tamils away from securing their rights. Here, I present my observations of the Six Arguments that we Tamils must avoid so, in the long run we evolve as a community of levelheaded individuals who can stand up for themselves and secure the rights they truly deserve.

Before we begin, I think, setting up the context for this discussion to put things in perspective is in order. We need to start somewhere, and I am not attracted towards anything beyond the Graham’s Hierarchy of Arguments (or Disagreement) for a valid starting point. The western thinking hats is another approach I wouldn’t discount but for the purposes of this discussion, I believe Graham’s Hierarchy does the job of taking us to a relevant ground zero. We might as well begin.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Graham%27s_Hierarchy_of_Disagreement.svg

Refuting the central point, which in other words, disproving the basic premise with facts remains the highest form of argument as per Graham’s hierarchy given above.

Since we are discussing how Tamils can enhance their opportunities to debate right and secure their rights, Tamils who do not read and/or write English are ineludible. My observations indicate that those Tamils who are not very comfortable understanding English tend to ignore anything and everything in English and in the process become easy victims of schemes targeted against them as most of its details is not available in any language other than English. This, therefore, demands that in all fairness we present at least one helping hand to integrate the Tamils who are not necessarily comfortable with English content. I had made a crude attempt at translating the Graham’s Hierarchy of Arguments (Disagreements) here:

Graham’s Hierarchy of Arguments does present the crux of the discussion and clearly indicates what needs to be prioritized over the others. Our focus, however, is to investigate what we need to stop doing.

1. Never Ending Trip to the Next Station

If that is the case, then this is even better. Do you know that?

When we train ourselves to not tolerate loss, we grow ourselves a handicap of avoiding all circumstances that we perceive as a potential ‘loss.’ The consequence is that we gain a new habit of skipping the games we are not sure about winning. When this translates into our response to any argument, what we deliver is a brand-new argument instead of a counter to the one we are facing. What ensues is a never-ending loop of us saying something different from the other person migrating from argument to argument to find the one where the other debater doesn’t say anything.

2. Perception of 'No Counter' as a WIN

I shut them up. It means I put them in place and therefore I win.

The absence of a counter argument is not always a consequence of a better argument. It is also a case of the other debater choosing not to respond to stupidity. If it is a genuine case of the other debater not knowing much, he/she would ask probing questions to better understand the premise and the details. Perceiving silence as a ‘give up’ indicates the inability to identify the best option by eliminating the less relevant. It also means there is a lack of ability to investigate one’s own faults. Both inabilities are built on the core inability of not being able to reason with anything. People also refuse to debate a real logic within a creative bubble. There will remain no point in building an argument within a made-up story. The entire argument will be a waste of everyone’s time. When the rights of real people are in danger, why on earth should anyone be debating creative compositions?

3. Consideration of Everything as a Reason

As per Your Words, I am Right

A very popular one, especially among enthusiastic eleven year old’s. However, as grim as it may seem, this nonsense gets indoctrinated at a very tender age and for many of us, it becomes a habit that never leaves. We adults need to use our basic cognitive abilities to come up with logic and reason to support what we say. It is ok to feel the urge to claim us being right about something, but we need to allow our neurons to do their job, however uneasy it may seem to be. Not claiming being right is way better than saying ‘As per your words, I am right.’ This form of argument lets the other person know that we lack the abilities of a thirteen-year-old and our core specialization is restricted to that of an eleven year old. No offence intended towards the eleven year old's. Also, when we use what others are saying as the basis, we are rendering ourselves vulnerable to what we perceive as popular opinion. In such circumstances, as long as we are convinced with something as a popular opinion, we stop arguing and submit. 

4. The Idea of Everyone Saying It

Everyone believes and accepts this except a few. So, this must be true.

Do you remember ‘sati’? A religion driven tradition of burning women along with their dead husbands used to exist in this part of the world. At that time, everyone believed it, accepted and did say, “That’s the tradition we follow.” Succumbing to this perceived-mass-approval psychology renders our cognitive abilities stunted to say the least. When the understanding becomes ingrained into one’s personality, their ability to argue becomes stunted too. If we allow ourselves to fall into this perceived-mass-approval trend, we force ourselves to believe in this mirage that dictates the idea of falling in line with everything that appeals to us as ‘what everyone agrees with.’ Our argument in that mode will almost always be driven by conformity as opposed to the otherwise original way driven by reason and logic backed by facts. By looking for what everyone else is saying, we are essentially showing ourselves out of the argument.

5. Passion for the Absence of a Popular Acknowledgement

There is no report indicating or saying the same. Therefore, this view needs to be ignored.

Remaining in an argument is elementary and that makes it top priority if there is an intent of arriving at a conclusion. Please note, solution and conclusion are very different entities. As for this discussion, we will keep ourselves to the conclusion as the argument remains the means to that. When we build an argument, be it the initiation or the counter, if we must rely on exclusion of a denial as the basis for approval, we are committing ourselves to the converse of the perceived-mass-approval psychological trends. While this is at one end of the stupidity spectrum, what lies at the other end is even more deeply disturbing. If someone is insistent on extending such a debate, then that is an indication of two possibilities; One being the deliberate intent to distract attention towards insignificance (as a means of short-term escape) and the other being outright stupidity. The world can do without both.

6. Reliance on the Studies that Don’t Exist

Studies show that meat eaters are rude. Yeah, that’s how it is.

The world can also do without the studies that don’t exist. How will food choices define the personality of a human being? Basing an opinion on a study is increasingly becoming a popular trend and every time someone starts their argument with the phrase ‘studies suggest” the immediate response is almost always an approval. However, nobody seems to be asking what study is being referred to and who documented it under what circumstances and for what objective. The consequence of this trend is that arguments are being framed based on unnamed studies being the facts behind them. When we use such a secretive study that we haven’t seen and/or verified, we train ourselves to become victims of deliberate fake arguments thrown at us. When someone with real intent of preventing an argument from proceeding further, they would likely use this tactic and if we remain conditioned in this regard, we will silently accept it, not realizing, we have been sidelined on purpose. Try looking up the recent ongoing efforts to rewrite our history and you will see the development of such studies to be shown when anyone might ask for the study that supports a crooked view. When someone is trying to rewrite history, their ulterior motive is to establish a specific hold over cultures. When we hold on to the argument pattern of relying on studies, we remain ineligible to counter such arguments aiming at establishing a uniform culture, destroying many in the process.

6. Everything as a Consequence of Culture

This is what we were doing thousands of years ago. Therefore, this is best for us and this must remain a standard for all.

Culture is a consequence. It is as simple as that. That precisely is also why cultures tend to evolve over time. This ends up rendering rights as wrongs and those important as insignificant, among the other million possible changes, all over time. One example is public transport rendering caste-based hatred insignificant (to a very large extent). Once upon a time people of a certain class/group would only be allowed to travel together on the bullock carts or even sit together on the bench at a tea shop. In came the buses, trams and trains and now we sit based on the seat number our ticket says and not based on ethnic or economic class definitions. This brings us to the point where we must realize that presenting an argument based on culture should accommodate a fair element of ambiguity and variance, failing which the argument becomes insignificant. Remember, slavery, sati, female infanticide and racism were part of the culture, and sadly some of these persist in many parts of the world including Tamilnadu. However, they cannot be accepted as a consequence of culture for further social, legal and political conformity. Building arguments justifying opinions and actions in today’s time referring to culture can be dangerous, especially when we argue in defense of what is against the concept of humanity. Such an argument presenting the idea of something being right on account of it being the consequence of culture indicates the lack of ability to reason on the basis of facts from the past and their validity within the society with respect to which the argument is primarily being built. The consequence of this broken argument format is that the victims can easily be convinced with anything as long as the argument refers to culture, irrespective of it being real and/or logical. Looking at this from the other direction, when we rely on cultural definition for support of our opinion, we open the door for any counter opinion which can easily be floated as ‘also based on culture’ and as long as the counter argument refers to a claim of a superior culture, then we are forced to stand down. We don’t have to and we shouldn’t. However, it is impossible if we remain in approval of such an argument based exclusively based on an illusionary cultural consequence.

How Tamils Remain at the Losing End

Since we have accommodated diverse cultures along with ourselves, we have benefitted by learning from the diversity and have been contributing to the cultures which have mingled with us all along. The southern half of India is way better economically in comparison to the northern half and diversity is the main reason for this. However, every contribution comes at a set of costs, some of which are overhead. One of those, in this case, is that, we now have, staunch supporters of inhuman policies and practices largely lobbying for the implementation of the right-wing propaganda. The consequence is that their efforts take away the rights of people in many circumstances and almost always, it is the Tamil right that gets dropped, ignored or outright violated. That is not the problem though. Please do not mistake this for a reason to develop any retaliatory hatred. Hate, be it preemptive or retaliatory, is not going to deliver any value. The problem I am referring to is the rising trend of silence against such efforts that do not care about violating the rights of Tamils. Those who remain silent are either open supporters of the Hindutva right wing or those who have the habit of building insignificant arguments mentioned above. This section of the population includes Tamils as well.

Setting Up The Right Markers for Historical Epochs 

Anytime in the far future, say 100 years from now, for instance, the welfare of Tamils will remain dependent on relevant political and intellectual history of Tamils taken up from select historical epochs. Given the current rise of the right wing hindutva propaganda, it is about time we Tamils establish a few such relevant epochs, the political and social responses of which will come up during the recall in the far future, hopefully enabling us to stand up for our rights including our strong resolve to protect those around us irrespective of them being Tamil or not. We need to exist and we need to remain protected from danger to be in a state of well being that can allow us to pursue the safety of all those around us as dictated by our Thirukural in the phrase ‘Pirappokkum Ella Uyirukum.’ However, we can only exist and remain in good well being when we establish the right formats of political and intellectual history which in other terms translates to what we do right now. There is no better time than now, to set the epochs right for the future.

Tamils need to counter the right wing hindutva terrorism head on and it cannot happen without debating the making and workings of the right wing. The Tamil proletariat is slowly succumbing to organized economic exploitation and cultural oppression by anti-Tamil entities ranging across segments. That being said, I would gently remind my fellow Tamils that the Tamil and non-Tamil bourgeoisie that is silently tolerating the said economic exploitation and cultural oppression of the Tamil proletariat remain the stronger source of evil as they remain in close proximity to us, most of them being amongst us as well. Just because they speak Tamil doesn’t mean they have to care for Tamil and in many cases, much to my surprise, those who are Tamil themselves remain ignorant of the violation of the rights of Tamils.

I am not sure what will bring the real issues to the attention of people. Nobody seems to care when North Madras is suffering. Should Nanganallur also burn before people agree that we have a problem at hand? May be Mylapore, Mandaveli and Mambalam can get added to such a disaster and then people start noticing the violation of Tamil rights. This is a violent thought but inevitable now. However, I do not see this as a reasonable basis for any further statement. Again, I am not sure if such an argument is even valid in the first place.

That precisely is my point at this juncture. We Tamils need to form the right arguments and we need to revisit our methods of argument to begin with. The Tamil proletariat has to understand that the ownership of Tamilnadu is slowly leaving the Tamils as the very basis of political constitution which might support the safety of Tamils is slowly succumbing to the competition of the right wing propaganda and much worse, the Tamil and Non-Tamil bourgeoisie is tolerating it. This brings up the question of why a common, collective ownership of Tamilnadu cannot be established with the inclusion of Tamils in a state of equality, despite the Tamils being open to non-Tamil cultures?

The answer could me many and in many perspectives. What remains unchanged is that we Tamils are failing to raise the right questions as we are failing to build the right arguments. While there can be a million ways to form the right argument, at this juncture, we need to stop building the wrong arguments. What I have here are merely six such arguments Tamils should stop using in order to create an atmosphere for any possible solution. Solutions are possible when we have the appropriate conclusions. Appropriate conclusions are only possible when they are derived from relevant, correct arguments. Given the current circumstances, there is a dearth of appropriate conclusions and therefore there is no atmosphere for any solution for Tamils and Tamilnadu.

Tamils need to argue hard and fast to secure their rights and it is more of a negotiation in the democratic context. For any such negotiation to sustain, there needs to be a negotiation table with one seat for the Tamils. If Tamils are going to leave the negotiation table as a result of incorrect arguments they place or the perception of the non-existent win in the argument, then the other party need not worry about building their side of the argument. Tamils’ ignorance must come to a hard stop and it must happen now. The question then remains:

Can the Tamil proletariat’s fight for their rights, though greatly undermined, yet a form of resurrection of Tamil Marai as prescribed by Thirukural, pass on strongly from the intelligent minority to the ignorant majority within Tamilnadu, in the form of strong, relevant arguments?

Regards,