Human Freedom and the News - Essay Example

There is also in general a lessening of the ability that people have to air their views regarding matters of their own lives. According to humanist views t5his kind of a weakening of human agency is not desirable. There may be certain views regarding human agency that talk of the importance of the privileging of the agency of the collective over the individual; the humanist view is at the other extreme of such a view and privileges the importance of the individual’s right to decide his or her own future.

The philosophical impact of this issue involves also the ideas of equality that are put into jeopardy when the army invades the private spaces of the people who are on either side of the border. There are obviously always several sides that take up different positions as far as Indo-Pak relations are concerned. This may be due to the strategic position that both countries occupy during the present political era. Mahendra Ved’s article “India, Pakistan continue to talk through tensions” talks of the situation where there is an acceptance of the situation whereby there has been a breach in the relations between the two states that have then led to loss of freedom on both sides of the border (Ved, 2013).

However, another essay by Mohammed Iqbal talks about the condition that worsens the situation where both the countries are in denial regarding the situation and the need for talks (Iqbal, 2013). The process of talks that is to be seen as an assertion of human agency is not taken to a logical conclusion. Instead, what happens is a blunting of certain notions of agency for the other. The decision of the leaders of the state are then considered to be the ones that need to be taken into account and not those of the people of the state.

The state then becomes the main agent that destroys the force of human agency. The concepts of humanism were discussed at great length by a philosopher like Rene Descartes who felt that one needs to express a great deal of doubt regarding the philosophies that have been assigned to one by larger narratives. These metanarratives are questioned by Descartes and he advocates the use of one’s own reason for the purpose of understanding the world in general. The importance of humanist ideology in his thought can be understood from the following lines- But, to this end, it will not be necessary for me to show that the whole of these are false—a point, perhaps, which I shall never reach; but as even now my reason convinces me that I ought not the less carefully to withhold belief from what is not entirely certain and indubitable, than from what is manifestly false, it will be sufficient to justify the rejection of the whole if I shall find in each some ground for doubt (Descartes).

In the conflict that has been described above, one may wonder how humanism can be applied. The aspect of humanism that rejects any metanarrative can then be used to look at the Indo-Pak conflict. This conflict is largely created through the refusal of the two states to accept the individual agencies of the people who are a part of these nations. The state then seeks to create for the people a metanarrative that suppresses the individual narratives that are sought to be created. Such narratives are sought to be created through various means such as music, art, literature and sports.

These too are made to fall into the larger nationalist narrative as is seen in the politicization of the major