Friday, July 11, 2014

Expecto Patronum

I got stumbled upon what people shared on their social media, especially during the presidential election campaign in my country since last month. I'm an apathy person for any political issues since the start of reformation era in my country (late 90's). But this year election was indeed different, because it's kinda look like the present vs the past.

It's the first time I got excited for this democratic party and I put so much interest for the candidates, until... it got worse. Short story, the supporters for both candidates started to share negative and black campaigns towards each other. I mean.. come on, nobody's perfect but can we just pointed out the good in them without playing dirty tactics? It's made me remember why I hate politics so much in the first place.


One thing that I didn't realize on that time was all those negative news, fierce competition, bad assumptions, provocative words have gradually tore myself down. It's so hard to keep your mind in positive state when you're surrounded by loud 'dementors'. As an introvert,  I dislike conflict and honor harmony. So yes, those dementors absorbed my precious (limited) energy and cast away my happy thoughts. Should I shout my patronus charm everytime I checked my social media (and even group chat)? The worst thing was there were also some people who stand in between, claimed not to vote, but always degrading both candidates. They-were-not-helping-at-all. WHY PEOPLE, WHY?


I also raised my eyebrows for some of my close friends who publicly support one of the candidates who (imho) has a 'questionable' track record in his career. I was wandering for about two or three weeks and thought "how come they don't see what I see", "it's an easy and clear choice, how come they choose the other side", "I don't get the reasons, all of their reasons are invalid", and so on. I also started to judge their logic and assumed they're not as good or smart as I thought.

Then... BAM! I realized that I didn't want to open my eyes and ears because I was pretty sure that I spoke up for the right side, but unknowingly the dementors has succeed dragging me to the real dark side. I've become the worst version of myself and I couldn't help but felt guilty about it.


So, on the last week of the campaign period, I chose to step back. The last few days before the election day, with the help of Mr. Google, I tracked back the 'black' history, read any news also gathered facts as many as I could, and put myself in neutral side (even though I wasn't a swing voter) in order to quench my curiosity and answered all of my questions. In the end, I found that there's no white or black side, it's all grey. We didn't know the truth if we don't directly involved in certain situations. People can interpret one thing into hundred different versions or views.

Suddenly, I remember the debate between Phoebe and Ross about evolution in one of Friends episode. Phoebe didn't believe in theory of evolution but Ross thought it's illogical and bothered him so much so he insisted to convince her with all the facts and knowledge that he had. Then Phoebe said something about years ago scientist believed that the world was flat and atom was the smallest thing on the planet until they found new facts. She asked Ross why he was so unbelievably arrogant that he couldn't admit  that there's a teeny tiny possibility that he could be wrong about the evolution theory. Phoebe was just being Phoebe, but she had a good point :)


THANK YOU PHOEBE AND MR. GOOGLE YOU'RE MY HERO! ^^

To wrap up everything, I have promised myself to:
-be curious, not judgmental
-appreciate and respect other people's choice
-believe what I believe in without lowering the opposite's point of view
-keep my mind always open
(Dear God, help me~)


Anyway, the 'competition' is not over yet. Another issue has arisen after the election day ended two days ago. To save myself, I pull myself out from society for a while but still catching up with the recent news. I'm still open for fun discussion though.

Wish all of you have a great weekend while listening to this peaceful song :) Ciao!



(i found all the quotes and pictures from pinterest)

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