Challenge of Understanding the Other Side

This weekend, I watched a movie, "300: Rise of an Empire" at the theater. We left in the middle of the movie. It was cliche, the usual war between good and evil. And predictably, the Persians were portrayed as devils using black magic to cheat the war against the alliance of Greek city-states.

I learned that there is a recent controversy in Iran about how Hollywood portrays Persians in the movies. It makes me question about a lot of things, both current and past, we know in this popular culture and how much of our knowledge and understanding is close to the truth.

When I thought about Myanmar history, it's all about history of kings, and rise and fall of kingdoms and empires. I never came across the accounts of common people in those times, and what they truly thought of the king and the events of those times. And the historian who wrote and recorded the account of the king's era was likely to be under the service of that king. So definitely, he wouldn't dare to say anything bad about that despot and his actions.

I went to a liberal arts college in the U.S. where we learned different range of disciplines covering science, social science and humanities. I really enjoyed it because classes were mostly about exploring, analyzing, discussing and debating issues rather than trying to come to absolute right or wrong answers. But still, all of my five political science classes, we dismissed communism easily. We didn't discuss much about it. We didn't try to understand the arguments communism makes even though it was the ideology that challenged the world once.

When I first read the article on xojane about the Duke porn star, like many others', my reaction was pretty strong and very judgmental of her. I refused to really understand what she was talking about because I had prejudice against sex on the camera. I couldn't try to understand the argument because of the stigma we often associate with sex. But, I obsessively followed so many articles about her - both arguments on pros and cons. I struggled for a long time, asked myself so many questions and made various arguments about feminism vs female sexuality, issues about sex workers and morality. What she did good was opening up the dialogue about our views on sex workers and speaking up for those sex workers who have been long silenced due to the social stigma.

It is much easier to portray history, ideologies and people in black and white, or good and evil. Many of us are guilty of falling into stereotype/generalization traps. But in reality, people are very complex, and historical events and ideologies that result from actions and understandings of these people are likely to be quite paradoxical as well.

That's why a wise friend once said that, "there are three sides of the story - my side, your side and the truth."

In the attempt to show various sides of the story, "Game of Thrones", both book and TV series, is pretty good. I get to see the events from perspectives of different people - nuances of each person's actions and their struggle to be wise and honorable in various occasions. Some characters who you consider just and honorable could also do something unwise. Some dishonorable person is also capable of doing something really noble and wise.

Sometimes, I get really frustrated wondering, "Am I ever gonna "fully" understand something or someone, even myself in this lifetime? Or Should I just give up trying to understand at all?" I guess what matters is openness - openness to listen to other opinions that are opposed to mine and to engage in dialogues, even if it's sometimes difficult and uncomfortable. I'm not going to be fully successful in it. But, I think it's good knowing that I tried and made some progress.

Photo Credit: actstraining