There are many popular personalities whose thoughts would really inspire one, but at the same time some thoughts will also bring instant denial; so when do one decide that someone is worth to be glorified as an inspiration; probably the time when they are so inspired and influenced that they start following blindly.
Just finished the movie 'Malcolm X' played by Denzel Washington; and like any of his movies; I found this one too has times when it seems to be showing 'larger-than-life' picture. I mean, sometimes in most of his movies, it tries to show the important event in such a dramatic way that the whole meaning and significance of the event is lost before the beaming illustation of the event portrayed.
Be-aware that this is more than 3 hours long movie and I warn for spoilers. It starts with teenage life of Malcolm X, when he was better known as Little or Red; to him being involved with a hustler, committing a burglary, caught and send to jail, all in first hour. In the second hour is his time in jail when he met so called Brother Baines (John Elton Bembry), his inclination towards Islam, devotion to Elijah Muhammad and voracious apetite for reading. Third hour actually sees the formation of Malcolm X, his growing influence across major cities but later separation with Elijah Muhammad after rumors of Muhammad's extramarital affairs and his assasinaton.
Throughout the movie my impression of Malcolm X kept changing. As movie started, to me it looked like another movie on crime in cities, black oppression and ghettos. Of course I already knew a little about Malcolm X as black leader of 60's, so I expected the movie would be more than that; but at one point it crossed my mind to switch to something else, just because of over-excessive dramatization of the events. Till that point in the movie's first hour, my impression of Little or Red was as a black guy with some sort of complex in him, that he tried every possible way to look like whites and adapt their style. He also seemed to be confused if he should feel pride or cursed for having the lighter skin and reddish black hair, which came from his Scottish maternal grand-father as her mother was born cause of a rape. He found the society seems to favor the white skin; whereas from his mother he experienced extreme hatred towards every drop of white rapist blood in them.
With movie moving on to second hour, I sure had formed little interest as how the faith of a person changes from no belief in any God, or any kind of supreme power to fervent believer of Islam. This time my impression changes that he sure had feeling of scorn and rebel against Whites, and a lack of self identity stretched between black and white community. With Brother Baines convincing him that blacks should be higher than white as first humans were black but white managed to establish their supremacy; and even for Gods, Jesus been born in Middle-East ought to be dark skinned as compared to his usual portrayal as blue eyed and light skin; and that blacks in America are originally African and Muslim first, who were brought to America and white identities were forced on them; convinced him to create an identity of himself, as Malcolm X. Even interesting is his intense devotion to Elijah Muhammad; and firm belief in views like - only solution to end the black oppression and discrimination is to have separate lands cause they can never be mixed; it seems like he has become too blind to have stopped thinking and just following the path as prophesied by Elijah Muhammad.
Even his every speech were pepped with, "The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us..". And I thought, do he keep saying that cause he is not sure about verity of Elijah Muhammad teachings and so this way tries to save himself from the blame in case turns out otherwise, or he really want to give all the credits down to him. I think, when someone is preaching, its not that much of a significance where it is learned from; but whats more important is if preacher himself has belief of its veracity and the reasons why he or anyone should believe.
After the rumors are found that Elijah Muhammad has extramarital affairs, and he himself accepts and reason them to Malcolm X; we see tensions forming between them. With the feeling of betrayal by his own people, by the same institution that he lead and realization that blacks still lack unity within themselves; he realizes his own mistake of how blind he had became. At the same time he decides to visit Mecca, Africa, and Europe where he further realizes that Muslims are not just restricted to black or Africa. Of course he must have known it before, but after the visit of Mecca, a pristine and spiritual experience and having lived and shared meal with Muslims from all across the globe, white, black, red and brown; we see the formation of new Malcolm X, now known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Malcolm X. He understood whats more necessary is not to rebel against white but first to unite his own black people. Unfortunate though, within a year from time he left the Elijah Muhammad and soon after his return, he is assasinated while preching at a Muslim Temple.
Of course fervently and blindly believing someone is wrong, everyone knows that. But are we confidant that when things are presented to us in manner that they would seems to fit exactly with our lives, with our experiences; that we would not limit our thoughts to personal knowledge, experiences and prejudices, that we will think at much higher level, at more humanitarian level, at more universal level.
I present a story told of Swami Viveknand at World Congress of Religion, Chicago, 1893 -
'... a story which would illustrate the cause of this variance. A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. Of course, the evolutionists were not there then to tell us whether the frog lost its eyes or not, but, for our story’s sake, we must take it for granted that it had its eyes, and that it every day cleansed the water of all the worms and bacilli that lived in it with an energy that would do credit to our modern bacteriologists. In this way it went on and became a little sleek and fat. Well, one day another flog that lived in the sea came and fell into the well.
"Where are you form?"
"I am from the sea."
"The sea! How big is that? Is it as big as my well?" and he took a leap from one side of the well to the other.
"My friend," said the frog of the sea, "how do you compare the sea with your little well?"
Then the frog took another leap and asked, "Is your sea so big?"
"What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well!"
"Well, then," said the frog of the well, "nothing can be bigger than my well; there can be nothing bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him out."
That has been the difficulty all the while.
I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and thinks that is the whole world. l have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose.' [1]
Finally, I wish before we allow any ideas or prejudice to sink in and take over our mind, we allow ourselves to be more capable of acceptance, appreciation and honor for not just different religious or cultural views but to all sorts of people, concept and belief we come across.
