A Letter - A Lost Perspective

By -

I was re-watching "Saving Private Ryan" yesterday.
Abraham Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby shook me a bit. Before I explain why, read it:

 Executive Mansion, Washington, November 21, 1864.

 Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts:
Dear Madam: 
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

 Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln.

 (source)

 I was shocked for following reasons:
1.     People don't write like this anymore. Has our writing become as superficial as our knowledge & values? 
2.     People don't think like this anymore. Why did Mrs. Bixby send all her five sons to war? Because she believed in the idea of freedom. She believed in freedom because she had carefully thought about it.What's sad is that the only people who have the courage to make a similar sacrifice are religious fanatics; neither their means nor their cause is justified. 
In the world of instant information & hyper-connectivity, aren't we suppose to think a bit more deeply, more clearly, even about our long held beliefs that might be losing their significance in light of our ever expanding knowledge? Are we losing the connection with ourselves? Or have we lost the ability to distinguish between reality & fantasy? We sparingly insult the realist & easily condone the priest even though it's the realist, in the guise of a scientist or an artist who shows us the mirror; without forcing us to believe in fairies at the bottom of the pool. 

 Maybe people don't write like this anymore because they don't think like this anymore; or what would be more appropriate, people can't write like this anymore, because they don't think, they only know. 

 Sadly, they believe in only what they know.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Digital Marketing

By -
Being in digital marketing for the last 10 years, I get a lot of queries from fresh graduates on how to start their career in this domain. This post is for them. This is how I think about digital marketing.  The first step is to understand that digital marketing is not a radically new discipline but an extension of traditional marketing. The goal of marketing is to connect the sellers with the buyers and provide value to the buyer whilst making a profit for the seller. There are two major differences in traditional marketing(TM) and digital marketing(DM). 1. Reach 2. ROI With digital you can reach only a small % of the overall population as not everyone is on digital mediums viz. online, mobile & social networks.  For e.g. internet penetration in India is only 26%. So, if your Target Audience is digital only then can you expect to reach them via DM. To reach others you will need to use the traditional channels such as radio or TV. Measuring ROI is much sim...
Read more

Notes on – Demo conference

By -
Source: Meet Google's human search engine for innovation and www.demo.com There are several levels when we see companies: As partners – can they build applications on our platform & make the platform more valuable. Business development or licensing type of deal Acquisition Ventures – Find companies to invest in The sweet spot is mobile, location based services, social & e-commerce. " IBM, Digital, Sun, Apollo and Microsoft had their time. Now cloud based systems like Google, Facebook & others will have their time. It's a natural progression of business. Microsoft had a hell of run for 30 years. They're still a very powerful company. Very profitable, growing very well. So I wouldn't say they're going to go down; I would say the market has moved. " I think Kinect is a game changer and probably the most important hardware innovation of the decade. " Tablets are for consumption not for creation . " Agree but not entirely tr...
Read more

On Thinking Right

By -
Image
  “ Most people would rather die than think and many of them do!” BERTRAND RUSSELL After a long time, I had an amazing discussion with a close friend. It is interesting how the pandemic has shifted our attention from the trivia of on-demand entertainment and moved it to things that matter most. For me, a stimulating conversation matters most. A conversation where both parties present opposing point of views and have the courage, humility, and open-mindedness to change or at least think from others ‘point of view’. I have always believed in the power of Douglas Adams’ most powerful weapon in the Universe – a point of view gun. So many conflicts can be resolved by momentarily giving up our own POV and having a bit of empathy for the other side. A conversation that allows you to learn and grow is always the right kind of conversation. The only thing that is better than this kind of conversation is if it happens without anyone raising their voice. This was not a problem for me as ...
Read more