The Other side of the Argument

I have had the pleasure of meeting this person of high repute and since then I have been closely following him with great admiration and respect. And one day I run into another person. We happened to casually chitchat when he suddenly mentioned this.

I was told that because I wrote something against a cause that the famous personality is known to champion, the man decided to unfriend me on Facebook. I did not know that he did that. But I was really sure that he may not have done this. And it was only in the evening when I checked my Facebook profile I realized I lost one virtual friend. The famous person has really blocked me.

That made me think a lot. I had great respect towards this man. In fact when a student wrote something controversial about him a few months ago, I requested the student not to post it anywhere because I knew that would dent his reputation. And on my request the student decided not to post it. That was that.

But I was really shocked that he would unfriend me just because I had a second opinion. This showed me that some of us can never accept anything beyond our thinking. Forget anything against us or our families or even our work. This is not to lament losing a celebrity Facebook friend, but rather out of sheer shock that I pen down these lines. What a pity!

Of course I have nowhere said that what he was saying was totally wrong. All I said was that there must be some middle path – one that is not extreme and takes care of both the sides of the argument!

Can we for once acknowledge that there must be some valid points on the other side of the argument?

Opinion by Nawang P. Phuntsho

The writer works in an NGO and lives in Thimphu