Summary: In the movie White Tiger, the character Balram compares the oppression of India’s poor to caged roosters that do not rebel against their fate. He argues that real change requires significant sacrifice and is rare, much like a White Tiger. Many people struggle with change due to deep-rooted beliefs and fear of the unknown, but some, like Marissa Panigrosso on 9/11, choose to act decisively in critical moments.
The reality is that change is not only hard but also long. We’ve all been brought up in set ways. Most of our conditioning is done in childhood. The brainwashing doesn’t only come from our parents, but theirs too—also from our teachers, our societal leaders, the media, and all the information we’ve consumed. (View Highlight)
“We are vehemently faithful to our own view of the world, our story. We want to know what new story we’re stepping into before we exit the old one. We don’t want an exit if we don’t know exactly where it is going to take us, even—or perhaps especially—in an emergency. This is so, I hasten to add, whether we are patients or psychoanalysts.” (View Highlight)
Change requires both risk and effort. It also requires we revisit our personal history, dissecting each ancient belief to see if it still serves any purpose, just like a brilliant eye surgeon would cut into our retina with precision and complete care. (View Highlight)
To change means confronting our sense of loss and accepting that we need to let go of old parts of ourselves because they no longer serve our new ways of being. (View Highlight)