A Reflection on Michael Chabon's Op-Ed "Chosen, but Not Special"

"Chosen, but Not Special" an Op-Ed by Michael Chabon published in NYT: June 4, 2010.

The Op-Ed is a critical, analytical as well as a reflective piece of writing. Mr. Chabon's efforts to be fair minded are refreshing. However, there is a presumption in the title of Michael Chabon's Op-Ed which is troubling. The presumption is that the group addressed in the Op-Ed may not be the "Special" however it is the "Chosen" nevertheless.  There lies the fragments of mystery that is not so mysterious with what the human race has been beleaguered by multiple groups claiming in their own ways and in their own "god" given rights as the "chosen" one's and expressing their views implicitly and explicitly in different ways yet inherently meaning the same that they are the chosen one and making efforts to establish the dominance in one form or the other. The concepts of being the so called "Chosen" ones are described, implied, and written by various groups in different words formulated and institutionalized over times in various forms including in the scriptures, the holy books, and various other forms of writings. In general, all groups on this planet earth consider themselves as the chosen one not the other.

In reality, various groups consider themselves to be the "Chosen" one, however they may express the concept differently, twisting and meandering the words but meaning the same. Once the presumption of chosen one is established then the next presumption for the group becomes easier to make, and that is that their group must be the right one since it is the chosen one (a convoluted misguided thinking nevertheless it is consistent with the linear logical and inferential conclusions made in every day life).

Once the group begins to believe that they are the chosen one, then an another a little more sinister presumption takes hold and has taken hold during the course of human history that is that the other groups couldn't be the chosen one (chosen one being a singularity rather than a plurality concept). And,  therefore each group has been bestowing upon itself all the "god" given power and the rights, and taking away whenever possible as much power and the rights from the other groups in efforts to be the chosen one. The human groups are locked into a perpetual head bashing with each other, and ironically no one has yet won to be the chosen one.

So, what is the way out of this quagmire? The solution may not be difficult (putting the solution in practice is another matter). The solution is simple: It is time to accept that it is not any particular group that is the chosen one rather it is the human race at large in of itself is the chosen one (if we have to hang on to the word "Chosen" as the umbilical cord until freed from and weaned out of it). Any thing less then that that the human race is the chosen one as a whole rather than any particular group will leave the simmering cancerous social cancer of the so called the chosen one's to collide with the so called the other chosen one's as the groups have been colliding with each other over and over during the course of human existence known to our consciousness. It is a sick truism.

So, let there be a different truism to emerge in our time, if it is at all possible, that we all are the chosen one, and let us make efforts to be the worthy of being good, and a fun human race, and stop this silly game of chosen one explicit, implied, or otherwise that belongs to a group.