GRE Issue: "It is possible to identify a person's politics within a very short time of meeting him or her. Everything about people�their clothes, their friends, the way they talk, what they eat�reflects their political beliefs."

My Response Essay:

Many times, it is seen that people jump to conclusions about a person's political ideology just after having a short meeting with him or noting the way he talks, what he eats and what kind of friends he has. But as it turns out, these are not the effective ways of knowing a person politically. Nevertheless, some of them like the attire and the type of friends may betoken his political inclinations.

It will be ridiculous to judge someone's political beliefs by the way he talks within a very short time. No matter what criteria is used for such a decision, in all likelihood the decision is doomed to be unreasonable for numerous reasons. For instance, the person might be very busy and may just give to-the-point answers without soliciting further discussion. This might serve to insinuate his disregard for others' opinions and to suggest his support for dictatorship. Moreover, if the visiting person is a journalist and some of his questions are not addressed by the speaker -- or for that matter, his appointment was denied -- it can be regarded as indifference towards media or even suppresion of media and hence opposition of real democracy. Clearly, all these hurried conclusions might be absolutely baseless.

On the other hand, a person's attire may reveal much of his political beliefs. Let us consider the case of a political party in India -- Congress. The leaders of this party were involved in the independence struggle of India and since then, all of its followers wear a cap with white cotton attire in characteristic style of Jawaharlal Nehru -- the first Prime Minister of India. Thus whenever one notices someone wearing such clothes, he expects this person to be supporting Congress ideology. But again, this judgement may be unwarranted in other cases. For instance, this attire matches closely with the classical dress of rural folks and all of them may not necessarily be liking Congress ideology of today.



Similar is the case with one's eating habbits insofar as reflection of political beliefs is concerned. Mahatma Gandhi used to eat very simple food -- pulse and chapati. This might give a false indication of weakness of character and a tendency to yield. But history has witnessed how strong he was as regards to both character and in his political strength. In fact, independent India's history stands on his shoulders; it was his socio-political leadership, faith in democracy and strentgth of character that led to India's independence.

Adimittedly, in most cases, a person's political beliefs may be ascertained by finding out what type of his friends are. It is but natural that friendhip takes place between people of similar orientations. Conversely, it does not make practical sense that someone from one political party is a friend of someone from a party with an entirely opposite ideology, for in such a case one of these is bound to be at the receiving end of the ire of his partymen and he may even be expelled from his party in favor of a supposedly more loyal candidate. There may be certain exceptions to this principle e.g. in India, Amitabh Bachhan's associations with Samajwadi party leader Amar Singh are well known but the former has a completely apolitical life and their friendship is very long and outside politics.

In sum, to judge someone's political orientation in a short meeting or by their eating habbits would be completely unwarranted. On the other hand, a person's clothes may indicate his political beliefs if those are stereotypical of a group belonging to a particular political ideology. Also, due to the nature of friendship, what kind of friends a person has may well indicate his political ideas. In practice however, all these may prove to be ineffective means to ascertain a person's political ideology, the best way to ascertain the same is by a study of what political statements that person gives and by a reasonably long association with him.

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