Question everything
Mehdi Hasan, acclaimed journalist and friend, is a strong believer in the power of storytelling. I’m reading his excellent new book Win Every Argument in which he addresses studies, expert opinions, and his own experiences to affirm the power of stories to evoke emotion, persuade, and convince. “We are, as a species, addicted to story…A story is for a human as water is for fish,” Mehdi quotes Jonathan Gottschall from his book The Storytelling Animal. Mehdi adds, “Don’t be afraid to get personal.”
This made me even more inclined to ask Mehdi to share some of his own personal stories so we can get to know him better. As part of 30 days of storytelling this Ramadan, I asked him a couple questions from the 30 Days Journal—to share a wisdom from an elder that guides him, and one of the most defining moments in his life.
“My father taught me from a very young age to question everything, to be both curious and skeptical, to take nothing on blind faith, and to relish every challenge and objection.
He would challenge and provoke my sister and me at the dinner table, on long car journeys, on foreign holidays. He never shied away from an argument over the merits or demerits of a particular issue. He pushed against status quos and soggy consensuses.
You could say my father is a living, breathing, and inspiring embodiment of the dictum outlined by John Stuart Mill in his classic philosophical treatise On Liberty: "He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that."
In his book, Mehdi shares this example: “In the late 1980s, when British Muslims were denouncing Salman Rushdie’s notorious Islamophobic novel The Satanic Verses, with some of them even burning copies of it on the streets of northern English cities, my father purchased a copy, read it cover to cover, and kept it in a prominent spot on his bookshelf. His Muslim friends would visit our home, see the book, and their eyes would bulge. ‘Why…why…would you buy that book?’ they would splutter. ‘Because you can’t dismiss something you haven’t read,’ my father would calmly reply.”
DEFINING MOMENT IN MEHDI’S LIFE
“I have been blessed with so many defining and memorable moments in my life but none compare to the birth of my two daughters. To the stark realization that you are responsible not just for the safety and nourishment of other human beings but also responsible for equipping them with the right tools and skills to thrive and flourish in life. I have had the good fortune to have a lot of good jobs in my life—high-profile gigs in two different countries!—but no job comes anywhere close to that of a father, a parent, a caregiver. And the added bonus: my kids keep me grounded, humble, and authentic. My kids also give me inspiration, hope, and a burning desire to make sure we all leave behind for all of our children a better, safer, sustainable world.”
There’s a question in the 30 Days Journal, “If you could spend the day with one person, who would it be, and what’s one question you would ask them.” At a recent book launch at Politics and Prose in Washington DC, Mehdi answered a similar question: who is one person he would want to debate and on what topic.
“Someone I’ve really wanted to interview, really grill and go at it back and forth with, both because I loathe him and respect his intellect, is Tony Blair. This month is the 20th anniversary of the Iraq invasion, which Blair and Bush happily gave the world. George Bush would be kind of a pointless interview, no disrespect, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Tony Blair is a very smart guy, and I’ve watched him being interviewed on Iraq for two decades, but he always slips away, he’s the great teflon Tony … ‘well my intentions were good, well the intelligence….’ I would really love to go back and forth with him on the Iraq invasion, on the lives that were lost, and hold that guy accountable. No one’s really held that guy to account.”
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A few past newsletters:
A Letter of Gratitude, for my Husband’s Surgeon
Wisdoms Inspired in Nature: My New Book!
Life Lessons for my Son, that I Learned this Week