2/ To testify is an after-the-event act. To bear witness is a broader behavior that includes how you are present within an event
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3/ You can act or intervene in an event, but the simplest way to bear witness is to simply not look away, and be seen to see.
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4/ This is power. If you see somebody being harassed in the subway and look straight at the act instead of away, you bear witness.
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5/ When you bear witness, you force the enacted narrative to reflect on itself, without saying a word.
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6/ This is why the characteristic phrase of a bully feeling threatened by someone bearing witness is "what are YOU looking at?"
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7/ The power of bearing witness is that you don't need to contest the narrative: the actor being witnessed does it himself.
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8/ Through your silent, "I see you," you force the actor to acknowledge that they are knowingly enacting a false narrative.
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9/ I rarely do eulogies, but this was what R. K. Laxman was: someone who bore witness through his work.
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10/ His character, The Common Man, never spoke in the cartoons. He was simply present, looking on bemusedly.
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11/ Laxman was not the greatest comic. His jokes were not always funny. But The Common Man was a masterful invention.
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12/ The political rhetoric of post-Independence India was ALL about 'aam aadmi': The Common Man.
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13/ From Nehru to Modi and Kejriwal, all have presumed to speak for the Common Man.
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14/ Laxman did not challenge this presumption directly by giving the Common Man a critical or satirical voice.
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