Don Quixote is the story of a man who mistakes fantasy for reality. Though brave and honorable, he forces the world into an outdated story, seeing windmills as giants and fighting them wholeheartedly because that is what he expects to find. 


This, I think, makes him a fitting metaphor for essentialism, the belief that people and nations possess fixed, unchanging essences. Instead of seeing identities as historical and evolving, essentialism reduces them to rigid labels and interprets reality through them.


Myanmar has long suffered from this mindset. The military propagandizes itself as the natural guardian of the Union. Bamar nationalism often assumes the country naturally belongs to the Bamar language and Buddhists think Buddhist supremacy is normal, even against the Buddha himself teaching otherwise. In this context, even some liberal nationalists might overlook how "neutral" citizenship is shaped by majority institutions, long history of sponsoring certain practices and narratives.


These positions are not morally equivalent, but they often share the same habit of forcing reality into inherited stories. Federalism is portrayed as fragmentation, self-determination is misrepresented as separatism, and minority histories become obstacles to national unity.


The lesson of Don Quixote is that we can sincerely pursue justice while remaining trapped by illusion. Perhaps Myanmar's challenge is not only to overcome authoritarianism but also to abandon essentialist narratives that disguise domination as unity.