I was just watching a debate on atheism, and out of the blue, it struck me that humans tend to try to get closer to their true self only when confronted with pain (Mostly in case of loss of a loved one). That is obviously the reason that love and loss thereof has been the topic of innumerable works of art. When faced with the pain of loss and the helplessness associated with it, the initial reaction can often be that of shock and irrational behavior. Men turn to kids and can do things they would not even dream of, however; the kid inside every man/woman also has a certain freeness to him/her. There is an appreciation of simplicity and the small things in life. This is a mysterious but definite connection that one tends to establish with oneself. A strange kind of strength tends of emanate from within, albeit slowly at times. This strength comes with revelations about the world, people, and most of all, oneself.
All forms of art are an expression of the understanding and appreciation of the beauty in the world and the sentiments that the artist associates to it. This is what has me a little concerned. We are a species which is producing more thoughtless and emotionless individuals than ever before. The crony-capitalist school of thought believes that the more consumerist the population, the greater the consumption and hence greater the growth. In the pursuit of perpetual growth, men are being programmed (through constant suggestions and implant of values through childhood) into a state where they are losing their ability to appreciate the beauty in the world. The pursuit of material goals is a necessary part of life, but too many of us see it as all that there is to life. We may pretend to care about others and show a lot of empathy to people around us, but the statements are hollow a little too often. It is almost as if men as a species are forgetting to love fellow human beings. It is almost as if a typical urban male/female is supposed to do the following in his/her life:
1. Be born (Okay that was my way of being funny)
2. Have around 3 years of freedom while you can't talk, can't walk and can't appreciate the world anyways.
3. As you begin to make sense of things, you are loaded with books, and a strict schedule is what you are supposed to follow. The conditioning of the mind however normally begins before this (since the parents use all kinds of psychological pressure to get things done and even develop and exploit a sense of guilt in the child) .
4. Then comes a barrage of "standards", or "values" that the child is told that he/she is supposed to follow. I am grateful that most kids that are born today are smart enough to not give these values a shit; however some of the less witty ones might fall for the false ideals that are shoved up their throats. I for one, used to believe in every single thing that I was told as a kid.
I used to despise lying, I used to love my nation, I thought that India was the most lovely nation in the world and I was proud of it. Hell I even loved the army men and fantasized fighting for the nation and even being a martyr. I revered the "great leaders" of our nation. "Mahatma" Gandhi, "Chacha" Nehru and others were the people that I wished I could be like one day.
Schoolkids are told to take a pledge everyday in the morning at school. As I look back at it, it was the most cruel form of intellectual tyranny that the system inflicts on young kids. While they hardly have a world view, they are told to believe and make a commitment to thoughts which would stay in their psyche for ever. Here is the pledge that I am talking about.
"India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters.
I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage.
I shall always strive to be worthy of it.
I shall give my parents, teachers and all elders respect and treat everyone with courtesy.
To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion.
In their well being and prosperity alone, lies my happiness.
Jai Hind!"
What I am not okay is not the theme of the message, the first objection that I have is that a pledge has to be voluntary and I was never told that I had an option. Secondly, which school kid is expected to know about the rich and varied heritage of our nation ? What heritage are we talking about anyways? The caste tussles or is it the religious riots ? Where is the richness ? All I tend to see is disillusioned people trying to imitate the west. Had the heritage been so "rich", people would hardly have any reason to do so. While it can be accepted that the rot has been mostly due to Arab invaders in the past, we have only ourselves to blame for losing the battles to them.
Anyways, talking about striving to be "worthy" of it ..... I completely feel like swearing now, but for the sake of the standards of decency that I've been indoctrinated with, I shall not. I would however state that the whole statement is such a farce. When 40% of the population is striving for existence with incomes below the poverty line, what right does the system have to demand such pledges ?
The only saving grace is that the government has not yet come up with the idea of granting a certificate of "worthiness" to the "worthy" Indians. Who knows what standards they might come up with. One things is for sure though: Being relatives of influential politicians or diplomats would definitely be pretty high up amongst the things to watch out for in the unwritten manual of practices.
I have no problem with treating everyone with courtesy and this one would have gone without a bashing but for the fact that anyone who treats me with disdain does not deserve courtesy. I may still decide to be courteous with him/her but that is an option and not an obligation. The Gandhian ideal of "ahinsa" has been blown out of proportions and it has dumbed down the national psyche into accepting cowardice under the garb. Courtesy is not the same as timidness and aggression, if needed, aggression must be resorted to.
Towards the end however, comes the worst part:
To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion.
In their well being and prosperity alone, lies my happiness.
Jai Hind!"
Why does the nation seek one's pledge of devotion ? Why does the nation not have faith that living in the nation would make one love it enough to automatically develop love and devotion towards it ? To top it up, they also tell us where our happiness lies. Well excuse me...... would you buzz off please ? A nation that wants to tell me where my happiness lies is trying to tell me what I am and what I should think like and why should I live. The nation is trying to steal my individuality away to develop a collective paranoia around a false idea that nationality is something worth dying for.
Lets face it: Nations exist only and only because human beings are too scared to love each other. We fear people whom we do not see as similar. Even the slightest differences (color, language, thoughts, social status or even looks) can make us dislike people . In some cases this can go on to hatred and ultimately, conflict. The inability of human beings to appreciate differences amongst ourselves and to love unconditionally has created the problem called nations. The pledge discussed above is simply trying to keep the young kids of our nation slaves to the same thought process which keeps feeding the false national ego while making people see the nation as bigger than themselves and the basic human values. Nations are all about politics, diplomacy and lying. There is nothing glorious about them. The India (or for that matter any other nation) that we exists is the outcome of countless human deaths and suffering for the sake of following orders. Be proud of that fact if you can be. Die for India if you want to. I would rather have nations dissolved altogether.
Anyways, getting back to the original discussion,
5. After the indoctrination with these standards and values that one must follow and seek, next step is to keep the mind occupied with useless clutter, to keep the little kids from developing their own thought process and thus realizing the farce that is being dished out to them. This is done through:
(a) Keeping the kids occupied in studies through inclusion of countless useless subjects in the school curriculum. Little room is left for independent thinking and questioning and what indoctrination goes on unquestioned.
(b) The media is used brilliantly by the government. Without a shred of doubt, the biggest driver of mankind is our sex drive. The conventional media has been exploiting this weakness as a distraction from the real issues facing the people. We’re showered with suggestive messages in our face left right and center. It is so pervasive that it is impossible to rid our psyche from being obsessed with this urge, which naturally is pretty strong without the catalysts anyways. The collective obsession towards sex, love and the need of approval from the opposite sex is converted into a sort of “purpose” for the young. It is the young amongst humans who have the ability to bring any meaningful change, for they have the new thoughts and are not bogged down with social pressures as well. In that case, the system has beautifully “managed” us into being lost within our own pursuits of approval and sensual pleasure.
(c) The continuous pursuit for more and more. We’re told to always seek growth. Sustainability is a word that is used only in conjunction with growth. The rush towards success is so blind that it leads to an emotional void in our life, simply for lack of human interactions. People hardly have time to spare for their loved ones, and this creates a longing for belonging to someone. Sometimes we find “love” in our life. A someone who we feel will complete us. It could well be a spiritual longing that we tend to try to fulfill through the person whom we see as our love. However, this emptiness of our life is simply temporarily replaced with illusions of completeness. Often people decide to enter relationships which are based on mere sexual attractiveness and find it hard to gel with the so called “loved” one later. This creates greater slaves to the system as people seek refuge in running away from troubles, often falling prey to alcoholism or drugs. The society is therefore mostly busy in problems which are never going to allow them to question the social status quo. The elite are secure in their high-towers, and boy do they not deserve to be secure ? They have done a mighty brilliant job of cowing down 6 Billion human beings through exploitation of their differences, urges, emotions, opinions and manipulating them into slaves without any chains.
And you thought slavery has been abolished. It is staring you in your face. You ARE a slave to the system.
What this has also done however is that people have disconnected themselves to their true inner self. The artificiality is too pervasive, so much so that anyone who takes things at face value is dubbed as a fool. In a world where honesty is often talked about as being the “best” policy, one can hardly expect the practice of the same. The most tragic outcome of the same is the slow death of art. People who can’t feel themselves can hardly be expected to produce any workd of eminence in the field of art. Thus we have in India, “artists” like Anu Malik who call themselves “music directors” without ever having composed a decent musical composition in their lives. They copy music balatantly, and the worst part is that the originals themselves are pretty lame. It is so funny that suddenly its not funny anymore. It makes me cringe to see art die, to see music die. To see the masses listen to superficial songs like “Tu paisa paisa karti hai “…..and albums of true artistic value like “Classically mild” (Sonu Nigam) going largely unnoticed.
While art dies, the only positive that one can take out of this is that people without emotions would probably be better logical thinkers and be better at scientific thought. But when one is preoccupied with expectations from the “world” and his own “urges” , one is hardly likely to pursue any discipline with zeal and perseverance.
We are faced with a situation, maybe I am being to negative, and I woul again look at the counterargument in some post later. I was being critical and a little negative on purpose, and any disagreeing views are most welcome.
Besides, I am a little tired of typing, am a little hungry and have to go out to eat. So although the post is still a little half-baked, I would conclude it here, hopefully to edit it later to touch it up a bit.
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