Sheep happens.

Friday, November 30, 2007

For All The "Not So Right" Reasons.

Many times we do things for all the wrong reasons, consciously or not, most of the time involuntarily. It fully dawned upon me today that the society that we have created for ourselves is a road of unchecked self-delusion that winds boundlessly into the abyss of idiocy. Pure folly. People rarely ever bother to search this fact, what more understand it. Personally, almost every external event that we attend would most likely be classified as "done for the wrong reasons".

Take for an example, school. How many students today go to school with the mindset that school would be what helps them to a brighter future? We don't even need a survey to know the results. Some students go to school to have fun with their friends, some go to school because their parents would get angry if they didn't. How would one be able to benefit fully from an activity, if his focus is set upon another objective? The system now is based on conformity, setting the standards for what society deems as a "success". This results in a very clear and unnerving (for me, at least) division of societal levels. "Success" causes complacency to set in. A "successful" person might not be able to understand the meaning of suffering. Ask any student today for their definition of suffering, and they would probably come up with something related to their studies and relationships.

Who today would ever start thinking first about others' suffering?

Let us take something related to school for another example. I often see the cleaner uncle in school all alone, cleaning the mess that we students create. Do we even know how hard it must be to clean every inch of the canteen, over and over again? We surely don't, or we wouldn't be messing the whole place up all the time. The birds add salt to the wound. As if it isn't enough work to do, we dirty the place even more thoroughly with all our empty plates and undisposed rubbish. Does anyone understand the pains of a cleaner? Their lives are tough enough. Why do we have to complicate it further? Why can't we just make life easier for others?

Yes, "success" is something. It just means that you've got a piece of paper in your portfolio that would give you a high-paying job. "Success", however, does not make you any better a human than a cleaner. Respect is indispensable when we cross the paths of any human on the surface of this planet. If you paid your maid a salary, it would not make her any lesser a human. These people have feelings, they have their own problems, and they just haven't been allowed the chance for a better life.

"Success" is overrated. People think of it as a passport to a higher standard of living and a superior level of humanity. Aye to the former; the latter's nonsense. Why can't we all just make an effort to be truly successful?

It was really an eye-opening experience today during the practice game over at the high school side. The two sides were engaged in a see-saw battle which raged for seven full innings. Yes, I used the right word there. Raged. There was a lot of unpleasant talk and illogical bluntness going around throughout the game. If I were a stranger and if not for their costumes, I would have so easily taken them as two different teams.

One side was playing small ball. Almost a full bunting game for them, and they relished every instance where errors occured. Every error will elicit a string of unpleasant taunts and laughter. I have never seen teammates jeer and taunt each other as much as them, which led me to wonder about what caused the rift to widen between the group of people.

My answer was one side's desire to win. They wanted to win so much that they sacrificed others' feelings for it. They were so drunk with the desire to win that nothing else mattered for them, because if they lost, they would feel inferior. People never want to feel inferior to others.

Especially others who are supposedly "weaker" than them.

The competition is raging elsewhere, everywhere in the world today. The rat race is unfolding in workplaces, schools and even homes. Bad grades in school would result in contemn from the people around. A failed transaction would signal that you lost the race. Going to a neighbourhood school would be seen as a reason to say that you're not as good as your sibling. Everyone's racing, everyone's fighting and everyone's under fire from everyone else.

Survival instinct is intrinsic in every human being, but when it is allowed to take over, survival instinct does not only want survival. It wants dominance and power. Do not let it propagate within you.

------------------------------------------------

Apparently I still have lots to say. This post will be continued...