Thinking for yourself

Hi, my name is Kumar Harshvardhan and I’m not an atheist. Yes, I do not believe in a personal God. Yes, I believe that one day, after a landslide or a volcano eruption, man simply said’ “I create you God, for I am fearful and superstitious.” And yet I say I’m not an atheist. I’m an anti-theist. I simply have a problem with people accepting everything in the name of religion. God is only the ignorant answer for a mind too lazy that doesn't even deign to ask or question anything. To be honest, I dislike (an unmistakable sign of maturity is the ability to dislike without hate) it the most when religion starts impacting on legislation. No, not yet. Don’t quit reading and don’t be so quick to judge what my blog-spots are generally about. This post is in no way related to my religious sentiments. Is not about my political views. Or maybe it is. In fact, I’m reminded of a Thomas Edison’s saying: “We don’t know a millionth of one percent of anything.” I have to agree that although not a millionth of one percent, but yes, right now, I’m not too sure about the road I’m going to take. I’m just staring at this blank word document, waiting for drops of blood to form on my forehead and my fingers to interpret them without being influenced by me.

[This week, I have been mostly reviewing my relationship with social networking sites. The recent remodelling of the site and the constant trolls.jpg has enhanced my disenchantment with the whole social networking experience. And so, to make myself feel better, and to be ‘more productive’, I created a to-do list and ergo, this post. I still have one more month to do all the nothingness I want to, and so yes, you can expect a few more posts. Honestly, I’m pretty glad that I never worked or interned during the 3 month college breaks and stuff because sadly, real life doesn’t allow you to jotter random thoughts and also doesn’t let you sleep late. ]

A recent research has shown that 97% people tend to believe anything and everything that is within the quotation marks. And boy, why wouldn’t they! People don’t like to be termed ignorant. Not having read Virginia Woolf or William Faulkner or Fletecher Knebel is being ignorant, is it not in today’s google-friendly world? Why would someone challenge something that is within the quotation marks? Have we ever questioned the tricolour? Yes, our national flag. It distinctly has four colours in it, yet has anyone ever bothered to ask why is it called the tricolour?

We all of have our doubts, don’t we. “I’m not smart.” “I’m not good enough.” “So and so is better than me.” Or our doubts often paralyse us and we start playing the “What if” game. Or we have friends or loved ones who will make a noise and remind us of our shortcomings regardless of whether we ask. They often say, “What makes you think you can do that?” Or “if it’s such a good idea, how come someone else hasn’t done it?” These words of doubt, these noises often get so loud that we fail to act. A horrible feeling builds in our stomach. Sometimes we can’t move. Can’t sleep. So we stay with what is safe and opportunities pass us by. We watch life passing by as we sit immobilised with a cold knot in our body. Our whole life in front of us. But a life filled with, “If Only, I” and “What ifs.” I would like you to remind yourself that one of the hardest things about life is the ability to not go along with the crowd. For in this world, it is the crowd that usually shows up late and is slaughtered.  

And the reason for all this ‘If only, I’ and ‘What if’? The Noise. Because we don’t challenge the noise. Because we don’t challenge authorities. Most people fail even before trying because of the noise. When it comes to taking risks, the world is full with Chicken Littles, a boy who ran around warning the barnyard of impending doom, horsing around yelling, “The sky is falling. The sky is falling.” And Chicken Littles are effective because every one of us is a little chicken. We are scared by the ‘noise’ they make. We all want to get out of this rat-race, but unfortunately, the sky! It often takes great courage to not let rumours and talk of doom and gloom affect your doubts and fears. Pep Guardiola, a mudblood, once said, “Not taking risk is itself A RISK.” Too bad that we are too stupid to take advantage of our own potential!

Boy, we live in a time where acid attacks and rape on women don't outrage us, but public display of nudity does. We live in a time where violence is permissible under the guise of 'national interests' and ‘religious sentiments’ but free speech isn't. We are the same primitive species that crawled out of rocks to build catapults so we could throw the same at each other. We have learnt so little from history. We seem like a race doomed to shoot itself on the foot at every level. And still, all we do not challenge the noise. We simply exist. Simply survive. We do not live. Do not flourish.

A part of me thinks all forms of systems and institutions are bound to fail because we are faulty in our make. Anarchy, in an ideal sense, is the only thing that could offer true freedom to everyone, but then I am faced with a paradox wherein I realize that would lead to chaos -- probably of a grander scale than the one we face. Everything from a money-based economy to positions of power to the education system to general occupations seem distinctly designed (by a species that is too stupid to think beyond immediate solutions) to bring out the very worst of human characteristics and suppress the good ones.

As they say, we are a product of 4 billion years of evolution. Is it not time to act like one? Is it not time to say: “I refuse to be told what to think, or how, let alone what to say or write. But certainly not by people who claim the authority of fabricated works of primeval myth and fiction, and want me to believe that these are divine. That I won't have. That's the original repudiation. The first rebellion against mental slavery comes from saying, this is man-made, and it’s not divine.”

P.S. I've interspersed my own words with freely (and somewhat indiscriminately) used quotes. (from laymen on twitter to greats on wikiquote)