I couldn’t have chosen a worse time to be born; of course birth and death are not in my hands you would argue, leaving me incapable of proving my earlier statement, which is based on the assumption that I command all the aspects of my life, a brazenly bold one so to say. Sure, I don’t command all the aspects of life and most I leave for fate to intervene, if there does exist such a thing as fate. So, whether I was born by the sheer will of God or due to the consequence of some cosmic incident is of little relevance now that I am born and can’t return to the state of being unborn.
The ‘time’ that I used does not imply the exact moment of my birth nor does it refer to the exact position of the stars and constellations that supposedly determine the life I am to lead from thereafter. I simply used it to associate with the period in the space time continuum in which one finds me with the highest probability of existence on the planet, which we- the most tyrant of its inhabitants -call ‘Mother Earth’, an absurdity in itself because we don’t give it the respect as is deserved by an object that is assigned to the name ‘mother’ according to our own comprehension.
The period that I am speaking of is a bountiful one; ushered in by the realisation that physical overpowering of one another is just not enough to remain powerful. We have moved on from trying to overpower each other by ransacking each other’s home and territory to trying to rule one another by trying make them slaves of a comfortable life, thus creating a pack of nations which wrestle with each other trying to grab markets for themselves, which are nothing but consumers of their much hyped technological accessories promising a better life, an utopia for fools, for it is fools that what we all have become, in spite of us being the most intelligent beings in the universe known to us. People are now overwhelmed by the products of development, of technological advancement which manufacturers claim would help them lead comfortable lives, help them do more with less effort, undoubtedly a noble aspiration, but if only it were that they were genuinely inclined towards achieving that goal.
Thus, living in such a period filled with artificial things and enjoying most of the recent pleasures that can be afforded, it seems only quizzical that I deride and question most of the things around me, which have become integral to my being, though I can as well be better off without many of them. We have been endowed with a beautiful yet dangerous thing, which separates us from all the ‘lowly’ creatures that crawl the earth, a mind that allows us to think, and this mind is the very source of my whimsical thoughts. Blame it on God for giving me an unsound but working mind, that I doubt the workings of His world, my race and have as a result ended writing a piece that does, in essence, try to belittle our achievements.
Our achievements, at the turn of the 21st century include mostly material objects, which have greatly reduced our interaction amongst ourselves; society now has become nothing but a fluke, with only counterfeit feelings being shown to our fellow beings, words that have no genuine implications; we have become more concerned with ourselves, our life, comfort and all material objects that the modern age has to offer. Austerity was, in the past, considered a great virtue, simplicity a way of life; but in recent times, abstinence is a thought so repugnant to people that they have shed away all their inhibitions just to continue their present way of life.
Spendthrifts, a term that people of yore might have used to describe the present populace, has been replaced by ‘shopaholics’, no longer is spending more considered a bad thing; it actually is a matter of pride that one can spend more than one’s neighbour. So, taking a plunge into this deluded worthless race of spending more, people have begun working longer hours, even to the extent of literally living in one’s workplace, not because one loves doing it, but so that one can earn more and spend on useless objects which have no use altogether except maybe a moment’s satisfaction. This view has been handed over to the new generation, of which I am a part of, immature and under the illusion of a beautiful life filled with material objects, we have taken the degradation, if you allow me refer the situation as such, to a level which, I can best describe as ruthless.
Peer pressure has always been a factor in making people do stuff their conscience would not readily allow them to, but in our generation, not having been tutored in values that can shape us into better humans - not having parents around us as we learn the basics of social life being the prime reason – we tend to be influenced more by our friends and end up doing things without even a pricking conscience. And with a never ending flow of money to our pockets – parents unlike us do tend to have a troubled conscience – we end up enjoying to our hearts’ content without any remorse for spending on useless things and also learning nothing about self-restraint. The only remorse that might be there in our minds might be that a friend bought a better and costlier gadget, leaving us with a resolution to buy an even better one the next time. Also, there is the need to keep up appearances – you need good clothes, the latest cell, the most stylish motorcycle (a car would definitely be better) and such and such. Having a girlfriend earns us respect among our friends, the less unfortunate ones without female friends are pushed to the outside perimeter of the friend circle, others look up to us as a role model, and are always under pressure leading to relationships that are hollow to the core. Being a cool guy is more important to us than being a good person; pursuit of the truth, the good is for the deranged is the present thought that is so prevalent among the present generation.
What would I have not given to be born in another age, even if it might have been the dark ages or during the world wars, able to experience feelings that were not as counterfeit as now? Even if I had been forced to believe something that my mind doesn’t allow me to accept, I would have had the unconscious knowledge that I am doing something that is not good. In this present age, forced to face people who work only for their personal interests, their pleasure and comforts, without the slightest of trace of knowledge that their actions are not as noble as they think – I doubt they even have time to consider what is noble – who are draped in nonchalance, conviction in nothing but the need to fulfil one’s interests, I am filled with nothing but disgust.
