A recent observation which has been groping me in frustration is the mental lethargy as I call it, observed in many of the minds around me. Now, if all of this is a late revelation, or is there an alteration in the perception in people - I know not. What I know is that, it is a deep problem, with profound ramifications.
Firstly, let me articulate the problem as I perceive it:
Mobilizing people for a common cause, without the paparazzi hype and corporate media incentives, for genuine purposes is one of the most arduous tasks in the ironically 'social network'- ed world. Even if one succeeds in projecting an incentive for the audience, and gets them together at a place, now surfaces a deeper problem : reluctance of the herd to open up their minds.
Without making it abstract, I shall try to convey the fact which is so commonly observed amongst many of us. A sense of reluctance, seemingly emanating out of a tinge of disinterest is gripping a majority around us.
This I would argue is no reluctance or disinterest - it all boils down to an aversion of sorts towards "thinking". Aversion directly based on laziness!
Aversion to think and laziness?
Does it strike as unusual. Well, please shelve the exclamation, for majority of us in reality are lazy, contrary to the third person criticism each one would want to spew out.
While the occasional sense of laziness in physical toil is common and pardonable (in a restricted and relative sense), for not always does one wants to expend physical efforts burning calories and breaking sweat;
But, there is another perilous laziness; This in many cases is permanent and ineradicable: Laziness associated with the mind - An inhibition to think!
While, I do see this as a serious problem, the usual causes which are attributed to it like upbringing, systemic constraints, genetics, etc are superfluous, and serve the least but as an inadequate explanation.
Thinking requires conscious efforts, and focused thinking leaves you with headaches (and me with my migraine attacks!). But, when it is ready made solution that many of us seek, in most cases endorsing them even without questioning the proposals offered, where is the question of 'thinking' at all here? And this precisely is the demon haunting the "public".
We end up absorbing injudiciously all the views perpetrated by media and the ones in power, we seek a revolution with the least intent of self change, we want solutions without understanding the problems! These regressions that have become not so uncommon today are results of a simple, yet cancerous symptom of "laziness to think!".
Now if I were to be asked what is the solution I have thought of to this problem, I'd invoke Morpheus' line,
I can only show you the door; You're the one that has to walk through it!
It is proactive change that can set a mind free from its shackles of lethargy. If one cannot be inspired to attain this change, as History stands as a witness, man made calamities (fascism & racism) do instigate people to think!
Firstly, let me articulate the problem as I perceive it:
Mobilizing people for a common cause, without the paparazzi hype and corporate media incentives, for genuine purposes is one of the most arduous tasks in the ironically 'social network'- ed world. Even if one succeeds in projecting an incentive for the audience, and gets them together at a place, now surfaces a deeper problem : reluctance of the herd to open up their minds.
Without making it abstract, I shall try to convey the fact which is so commonly observed amongst many of us. A sense of reluctance, seemingly emanating out of a tinge of disinterest is gripping a majority around us.
This I would argue is no reluctance or disinterest - it all boils down to an aversion of sorts towards "thinking". Aversion directly based on laziness!
Aversion to think and laziness?
Does it strike as unusual. Well, please shelve the exclamation, for majority of us in reality are lazy, contrary to the third person criticism each one would want to spew out.
While the occasional sense of laziness in physical toil is common and pardonable (in a restricted and relative sense), for not always does one wants to expend physical efforts burning calories and breaking sweat;
But, there is another perilous laziness; This in many cases is permanent and ineradicable: Laziness associated with the mind - An inhibition to think!
While, I do see this as a serious problem, the usual causes which are attributed to it like upbringing, systemic constraints, genetics, etc are superfluous, and serve the least but as an inadequate explanation.
Thinking requires conscious efforts, and focused thinking leaves you with headaches (and me with my migraine attacks!). But, when it is ready made solution that many of us seek, in most cases endorsing them even without questioning the proposals offered, where is the question of 'thinking' at all here? And this precisely is the demon haunting the "public".
We end up absorbing injudiciously all the views perpetrated by media and the ones in power, we seek a revolution with the least intent of self change, we want solutions without understanding the problems! These regressions that have become not so uncommon today are results of a simple, yet cancerous symptom of "laziness to think!".
Now if I were to be asked what is the solution I have thought of to this problem, I'd invoke Morpheus' line,
I can only show you the door; You're the one that has to walk through it!
It is proactive change that can set a mind free from its shackles of lethargy. If one cannot be inspired to attain this change, as History stands as a witness, man made calamities (fascism & racism) do instigate people to think!
Awesome post, Maverick! Completely agree!
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