The world runs on pretenses


The security guards at the entrance of your typical mall is the new brahmin. Both flay around their hands in ritualistic nuisances. The older ritual-peddler would throw in flowers and water creatively, the new one runs a beep-beep metal detector in the air around us.

Both are pretenses to comfort the incessantly worrying minds. Our  minds often wander in search of answers to questions that have no answers. and we just can't fathom the fact that some questions are plain wrong - that chasing them would never give you answers, only anxieties.

As our world gets more and more critically complex, we would see emergence of newer and newer rituals: Unique identity cards, police with guns (even if they might not know how to operate them), walls, courts, child locks, the education system based on silly exams, audit firms, research firms and most of all advertising.

Even if a rational mind realises all these institutions & acts as pretenses, one can't stop seeking consolation through them.
Long live pretenses.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The anthem of the deluded

Image
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vKDOWAf5M8&feature=player_embedded Sorry, can't seem to embed it here...  See this new commercial by coca-cola. Coca-cola: the glorious fizz drink maker who are making this world better by spreading happiness apparently (through making us drink pesticide laced poison and depleting our water table and spreading violence against labor union & wreaking local communities in  Guatemala and many other places) This wonderful ad comes at a wonderful time in the history of the world. The planning team did an impeccable job, I must say. The world is in deep shit. People need consolation. People want to hear that the world will be better again. They can go gorge on ridiculous amounts of cheese, steaks and Mchumanity without any consequence. And lo and behold... the ad delivers exactly that. However i have this urge to rip apart this charade of idiotic optimism which is nothing short of criminal. its perpetuating exactly the same mindset that
Read more

Why I repair my shoe

I have 3 shoes. One formal, One sport shoe and another a mix of the two. The last one is particularly awesome, cause of its uniqueness. It looks like a formal shoe, but is as comfortable and flexible as a sport shoe. I bought it for my first job in Mumbai. I was newly rich and was expected to behave like one. I found this gem of pure black leather in a Colaba Causeway showroom. Quite a find. But its been almost two years now and the shoe shows its age. For all its awesomeness, its quite a weak shoe, to give out so early. I have stitched it, got new laces, and strengthened its sole. It doesn't look shiny anymore cause the leather has suffered from a few hostile trespasses. I think, like a man, things too should be allowed to carry their scars. Shiny scar-less men are just so... irrelevant.  Since childhood, I have been used to using things for long times. Clothes, equipments, shoes etc. I can't just throw things away cause they don't look as good anymore or they don't
Read more

new pov

i am in dire need of a new thought structure, a new point of view, a new way to look at things around me. I have been through quite a few such iterations. The first prism that I looked through during my school days was pure science. Tales of great discoveries and inventions greatly affected me and instilled in me a hunger that still burns in me, for constant search of new genius, of new things, of inventions of my own, of constantly seeking alternate views, of being the first in the world at something. I acquired (more or less.. more less than more. :P) the tool that would help me in it, namely, REASON. This tool had a great role in defining me, helping me find and appreciate the beauty around. It also led me to a generation of a few ideas of my own, and as such introduced me to the utter pleasure of creation. It helped me understand the physical, palpable world around. Then things happened that introduced me to the looking glass of Philosophy & Spirituality. Reason sets up storms,
Read more