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My mom always emphasized that I inculcate the art of individualism and originality, for she believed, these traits would help me recognize my true self at a point in near future, where most of the people would be having a tough time finding their true selves.
So, a few days back, Shreedhar and I were talking about stuff, and we realized that many people have read the works of Shakespeare, Whitman and Wordsworth. We quote their aphorisms, we perceive the world with their perspective, we administer their philosophy and we appreciate their grandeur. But how many of us take cues and go on giving our own aphorisms? perceive the world with our own eyes? Form our own philosophies? Give the world something new to think upon?
If we just read content, and be content with it, then this world will soon be out of new and perhaps better ideas and perspectives.
Each one of us should start considering it an obligation to create; create something new, give people a different, a better angle.
Today I look at people, and find them exhibiting their derived personalities. The characteristics which they have derived from everything that’s around them, from books, from reality shows, from social media and from their peers.
Amen to the fact, that given our socialization, we tend to derive traits, but solely living and believing derived attributes without adding something of your own is a dangerous proposition.
People, by the virtue of expansive technology and media, are aware of a lot of things, but the problem is, they are only aware of things, and a very less fraction actually does something with their awareness.
The need right now is, that people form informed opinions about the issues they come across. They must work out their brains and find solutions to problems instead of merely stating them and all of this may be attained if one learns individualism, where one forms his own ideas, where one is not dictated by societal opinions.
A term that also comes to my mind and is associated to this discussion is authenticity.
Now authenticity in simple terms would be – ‘being who we really are’.
In this era where we are constantly supplied with sundry of seemingly better alternatives, we tend to greatly diminish the meaning we can derive from the life we live, by choosing an option that doesn’t really reflect our inner selves, and end up being shaped by those ‘seemingly better options’
* abrupt ending for lack of a good, self made aphorism *
Written by Ruhul Amin of Second Year.
