‘We Make Our World Uninhabitable!’

Now, read that AGAIN! 

Think deeply about what I just said. What’s the first thing that comes to mind?

You might probably think I am talking about the environment. About how, WE are responsible for digging up and burning fossil fuels, causing global warming, causing wildlife extinction, etc. Well, as apt as this statement applies around the environment and ecology, that’s not close to what I want to talk about today.

I am talking about how ‘WE’ make this world inhabitable for people like ‘US’.

Evolution began millions of years ago. From being mindless apes who did as they pleased, to developing into a complex beings that are able to think, communicate and follow instincts. We evolved from man’s basic human needs of ‘Food, shelter and clothing’ to an extended list that includes ‘Sanitation, education and healthcare’. 

Yes, we developed!

We put together a civilisation, we developed languages, we created systems and laws to help us and we did a whole list of other worldly things which now seem so normal and at time, just obvious or primitive. 

But let me ask you this. Did you ever wonder about who ‘We’ in the above context is?

Was it unanimous? (Representative democracy as a concept did not exist until the later part of the 13th century), or was it just a bunch of self-proclaimed, mentally or physically superior individuals, who grabbed power or decided amongst themselves about what is good for everybody and did as they pleased.

I very often ponder about that tipping point when evolution became so skewed that one section of the world simply forced another to follow them, believe them and in some cases suppress them? 

But as always, nobody could prove Darwin wrong and just like he’d said, the world kept evolving. Only this time, challenging the same systems and societies that were an outcome of evolution to now being replaced by a new system which actually focuses on concepts of ‘standardisation’ under the guise of equality for all.

How is it that appearing for a common set of examinations provides you an access to thousands of different jobs over different fields/industries? 

In a world with 7 billion people, who we presume have 7 billion souls, each one with a unique set of genetics which is totally different from the other, each one evolving in their own unique way honing their own unique abilities and yet here we stand, with one common exam that’s going to prove our aptitude to determine if we are capable enough to have further access to our field of choice.

And yet, here we are, trying to bring in a new system because that panned out so well for us in the past. Makes me wonder, are we actually learning from our mistakes? If we are, then why are we trying to create a perfect society when at the crux of it, the people (all of us) are imperfect or perfect in our unique way.

Yes, we need structure. Yes, that’s what has fueled our progress and set us apart from all the other species on this planet. But it has also made us arrogant and narcissistic enough to believe that we know the best for everybody around us. 

Yup, ALL OF US believe that. 

Even today, in an ecosystem consisting strictly of human beings, we can find tiers of people beginning from the top level who consider themselves superior and look down upon others. People who force their will because they think they know better.

Now bear with me as I bring an ironical analogy to your attention.

A tiny baby with the most primitive brain, is provided with unconditional love, support and nourishment to enable its growth. A soul given all the freedom in the world, because countless studies have proved the fact that this is the best way for it’s mental development and growth. For this innocent soul, the grass could be blue and the sky could be black.

And slowly as that primitive brain develops, becoming more and more capable of being independent, do we subject it to rules so that it doesn’t wander off; Or as I like to call it, ‘does not become independent or creative enough to challenge every rule that we’ve made and prove us wrong’ (we all do that subconsciously).

It is funny how an underdeveloped 4 year old uneducated brain has more freedom to think and grow on its own than a 20 year old developed and knowledgeable brain, which is told at every step about what is doing wrong or when it is crossing a line.

7 billion people. 7 billion brains. 7 billion life spans. 7 billion growth trajectories. And yet, every 16 year old is expected to score well in a standardised test; every 25 year old is expected to get a job and be independent and every 65 year old is expected to retire. 

A world with over 7000 billion permutations and combinations of people and behaviours, and we still standardise everything because that’s just fucking easy. THE IRONY!!

Want to know something more ironical? 

You’re constantly told about how much smarter you are compared to your parents or ancestors, or how you’re privileged to have access to so many more resources than they did. Isn’t ‘You just have to Google it’ a response you hear too often for when they ‘EXPECT’ you to learn something new?

And yet somehow, your smartness is always going to be challenged and belittled against their experience. Their ‘Experience’ from a past world that doesn’t exist anymore. Their ‘Experience’ that enables and encourages them to think they can predict the future, YOUR FUTURE, while it continues to let you down, and humanity down as a whole.

ONE BIG FAT FUCKING IRONY.

Evolution made us smarter and we made our lives easier. Only to evolve further and begin complicating it again because now we’re just too smart to deal with simplicity. 

To be told, the world is a better place than it used to be. Is it though?