Day 10: Let’s take a moment

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? If time, money, none of it was a factor, what would you decide? Would you go to a calm, peaceful place where you could lie around and relax? Or would you go on an adventure, figuring out your path as and when you went? Or would you be so organized, you’d know exactly what you’d be doing, to the minute, 3 months before you even booked the tickets? Would you want to be backpacking or would you want to spend all your time in a luxury resort?

There are just so many options aren’t there? You could be doing literally anything, especially in the current era. There are so many possibilities and ways to make money, with the access to information that we have and the opportunities like never before in the history of the world. So, yeah, you COULD actually be doing whatever the hell you want. You could be making money just travelling and living your life, which is something a lot of people really do exploit. From people like Sorelle Amore to the Kardashians, people have leveraged this opportune time in the world. And yet most of us keep trying to be doctors of medicine and engineers of things. There’s not a lot of diversity there.

In a world where we could just be doing whatever the fuck we want, we keep getting subsumed into society at large. Most of us don’t do it for ourselves, I mean even the parents and families who pressure their kids into these paths, don’t do it for themselves. It’s just what they’ve known. Because profession is so tightly wound into our identities. It’s not just people who are in need of money that want their kids to have a better life and future than they could make for themselves, it’s everyone who wants a place on that social ladder. Climb, or stay where you are, but never take a step toward anything else.

Being a part of a nation that’s supposedly a developing one, and being part of communities that have gotten to where they have through hard work and tenacity, it only makes sense to take the road that ensures success at all levels. And that’s exactly why this world exists, right? The system, the structure, it’s shaped in a way that the average person has the best chance they could at success. If you think about it, from the moment you enter society at the tender age of maybe 2 or 3, joining a school and being part of a class, to college and then a steady job, that’s what we all want right?

Now let’s think about that. When you’re in school or college, you have a bunch of information to learn, understand and remember. The basic requirement in these institutions is this: provide a particular amount of information and only such information that the average 2-year-old or 5-year-old or 16-year-old is able to comprehend and understand. Which is why you see that difference, some who excel at what they’re given and some who struggle with the same.

The same applies to the latter stages too. And to simplify all of it, there are these standardized tests mainly focusing on very narrow topics and narrower skills and abilities.

Here I think, it’s important to define what we meant by success earlier. Success is of course personal and holds a very particular meaning to every individual. But in a mindless society, we take what’s given to us and place it in our minds labelling it as the truth. So when we say, “the average person has the best chance they could at success”, what we mean is a stable income, a chance at a life where you have the best chance at having a good job (there are of course other things in the list like the choice of spouse, etc but today we’re focusing on just this). Again, here, the “good” job is an expectation defined by society as to what qualifies as good.

If we were to try to be the best versions of ourselves, we would far exceed all of this. The point with creating the best chances for success with this societal system is minimal effort, maximal return and most of all least of the least risk, i.e., least chance of failure. And THAT is something we need as people who are only now getting their footing and being able to live that life where you have food every day, a roof over your head and the possibility of a simple life isn’t a far-fetched dream.

Will try to continue with this theme.

Day 10, hon.

Goodnight!