Don’t blame me blame SOCIETY!

Thoreau -- “Rather than love, than money, than fairness, give me truth.” 

We do not choose our parents, or our brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and so on. In short we do not choose where we are born, just like we do not have any say in the time when we enter this world. If astrology is to be believed, our time of birth and the position of the zodiac have a tremendous influence on our future lives. Similarly, if genetics is to be believed, the genes we inherit from our parents are equally if not more, influential. The kind of person we are in the extremely early years of our lives are almost totally dependant on our genetic make up and the zodiac, neither of which did we choose with free will.

 

Next begins the period when we grow or are brought up. Besides the above-mentioned factors, certain others contribute in this phase. These include our family, especially parents, the environment, which includes the climate as well as the financial, social and mental status of the people around us, plus what we eat, what we hear, what we see etc. and obviously we do not have any control whatsoever on any of these. As we grow up we start making friends. Although this might seem like a free decision, it is actually dominated by the influences of all the above factors as well as the school, if any, that we are enrolled in. The choice of school is again not our own. What we learn in the school or from the street is again not our free choice. We perceive whatever is thrown at us without our permission, and learn from it based on our personality traits, none of which are of our own making. To cut a long story short, we get to the age of maturity with a personality that has been formed by factors that were beyond our control.

Once mature, we start taking decisions that, apparently, are a manifestation of free will. But are they really free? Are they free from all the prejudices that have been produced in our minds by our earlier years when we did not have any freedom to choose what was happening with our lives? I am afraid not. What we perceive as free will is so greatly influenced by our genes, what we learnt in our earliest years, the education we got, our social circle, our experiences and our observations that in view of the fact that we do not get to choose any of the factors, it cannot be termed as free at all.

 

And we don’t stop being influenced by forces beyond our control. We start doing what is acceptable in the society and abstaining from what is not. We try to move on a path set by the people at large and make efforts to get ahead of everyone else on this path. It is paradoxical that such a huge number of people follow a certain way of life because the others are following it. If that is the reason why every single one of us follows it, would it not be relevant to ask who these ‘others’ are. Would it be necessary for all to change the path at once if it has to be changed at all?

 

On a different note please do read the lyrics of the song Society by Eddie Vedder from the soundtrack of movie (true story) Into The Wild which is also a must see J

 

Society

 

Oh it's a mystery to me.

We have a greed, with which we have agreed...

and you think you have to want more than you need...

until you have it all, you won't be free.

 

Society, you're a crazy breed.

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

 

When you want more than you have, you think you need...

and when you think more then you want, your thoughts begin to bleed.

I think I need to find a bigger place...

cause when you have more than you think, you need more space.

 

Society, you're a crazy breed.

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

Society, crazy indeed...

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

 

There's those thinkin' more or less, less is more,

but if less is more, how you keepin' score?

It means for every point you make, your level drops.

Kinda like you're startin' from the top...

and you can't do that.

 

Society, you're a crazy breed.

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

Society, crazy indeed...

I hope you're not lonely, without me

Society, have mercy on me.

I hope you're not angry, if I disagree.

Society, crazy indeed.

I hope you're not lonely...

without me.