Life is a journey. At every step there are crossroads and then there are dilemmas to find the right or just answer to the questions that face us. It is often said that these decisions decide what we are and what we become as we travel this arduous yet ravishing consortium of paths/challenges called life. Great minds have defined people by the meaning of their life which is the result of all the decisions we take over time and the more justified or ethical these decisions appear to be, the more meaningful the journey is said to be. To be concise, it is believed that our actions define our lives which define us.
To me, it would only be surmising to define oneself on the above said terms. I don’t, completely, approve of the idea that actions define someone. I understand that it is in the innate nature of human beings to always challenge the established societal norms and treat any well-understood idea as facile. Human instinct is always uncouth, unethical and evil and given a chance to unleash this force with no obligations what-so-ever, we would not have to restrict ourselves the way we do. As we mature, we realize that the world does not behave on first instincts and we slowly understand that eventually one has to put on this cloak of hypocrisy called ‘moral or ethical living’. No matter what we think, the outer demeanour should be justified in every sense of the word and over time we get so used to this idea of noble thinking that we actually start believing that we are moral or ethical sapiens.
Let’s take a simple scenario. Say a man X has a friend Y who is shot and will die if not taken to a hospital immediately. Also if X stays it is more than likely that he also will be shot and be dead in no time as he is a witness and a potential threat to the perpetrators. My first instinct would tell me to run away from there and leave the dying man on his own. Doing this would sound very unmoral and may be people will call me coward. However, running away from there only shows that I value my life and am not ready to so easily let it go for anyone. I am sure you have started judging me already but for once throw away and look beyond your hood of so-called morality.
More so, PMS or adultery does not sound that bad to me at first thought( I am only enjoying my life in either cases and taking a sidewalk from the normal. A little pondering folks!) but this euphemised hypocrisy has so badly taken over me that just the idea of these concepts sounding right to me seems sinful. At every step in our day-to-day life we idealize and promote this hypocrisy.
Perhaps if everyone starts to act on their instincts the world would become more chaotic and unsafe place to dwell but I am not looking at the big picture here. I just want to somehow rationalize some of my unpleasant thoughts which make me feel low. Lately I have been getting this feeling that humans are designed to be this way. It is only how well we train ourselves to overcome these coarse thoughts.
In a nutshell, my actions don’t define me as a person rather they only show how well I understand my role as a social being. It is only ironic that society tends to place higher regards for these hypocrite men who call themselves ethical and just.
Do a moral check on yourselves and see if I am wrong. Let your wildest thoughts take shape and tell me they are unfathomable. If you still think your instincts are pristinely moral then, perhaps, you are sunken so deep in this mire that you have actually forgotten the taste of fresh air!
Cheers,
Piyush.
