A Weblog
Friday, February 24, 2006
Motive Power
Dedicated to Trinity Teal :-)
"Don't ask so many questions, children should be seen and not heard!"-"Who are you to think?" "It's so, because I say so!"-"Don't argue,obey!"-"Don't try to understand,believe!"-"Don't rebel,adjust!"-"Don't stand out,belong!"-"Don't struggle, compromise!"-"Your heart is more important than your mind!"-"Who are you to know?Your parents know best!"-"Who are you to know?"Society knows best!"...."Who are you to object?All values are relative...."
Sometimes, while reading a novel, we feel tat the author has struck a common chord wit us. Well tas wat exactly i felt when i read these lines in the novel,"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. The above quoted words form but one part of a complex story interwoven wit philosophy. Trust me its been a bitter pill to swallow. You may ask why. For atleast in my life, I had been a puritan. Notice "had been" :( Because, in this wide wild world, sometime or the other one is forced to become impure. Not that there are nt puritans around but they are lesser in number even compared to the citizens of Atlantis in the novel(Atlantis is lyk the last resort of all puritans). Now wat or who is a puritan?In simple terms, one who thinks before acting. I don wanna go deep into the philosophy of Objectivism but wat i have said above results in a conflict of interest(or rather ideologies) wit ppl who believe or rather lead to believe tat terz this mystic force behind all our actions. Watever said and done, Objectivism does sound a little bit idealistic to me. Therez one thing tho which struck me:"Happiness is the successful state of life, pain is an agent of death. Happiness is tat state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values..A morality tat dares to value the failure of your values is an insolent negation of morality"
Now, I guess I hve totally deviated from the purpose of the post.Havent we heard the above stated words quite often in our life??Especially during our school life??When we were brought up thinking that to question and think is a crime. When choice of schooling and even college was made even before we knew wat they meant. When none of us were heard and some of us were not even seen? Whenever we envied tat student not because of his/her innate talent and hardwork but proximity to "thos who matter"?We fought harder only to be overlooked.A friend of mine told me long time back that it wud be dumb to fight and better to adjust. Yeah!!Adjust....compromise...accept fate..move on..be another brick on the wall..we all have done these things without realising one thing:we have someway or the other successfully stopped the motor. Stopped the motive power within us. The power essential for us to keep moving in a straight line in this universe. Instead we keep moving in circles thats leading us to nowhere and losing everything and clinging onto just one thing:Hope. The eternal hope for a John Galt to come and save us. Save us and take us to Atlantis. To break the Wall.
PS:
This post was not only inspired from Atlas Shrugged but also by the songs of Pink Floyd. We had the band, Parikrama play in our college today and they did an awesome job:).
"Don't ask so many questions, children should be seen and not heard!"-"Who are you to think?" "It's so, because I say so!"-"Don't argue,obey!"-"Don't try to understand,believe!"-"Don't rebel,adjust!"-"Don't stand out,belong!"-"Don't struggle, compromise!"-"Your heart is more important than your mind!"-"Who are you to know?Your parents know best!"-"Who are you to know?"Society knows best!"...."Who are you to object?All values are relative...."Sometimes, while reading a novel, we feel tat the author has struck a common chord wit us. Well tas wat exactly i felt when i read these lines in the novel,"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. The above quoted words form but one part of a complex story interwoven wit philosophy. Trust me its been a bitter pill to swallow. You may ask why. For atleast in my life, I had been a puritan. Notice "had been" :( Because, in this wide wild world, sometime or the other one is forced to become impure. Not that there are nt puritans around but they are lesser in number even compared to the citizens of Atlantis in the novel(Atlantis is lyk the last resort of all puritans). Now wat or who is a puritan?In simple terms, one who thinks before acting. I don wanna go deep into the philosophy of Objectivism but wat i have said above results in a conflict of interest(or rather ideologies) wit ppl who believe or rather lead to believe tat terz this mystic force behind all our actions. Watever said and done, Objectivism does sound a little bit idealistic to me. Therez one thing tho which struck me:"Happiness is the successful state of life, pain is an agent of death. Happiness is tat state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values..A morality tat dares to value the failure of your values is an insolent negation of morality"
Now, I guess I hve totally deviated from the purpose of the post.Havent we heard the above stated words quite often in our life??Especially during our school life??When we were brought up thinking that to question and think is a crime. When choice of schooling and even college was made even before we knew wat they meant. When none of us were heard and some of us were not even seen? Whenever we envied tat student not because of his/her innate talent and hardwork but proximity to "thos who matter"?We fought harder only to be overlooked.A friend of mine told me long time back that it wud be dumb to fight and better to adjust. Yeah!!Adjust....compromise...accept fate..move on..be another brick on the wall..we all have done these things without realising one thing:we have someway or the other successfully stopped the motor. Stopped the motive power within us. The power essential for us to keep moving in a straight line in this universe. Instead we keep moving in circles thats leading us to nowhere and losing everything and clinging onto just one thing:Hope. The eternal hope for a John Galt to come and save us. Save us and take us to Atlantis. To break the Wall.PS:
This post was not only inspired from Atlas Shrugged but also by the songs of Pink Floyd. We had the band, Parikrama play in our college today and they did an awesome job:).
13 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
oge ... luks like u referred to the 'another brik in da wall' thing ...
:-)
i am envious, but i will surely catch pf performing that track rather than shrieky indian rockers...
man !!! u r really gettin into my line of talk :-).. u had to one day or the other.. i knew tat long back.. welcome to the club of the immovable movers dude ...great post dude... u have done a great job with Rand :)
u said u r insane then y reading books??want 2 become sane?
OI ...
Many Danx for the dedication :-)
I'm touched .. :P ...
Besides we ppl will never just be yet 'bricks on the wall'!!!
Rand lovers!!
Join the club man!!!
Thot provoking post dude!
Infact al' o' us r goin thru the same phase of self-introspection...
First it was you.. and then teal.
The rebel in you is coming out I guess. I'd like to quote George Bernard Shaw here..
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. Go Ahead...Be Unreasonable
I aint calling you unresaonable.. :D Anyways nice post. People like us can never be another brick in the wall. If we do happen to be one, I bet the wall would collapse. ;)
First it was you.. and then teal.
The rebel in you is coming out I guess. I'd like to quote George Bernard Shaw here..
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. Go Ahead...Be Unreasonable
I aint calling you unresaonable.. :D Anyways nice post. People like us can never be another brick in the wall. If we do happen to be one, I bet the wall would collapse. ;)
hey viv...havin realised so much...still wanna be a brick on de wall???how come u never fought back...u still cud...did ya???live up to ur name mann..."De Rebel" lol
hey ...
sis told me abt raagam ..... she was unavailable on her cell till about 12:00 in the night --- why am i not surprised !
we can always break outta conformity and soceity's rules ... but to do so , we should be ready to stand alone ...
Roark did the same in FH.
dont think too much abt this ... after sometime , u'll learn to live life on ur terms ...
@Teal
Shrieky???Parikrama did a gr8 job..n reg PF...do temme wheneva u go :D n always welcome ;)
@Mighty Titan
Rand has been an eye opener da..thnx machcha...if it hadn been for u..i wudn hve completed it :)
@Hell's Angel
He he he...is ter a rule tat insane ppl shdn read books?? :P
@Demonic Dude
Thnx yaar..even i found Rand 2 b idealistic..but some kinda realization did happen wit me i guess..n welcome 2 my blog :)
@Rohini
Oh...i jus kept thinkin for cpl of days when i read tat "Tis is John Galt speakin" thing...it was too much to take..:O
@The optimist from Utopia
Actually after reading the book..i realised tat i had been a brick in te wall for quite sometime...but duno in wat way te "realisation" is gonna affect me :O
@Bhavna Neel
Long time No see!!well parikrama vr gr8...i cudn listen 2 te college band since i arrived late :((
@Pavithra
Nope...don wanna be a brick in the wall...lol..
@Deepa
Ragam was ulti fun this time...te biggest Ragam ever :D
Reg te self introspection...well i realised i was doin too much of it...to stand alone...hmm...thinkin abt it rite now...:D
Post a Comment
<< Home