Why is it that we do what we do? What I am referring to is the fact that we segregate people according to our likes and dislikes. Why do we categorize people into "us" and "them". Why is it always that "us", meaning "We" are the better ones, we are smarter, we are good and we give all these labels to ourselves, just because we are different from "them".
Oh it doesn't seem to matter, if "they" are smarter, and records are there to prove it, but we shun them and say, "oh he did well in his studies because he cheated, or things like some other higher authority would have pulled some strings". Why is it that we can't accept our defeat, why are we such sore losers that we blame everyone on earth for failures except to look within, to gain the insight and see that maybe, just maybe the problem lies here, within us.
Why do we judge, especially when someone is different from us? We ridicule them, we call them names, just because they do not follow the norms of the society. The norms that "we" created for everyone to follow. When someone defies, when he voices out things that we are afraid to say, what do we do? We laugh at him, we again ridicule and shun him. Just because, he is now not like us anymore. He is different, and hence he is not normal.
Norms, normal, abnormal, how can we ever separate people into categories when all of us are somewhat abnormal. We are all different aren't we, and every community and society is different. We all have our quirks and differences, but it saddens me to say that we rather disregard our differences and our uniqueness, just to fit the bill, to fit what the community and society call norm, basically to be just like "them". Year after year, decades after decades, so many things change, yet we hold on the notion that when someone is different, if he behaves differently, if he says something we wouldn't voice-out, if he likes things that we deem weird, we call him abnormal.
Whatever happened to individual rights, and freedom of being who you really are. If we really needed to conform to what the society expects of us, don't you think we would all be created exactly the same? Why did He take extra time to make each one of us different? And yet, in our ignorance, we subject ourselves to this mental torture, we keep our ideas on hold, afraid what would others think of us, we hide our true identity afraid people will shun and ridicule us, and slowly, we begin to lose our true self, our uniqueness, our individuality, just because we got to be the sheep, and just like what my friend Vijay often says, we form the herd mentality, we wait for orders, we are afraid to move beyond our comfort zone, and yet we ridicule those who do.
With this note, let us reflect on M.J. Just how many of us ridiculed him, just because he was different, because he wanted to look different? How many of us believed the stories of him being a pedophile and we developed a distaste for him, though his music speaks beyond nations and colour? It was so easy to disregard a person, to believe the worst in them and pretend, that we are higher, mightier, better. Maybe with this, perhaps it is time for us to stop and change. Lets stop laughing at someone just because he/she is fashion-challenged, lets not laugh at the slow kid in class, lets not bully those who can't conform, lets not make fun of those we deem crazy and mental, but rather let us be who we are, and let others be who they want to be. Lets love and accept, for only through that we shine, and we grow, collectively beautiful, inside and out.
Rest in Peace M.J.
Oh it doesn't seem to matter, if "they" are smarter, and records are there to prove it, but we shun them and say, "oh he did well in his studies because he cheated, or things like some other higher authority would have pulled some strings". Why is it that we can't accept our defeat, why are we such sore losers that we blame everyone on earth for failures except to look within, to gain the insight and see that maybe, just maybe the problem lies here, within us.
Why do we judge, especially when someone is different from us? We ridicule them, we call them names, just because they do not follow the norms of the society. The norms that "we" created for everyone to follow. When someone defies, when he voices out things that we are afraid to say, what do we do? We laugh at him, we again ridicule and shun him. Just because, he is now not like us anymore. He is different, and hence he is not normal.
Norms, normal, abnormal, how can we ever separate people into categories when all of us are somewhat abnormal. We are all different aren't we, and every community and society is different. We all have our quirks and differences, but it saddens me to say that we rather disregard our differences and our uniqueness, just to fit the bill, to fit what the community and society call norm, basically to be just like "them". Year after year, decades after decades, so many things change, yet we hold on the notion that when someone is different, if he behaves differently, if he says something we wouldn't voice-out, if he likes things that we deem weird, we call him abnormal.
Whatever happened to individual rights, and freedom of being who you really are. If we really needed to conform to what the society expects of us, don't you think we would all be created exactly the same? Why did He take extra time to make each one of us different? And yet, in our ignorance, we subject ourselves to this mental torture, we keep our ideas on hold, afraid what would others think of us, we hide our true identity afraid people will shun and ridicule us, and slowly, we begin to lose our true self, our uniqueness, our individuality, just because we got to be the sheep, and just like what my friend Vijay often says, we form the herd mentality, we wait for orders, we are afraid to move beyond our comfort zone, and yet we ridicule those who do.
With this note, let us reflect on M.J. Just how many of us ridiculed him, just because he was different, because he wanted to look different? How many of us believed the stories of him being a pedophile and we developed a distaste for him, though his music speaks beyond nations and colour? It was so easy to disregard a person, to believe the worst in them and pretend, that we are higher, mightier, better. Maybe with this, perhaps it is time for us to stop and change. Lets stop laughing at someone just because he/she is fashion-challenged, lets not laugh at the slow kid in class, lets not bully those who can't conform, lets not make fun of those we deem crazy and mental, but rather let us be who we are, and let others be who they want to be. Lets love and accept, for only through that we shine, and we grow, collectively beautiful, inside and out.
Rest in Peace M.J.
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