Our culture has gifted us with insights into the nature of the universe and the scheme of life and death, but today our obsession with a lifestyle that ignores questioning and skepticism has brought us to a decline. We emerged as a civilization of thinkers and scientists; alas we have demoted ourselves as slaves of our own political and economic bias. Rajit Roy
Nehru in his Independence Day speech had remarked-“A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the long suppressed soul of a nation finds utterance.” Today, 70 years after freedom, as we look at our India, we fail to reconcile with that utterance that was long sought. As a democracy, we have indeed gone far; we have evolved as a republic, but so far as our intellectual and philosophical culture is concerned, our progress seems stagnant. We are no longer the guardians of knowledge that we used to be. Our religious ego has banished the legacy of our philosophical quest. In the stream of shallow modernity, we have forsaken the grandeur of our thoughts. At the CERN laboratory in Geneva, the particle accelerator is guarded by an image of Shiva, performing his tandava as a symbol of the dynamism of cosmos. Our culture has gifted us with insights into the nature of the universe and the scheme of life and death, but today our obsession with a lifestyle that ignores questioning and skepticism has brought us to a decline. We emerged as a civilization of thinkers and scientists; alas we have demoted ourselves as slaves of our own political and economic bias. In our universities today, we no longer engage in discourses, we are too preoccupied with our grading system. Science has lost its charm amidst the desperate crowd of technology and the race for recognition. On Independence Day, I find it fitting that we introspect on our journey, as individuals and as a society, as a civilization in fact, and put our efforts in trying to answer the questions of our conscience. Our progress largely depends on how well we understand our legacy, how well we preserve our heritage, and how efficiently we evolve as an assortment of ideas and philosophy. “We are not cabin-dwellers, born to a life cramped and confined; we are meant to explore, to seek, to push the limits of our potential as human beings. The world of the senses is just a base camp: we are meant to be as much at home in consciousness as in the world of physical reality.” ~The Gita
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The frailty of our existence, the futile nature of life- that’s what one can contemplate on when the world bares itself to us. There is no inherent purpose to life, our existence is a pretence that feeds us with the drug of self-consciousness and ego, and ultimately annihilation is nature’s secret law of survival. Disturbing as these observations might look like, a close retrospection can make it more believable than any value system or faith that sustains us as beings trapped in the abyss of time. Rajit Roy
Over the years, the Joker from DC Universe has become a celebrated villain. His horrifying smile, his repulsive giggle has become a quintessential part of every account of the dark alleys of the comic book world. As Batman’s most challenging antagonist, the Joker has become a defining character in the Dark Knight’s renditions. However, there is another side to his story. For a student of philosophy, or in fact for anyone with a mind for introspection, the Joker has also been a fascinating study subject. His philosophy offers a heavy dose of nihilism and presents a worldview which, sadly enough, seems more relevant than ever. First, let’s look at his theory on morality. Their morals, their rules, it’s just a bad joke-dropped at the first sign of trouble. They are only as good as the world allows them to be. You will see when the stakes are down, these civilized people, they will eat each other. Doesn’t it seem more real than what is convenient? Our world is a world where each individual thrives on his own conscious decisions. Nonetheless, as animals (yes, that’s what we are despite of our self-delusions), we are prone to nature’s cruelty. Look what we have done to ourselves. We killed each other in the name of value systems that we had invented. We made bombs to blow each other up, justifying our choice through diplomacy of defense. Morality and ethics seem to be a grand scheme of deception that we invented to cope up with our own desperation and organic vindictiveness. The Joker just got it right. Moreover, perhaps the one phrase that I personally relate with the most- Everything burns! As Alfred remarks in The Dark Knight- “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” Not that I completely sympathize with the Joker’s pessimism, but yes, everything does burn away, isn’t it? The frailty of our existence, the futile nature of life- that’s what one can contemplate on when the world bares itself to us. There is no inherent purpose to life, our existence is a pretence that feeds us with the drug of self-consciousness and ego, and ultimately annihilation is nature’s secret law of survival. Disturbing as these observations might look like, a close retrospection can make it more believable than any value system or faith that sustains us as beings trapped in the abyss of time. Nevertheless, as the Joker remarks- Why so serious? |
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Rajit Roy
An existential romantic, an agnostic and a prospective biologist. Archives
September 2018
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