We, the Millenials.
Do you ever wonder about the greatness of human civilization and our inventions?
Think about the last time you picked up your phone to send a message. The sheer amount of complexity involved in delivering that message is astonishing. Or for instance, maybe think about the chair that you’re sitting on right now. Odds are, it’s made out of plastic. Plastic that wasn’t really the shape and colour you see it in today. Someone somewhere decided to mould it into a chair. They thought it’d be a good way to give you much-needed relief from standing.
Off-late, humans have achieved an immense amount of success in science and technology. Today, we have people casually chit-chatting about a trip to the edge of space. Students are advised to undergo STEM education, aiming for them to become the next big scientist. While all of this certainly helps society forge ahead to a much more convenient future, are we really imbibing the humaneness of our existence — the ability to think through and reflect on our choices rationally. This is the job of philosophy. To reflect and narrate the realities of our world, in order to enable us to act on them much more effectively.
Somehow, we need to bring technology and philosophy together.
If there’s anything I’ve learnt in the past few months from the pandemic, it’s that we are all the same. We are all fragile, and vulnerable to the same diseases. We are all afraid of death.
Incidentally, there’s something interesting here too. As technology adoption increased, and as we went on inventing gadgets after gadgets, we built an inner conscience that reinforced the belief in self-worth. Humans started thinking of themselves as the master of the world. We could organize businesses, solve problems, communicate conflicts and discuss friendships. To an extent, we could do everything. We desired control. Control in all aspects of life. Except for death.
The point I am trying to make is that a pandemic is an event that puts forth our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. As a civilization drugged to the idea of technology disruption, fueled by mainstream media, we started thinking of ourselves as the ultimate winner. In reality, we are not the ultimate winners. We can never be the ultimate winners as long as we cannot conquer immortality.
My request to you is to spend a few hours a week thinking about the concept of death. Contemporary society marginalizes death. An article in the Guardian says “I think the UK and the US are death-denying cultures, in that death is mostly avoided as a topic,”.
As millennials highly influenced by western ideologies and way of living, we need to keep this thought reverberating in our mind. Death is inevitable, and so, as Steve Jobs once said,
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
Go out and make your presence count. Do things that you value. Be a part of the society, give back to it, but never let the idea of conquering it take over.
Remember, we are not here to win a race. We are here to live a life.
