Draw your own line

You know what the problem with the world is? No one dares to differ. Everyone has to walk on the line that "society" has drawn for us. A little diversion from the path is considered deviance. People loathe those who try to be different; those who try to make their voices clearly heard amidst the din of noise; those who try to draw their own lines for themselves. They make sure that they frown upon these deviants and make the world a living hell for them. All they know is that these are deviants flouting the societal laws, but no one tries to figure out why. They think they are the torchbearers of social norms, and they fail to understand that each individual comes with a different set of answers to those existential questions that most people have in common to ask themselves. Even the loved ones join hands against the deviants that were thrust on them in the name of genealogy. They are concerned that this blood-related deviant would “go astray” if they show any signs of individualism. But what if they don’t? What if there is a possibility, remote though it “sounds”, that these deviant buds bloom more fully in a different soil, consuming different water, different air, and still be part of the same tree? And what about their concept of blooming? What if success to them does not mean whiling away in the plush chairs of their AC office chambers, but being in a place doing what they are good at, trying to be at peace with themselves, not blaming anyone else for the mess that their life is? What if success for them is not growing up in a world that measures success using the paycheque as a scale, but in a world where the sole purpose of life is not being successful, and doing what makes you happy is successful.

But instead, why are we made to repeat other people’s mistakes, and prevented from making our own? When we make our own mistakes, we have ourselves to blame; but when we repeat other’s blunders, it is a whole culture that grows blind to the fact that it is a mistake. Everyone is too busy following the line to point out its crookedness. They believe that if everyone else is doing the same thing, then it must be the right thing to do. The tendency to make decisions that are popular rather than meaningful (refer Janis, in a phenomenon called “Group Think”). And as such, we fail to understand that we are living other’s mistakes, and reliving them, and encouraging generation-to-come to do the same. All the beginnings and endings in the world will be the same…

People say that there are so many options and alternatives available today, as a justification for having followed the herd in their times. But what is the point of having new options if we cannot deal with the neglect of the existing ones? Many of these “new alternatives” will be lines drawn over the existing ones, and most of us would trace our steps forward on these lines. A large part of these “new alternatives” would have a few deviants drawing their own lines, ridiculed by society as they struggle with their lines in a culture unreceptive of individual lines. Maybe I stretched the metaphor too far, but that is exactly how far this farce of follow-the-herd attitude has been extended. But my point is not to be different for the sake of it, or for standing out. My point is, be what you decide to be, and be accountable for that decision, whether or not a 100 people agree.