Questions and questions!!!

I have been thinking…
What is progress? Who defines this progress? Why should one progress? Why do we need goals? Why do we need accolades? Why do we need career graphs? Why do we need personal milestones? Why do we need a vision?

Statistics and History, both say that “WINNERS” had vision, goals and made progress to achieve their personal milestones and the accolades were showered on them for their progress. But who are winners? Are they the people who are claimed winners by the society? Are they the people who are in the history books, whose stories I had to study during school? Or are they those, who I stumbled upon in the library to quench my thirst of reading books? Then, what about the numerous others who succeeded but did not lay a claim to the big apple of fame and what about all those who fought valiantly in the face of defeat and still stood their ground, even though they fought for a lost cause? Who decides who a winner is? Just because few had a chance to showcase their name in the history books, does not mean that they alone are winners and just because there is a common belief that, they who have fame and power are successful, does not mean they are successful.

Is it not “we” who give a voice to the society? Is it not “us” who speak the majority of opinion? But, then, if every one follows a group blindly, because it is the common ground, who is leading that pack? Is this why we do not have leaders any more? If everyone is happy to lead a life of a second hander, eventually bullying the people with the awareness of these second-handers into treason, what is the society coming to? Being aware and forced to act on would be an excuse, but how can one face this faceless hypocrisy? How can one fight this formless inhumanity? When the society frowns upon the use of profanity in PUBLIC and sheds a tear for a blast or a tornado or a hurricane, why then, that collective society cannot join hands to bring in a sense of integrity to their thoughts? Like a pack of herd, we move through the roads of the jungle, not once stopping to think, if that is really what one wants. We progress, without actually knowing why we want to progress. We set a goal, but why do we set that goal? What is sense of achievement? What is pride in oneself all about?

On the other hand, society is basically the common group we live in, which changes from place to place and day to day and hence, their common beliefs change from moment to moment, at whim. When that “society” itself does not have integrity in terms of thought or voice, why should one care a damn about this society, eventually chipping off the little integrity that one holds? If this society is supposed to be discarded, then, why are near ones dear? Are they not part of that society, whose thoughts are influenced by what people think and say? Then, if the society should not be cared for, should one not care for all those who mean something to them? Perhaps this is an exception! But that exception can also be a compromise. But, how can one hide behind this compromise, always, for the foolishness of their decisions or choices? Or how can one make an excuse of compromise or be martyr when it makes little sense? Who are these people who take a piece of you with every step you take, just because they lay a claim that they are near?

I think, all boils down to the fact that, there is no middle way to live life. If one wants to compromise, whatever be the reason, they slip into the charade of living life by the demands of the people round them and they are not living their life. So, why should one live such a life? If they do not compromise, the aloofness would be treated as indifference, which would mean that these people SHOULD be changed, as they are not the ideal people to live with. One can accept sympathy, compromise and sacrifice, but one cannot accept individuality, independence, both in terms of thought and expression and one can certainly not accept integrity!!! That is the sad truth!!! The half baked ideas of independence or individuality hold no meaning to all these people and as the vigor for life slowly chips away, their job is done! But, then, if one chooses to be walking martyr for the pressure of the words or circumstances, he is held as an error for the people who want him to do otherwise and he is a victim to his own thought, neither getting peace nor solace through the people who care for him or love him. He gets sympathy, which is assumed to be love.

Either I am a cynic or have completely lost it!

But again, history and the statistics both prove that people who are considered successful are those who dared to look within themselves and trusted their inner voice to point a path and traversed that path without care or damn about this "success" concept. The very people who were condemned for the path they chose, as they went against the tide, will now be the societal icons (if they succeed) and the people who condemned them, walk around them and call themselves followers! The memory is short for the people around and just as failure is a cardinal sin, success gives an overnight fame and with fame comes the power to control the very aspect that gives this fame. (Fame is nothing but the name coined by this society we live in, right?). That is the irony! So, should one follow their path or take the highway and risk their life? Or, should one bow down and be run over by the pack and tag along, with absolutely no claim to life? How should one live? How CAN one live?


Can someone please answer??