Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Prisoners of our own devise

Whenever I hear this verse in the song Hotel California, I cannot help but marvel at the truth it holds. How many of us are trapped in rules that we choose to follow! How many of us are engaged in arguments on making others stick to the rules that we don’t want to follow!

In my mind, I think all the miseries that are inflicted upon us in this world are self-done. Either as individuals or collective as a society! We could keep quiet and let something go by, but we don’t. We participate in that without invitation and get ourselves heard, silently cursed or sometimes snubbed. Even in a tough time where only cooperation would help, because our own trappings we tend to ignore the greater good and stay with the petty gains we get as individuals.

While it is inviting trouble not to keep quiet, keeping quiet when we should not is another crime. There are many an occasion I have felt that I should stand up and put an end to the nonsense I face in the office or in general in the environment I live, but the so-called social pressures stop me from doing that. So, the charade continues.

Many of us are like this only. We hang on Kashmir like dear life, but in a way neither Pakistan nor us can lay a rightful claim to the land if we have a sense of honesty. And by devising this problem, we are stuck with it spending millions of dollars on arms to let America flourish.

It is all because we as a group draw ourselves limits and try to stay within them, or as an individual we have scruples that are subjective that makes us choose the path. The day when we can ask ourselves the question of whether we are being honest to self, we can break these shackles and set us and others free. Because I am somehow certain, around 90% of the population always does something that it does not want to do. Maybe for a time complete anarchy will prevail if everyone chooses to act the way they want. But I am sure that not many would do and the ones who do would not be stupid enough to let it go out of control.

As long as we stay prisoners and that too prisoners of our own devise, we would be moaning all our life. Maybe, it is time to unshackle.

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