Guest article
image credits: America Magazine
An Awfully Cluttered Introduction.
The essay aims to ruminate on the nature of ‘consciousness’ with a deeply philosophical lens and analyze how the populist notion of consciousness is vestigial to mankind as a whole. The trouble with consciousness is the acute realization of oneself’s sheer mediocrity and living in the fast-paced capitalistic system wherein people would prefer lunacy over mediocrity, consciousness brings with itself, awareness and that is the killer of all gods. “I Think, Therefore I Am” and “I Realize, Therefore I’m Not” – the banality in the order of things is quantified the moment you become conscious of it. The devil doesn’t lie in the concept of awareness, it lies in the process of awareness – as it weaves the path of self-realization or more appropriately self-actualization; looking inwards, all man finds is their chaotic dampness… Is man inherently pessimist or is social conditioning flawed with its very fundamentals of what maketh man? The precious moment a child is born into the world, the child mercilessly cries… Is it merely a coincidence that with consciousness comes pain? A stroll through the fool’s paradise is rather delightful but when reality halts the path of the individual, they crumble. The boulder of joy holds no weight in front of that vapor of consciousness – it brings us all down to the fearful dearth from where we stray so desperately. The greatest curse to mankind is consciousness for it brings with it all the ugly pities that maketh man: envy, jealousy, lust, and the list goes onto maddening infinity. Why is it that war has given more to this world than peace? Wars are nothing but a conflict between multiple actualizations – humanity’s chase for peace is quite amusing as we inherently fear the unknown and peace, as we know it, is unknown; Nobody has an idea how they’ll function when stability and balance strikes; Peace as a concept has been so idealized that it has now turned dangerous because the fidelity of it is too high therefore doing anything results in one sacrificing something so perfect it is in your head for what it is.
Is Consciousness Inherent Or Bestowed Upon Us?
While it may sound foolish to question the etymology of a word that pays close resemblance to ‘inherence’ from where, in all actuality, does our consciousness stem? Was Pink Floyd bang on when they said "... all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be'' or is there more to this enigma than what meets the eye? We, as species, design our existence from the other, much like electrons, we want someone else to grant us meaning or validate our existence as significant because being no one is a mortal crime… This hints at the fact that we mean nothing and there must always exist an ‘other’ for one to become anything. To prove worth in this kaleidoscopic world, one must contribute – in terms of labor, potential, etc. – but the greater cause is seldom talked about and now the process has devoured the cause in its totality because the person, whence finishes the journey, is to turn to bear the fruit of their labor. Our current civilization is a result of an idea that holds inadvertent supremacy that leaves no room for other thoughts to grow. The age of enlightenment killed ‘enlightenment’: the call to reason and self-reliance, borne a fruit of greed and social divide and a culture that values material gain and selfishness emerged; a world of fragmentation and isolation where reason reigns supreme, emotions suppressed, where
individual success prized over community well-being – we got fixated on a notion that is so superfluous that it has been enough to run our world for centuries; the escape promised from the normative system was merely a dangling key. We, as individual subjects, are nothing but a culmination of all that followed us in the past and all that’s to come in the future – self-autonomy is the greatest darkest joke of all time. You don’t run the system, it runs you – if your wants are unparalleled to those around you then get out of the line for someone else to take your place. There exists no redemption at the end of the tunnel, you were put in it to be sentenced to life without trial.
image credits: Catholics for choice
But Eh, Why Fix Something That Isn't Broken?
If the cracks in the normative system are invisible to us then we live in a world of Icarus(s). Leave a man alone in the room with his thoughts and see the walls painted red: What is to live when looking inward becomes cathartic? What is to live when solitude leads to insanity? What is to live when there never existed you? The boom in therapy and uptick in prescription pills are reflective of a larger problem than merely the human psyche running amuck – it is merely an after-effect when the promised world is never given and when dreams are crushed with the perfection hammer. What drives Seneca to put fear and hope on the same pedestal when he interrogates “show me a man who isn’t a slave; one who is a sex slave, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear” – to bloom as a butterfly, one must endure the suffering of a caterpillar? but what becomes of existence where all you get to live is like a caterpillar, where the promised butterfly never comes and the very day you’re sworn to bloom you’re preyed upon? There never existed a brighter side, just how men carved stones out of fear and called them gods, we weaved an antithetic reality and therewith followed the maddening chase – it all boils down to the spiritual escapism of sorts, we have failed to deal with what’s in the present so we craft futures that we will never reach, we are merely jumping from one slumber to the other as we stray far away from the everything that means life.
A Conclusion, If There Can Even Be One?
The very evil that devours us leaves us with side effects, with consciousness comes the ability to distract yourself from it, and what is a better time to give in to these distractions than the 21st century? Distractions are of equal importance to man as that is oxygen – take away either of those and you’ll find a reminiscence of the man that there once was. Weaving realities are no more a necessity as we’re presented with billions of them on our own devices, technology has facilitated this generation with an opportunity to detach from reality in such a manner and all that remains of a man is his digital footprint but not a real one. While technology is a juggernaut in itself, we as a society have cultivated certain distractions – ambitions, goals, achievements, etc. – that are nothing but inventions of a man in the subliminally capitalist mindset. What good are we from the drunkards who drink their sorrows away as we’re subconsciously being driven on a path categorically paved to keep us affray from all that means ‘life’? What to make of a man who holds no traits of distinction? What to make of a man who reeks of nothingness? The man finds an escape in the others who themselves are in the chase to run from reality and the collision of varied quests leads to nothing but chaos in vain. We are not part of some big divine plan and questioning the very reality that surrounds you is not arbitrary for there to be any progression in the psyche. There needs to exist an answer to where and why it all began. The world that's around you may seem pretty amazing but it's designed to break you down into tiny pieces just so it can feast and profit off all that remains – the consciousness is vestigial to mankind.
By Atulit Raj (Guest Writer)
Atulit Raj is a law student at Nirma University, Ahmedabad with a knack for learning about various subject matters of his interest through research, academic writing, etc.
E-Mail: atulitraj25@gmail.com
Contact: 9910943446