It might feel odd, sound scary and outright wrong to go against the flow of society. But isn’t it the same thing that has shaped history? If a bunch of people hadn’t shown the courage to challenge the status quo, we would still be slaves and women would be uneducated.
The basic fundamental is that society is not nature. Nature is perfect but society is a bunch of homo sapiens which are largely flawed. We are evolving, supposedly getting better at being humans. And hence it is absolutely natural to change and adapt and evolve. That’s what we have been doing for thousands of years.
The moral of the story is that anything and everything that we have been doing for all these years is not necessarily right. Nor the majority is right always. We are still struggling to accept our fellow sapiens who are neither male nor female. We are still struggling to accept our fellow LGBTQ community. Because according to the society, they are ‘unnatural’ but actually they are simply ‘unsocietal’. Humans are what makes up the society we are all so concerned about. We are not okay with anyone or anything that is different from us.
Moral codes are something that though formed by society are somewhat in the ‘right’ category. Pretty basic things such as not taking what doesn’t belong to us, not harming others and not lying (the advertising industry won’t exist if people followed this).
History is full of people who have challenged the norm. People who have fought against the majority to show people what the ‘moral’ is. It is very natural for our species to conform to the surrounding, to ‘fit in’ (I honestly don’t know into what). Hence, it takes time to understand and change habits and narratives and beliefs. But that’s the best part of being human, we can rewire our brain multiple times.
Where do we draw the line? Harming a pet is wrong but killing a goat is okay? Just like people who are born in a lower caste, it belongs to a killable species? Who are we to differentiate between who should live and who should die? How biased are we?
Humans have always used animals for our own benefit. Nor once have we done anything selflessly. It has always been for transport, wool, leather or taste buds (we are far away from eating meat for survival). Accompanying pets were for safety or managing the herd of sheeps. We have never been grateful to these species. Thank you Donald Watson for starting the vegan movement and inspiring millions to make the change. It is necessary to remind people that we evolved from plant-eating monkeys.
Monks abide by gratitude and selflessness, and we are far far away from these words. Just selfish and thankless humans. We have always found ways to suppress anyone who is not us. Be it poor people, animals, women or colored people.
It is astonishing thar we have been doing this for centuries and hardly few people have stopped and questioned the norm. Why? Aren’t we wired to think? We do boast a big brain, supposedly very smart creatures. But we definitely lack critical thinking and empathy.
Women have always been told what to do, what not to do. ‘You are allowed to wear saree but not a sleeveless blouse’. ‘You can wear a dress but don’t be out too late’. ‘You need to look after your family first’. ‘Cover your head, face, neck and everything possible’. ‘Children are your responsibility’. ‘Single women are a liability’. It’s 2022 and we are struggling with basic equality.
We have been following traditions and rituals for centuries which were relevant in those days but do not make sense now.
Can we deny things that we cannot change? Yes! We can totally talk about, condemn and disapprove things that we cannot change but are wrong anyway. Just because we cannot change capitalism, we cannot say it doesn’t exist.
I have been a meat eater for many years and I feel bad about it. I have always felt anger when women are discriminated against. I have always felt pain when i see teenage girls being told by the society that they are not beautiful. I have always hated toxic patriarchy. Why are we part of something that has caused us so much pain?
And who will change this? How many more generations should pass before women and men (and all other genders) are paid equally and share the load equally. How many more generations to end the periods taboo. Not everyone gets married in 20s or 30s. Not everyone is ‘settled’ by 30. And that’s completely okay. How many generations are necessary for us to realize that we all are different from each other and it’s okay. We don’t have to fit the same shoe or box. Infact, we don’t have to fit in a box. We are living people. We don’t belong in a box.
It’s time we tear the box. Be fluid.
*It’s not about ‘me’, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t speak up for others. Every person has suffered because of the so called society we live in. If you have a voice, raise it for the good.
The Kaizen of Life 