ost of us claim to be appropriately respectful towards other human beings but in reality, our minds are frequently full of malice and idiocy. Many of us end up being preachers or blind followers of some kind of preachers, having no real conscience or consciousness of our own developed and nurtured deliberately, independently and responsibly. In the end, a society made up of such people proves no safer than a herd of sheep mindlessly following whatever happens to be the accepted norm around them. That should not always be a problem; most human beings need guidance, an idea, some enlightenment, a path to follow. However, too frequently, this does become a problem.

With the ratio of the independent thinkers to the gullible amongst us declining drastically, dangerously fewer are left to take the hit for everything and everyone. The concept might sound familiar. It has been presented by Ivan Fyodorovichs in The Grand Inquisitor. In the actual world, however, even The Grand Inquisitor could not possibly manage the naivety of men displayed in various kinds of social situations.

It is a sorry sight to see people with egos as gigantic as mountains, wealth that could make Midas jealous, and power that could bring Zeus to his knees in need of being told that their morphed reality has been nothing but a blatant lie, a cover-up for the fact that we need guidelines and instructions for even the most insignificant of matters.

Not only can such activities help the generation wandering left, right and centre make sense of the world they find themselves in, these can also turn them into useful citizens and teach them respect for people, ecologies and things. 

Humans need to get rid of the missiles and nuclear warheads that they threaten the world with and wake up. They need not just to open their eyes but also to start using their brains. It was not given to them for nothing. It is high time, now that we have managed to ‘see’ black holes, to go back to learning the basic principles of respect for others like ourselves. And critical thinking needs to be routine, not rare.

Not only can such activities help the generation wandering left, right and centre make sense of the world they find themselves in, these can also turn them into useful citizens and teach them respect for people, ecologies and things. The philosophers from the School of Ionics – for example, Thales – who believed that everything emerged from water and will go back to water, have been proved wrong a long time ago. My polite suggestion is that wising up a little bit won’t hurt. It might actually help us go a long way.

The writer is a student at the Government College University, Lahore, majoring in English Literature. They can be reached at xo.noorfatima@gmail.com.