Challenge your ideas
The antidote to thought bankruptcy
The writer’s block is actual; I struggled to find a writing subject all day to no avail. If that wasn’t enough, my laptop crashed too. Exasperated, I sat down to dinner.
The television was playing cartoons, or as adults call them, news. The left and the right debated the future of India, characterized by nothing beyond their respective placements on the TV screen. The channel flashed so much fire that it might as well have called itself Khana Khazana. And given the drama the moderator cooked, I’m sure they would’ve passed as a reality show chef.
But it was there, amidst the illegible cacophony of rising rhetorics, that a realization struck me. A realization strong enough for me to bear the pains of typing an article on my phone.
Purposeful debates require an understanding that legitimate ideas sometimes lack appeal.
How does that work for a generation that takes its ideas from Instagram?
The advancement of humankind was premised on challenging the status quo. People were told to obey a King; they refused and invented democracy. All vaccines were made by people who questioned why disease had to result in death.
Social media is dangerous; it subdues curiosity into oblivion. It reinforces your beliefs until they become your sacred truth. Click one post on chauvinism, and they’d show you ten more. Interestingly, the ‘like’ feature is way more accessible than the ‘report’ one. Think.
The pedestal of ignorance is placed so high that climbing down is scary.
The truth is, it is easier to scroll through an Instagram feed than it is to go searching for ideas and analysis. But in doing so, we ask a structurally biased algorithm designed by inherently prejudiced human beings to select our facts. Comically, our perception of the world relies more on peddled memes and rhetorics than facts and figures.
That is not even the scary part. In the rush of modern life, most would choose peddled fallacies knowingly because they’re effortlessly available and ideologically reinforcing. Having something to say takes precedence over saying the right thing.
But, is it really bad to be ignorant? I don’t know. Besides, I’d hate to realize someday that the world passed by as I kept myself busy with paying EMIs.
So, the solution? Good old curiosity. Dismiss no challenge to your ideas without understanding it. In fact, challenge yourself. Read Karl Marx if you’re a capitalist, and Max Weber if you’re a communist. Understand both protectionism and free markets, and trust your innate intelligence to help you decide.
It takes effort, sure. But that’s the price you pay to understand your world.
Until next time. Thanks for reading!
If you liked this article, do read about the curse of minimalism.
