Luxuries We Cannot Afford

There are certain luxuries that we are living with. We cannot afford them for long. The earlier we say good-bye to them the better. What are these luxuries? One of these luxuries is our communitarian outlook. We have lived with this luxury for long. The individual has escaped most of his responsibilities under this ‘luxurious excuse’. It is luxurious because he was saved from the toughest of the tasks. Conspiracy theory is another luxury that we are still savoring. It is a luxury because it abruptly brings the discussion to an end. It does not allow taking it to its logical conclusion.

Dismissing something as “controversial issues / views” is a luxury which we have enjoyed for a very long time. The problem with these descriptions is that they hamper the analysis. They do not allow it to reach the last stage. We do not allow the analyses to reach to final conclusions because then there are chances that the responsibilities will be localized. Then we will be past the stage of “everybody, somebody and nobody”. Then the names of individuals will figure out. Then the jobs will be distributed. Then the struggle will have to begin. Then the luxuries will be gone.

Yet another luxury is denigrating a discussion on a topic as an “intellectual exercise”. For many of us “Intellectual” is synonymous with “futile” and we miss out on the point that the use of intellect is a must – a duty. It is the hallmark of human beings. This is what distinguishes them from the rest of the creations on earth. We don’t realize that if we do not exercise it to the maximum then we downgrade ourselves.

Another luxury is “propaganda machine”. We do not pay much attention to what is being said and summarily reject it. Once we have regarded a submission from someone as the outcome of some “propaganda machine” (I don’t know how we are so sure about it), there is no need to look at it in an objective manner. Obviously, why should anyone take the pains to analyze the outcome of the churning of a “propaganda machine”. Again, we are saved from the most excruciating exercise. We are very good at avoiding this painful exercise.

Blaming others for all our miseries is one such luxury. We have heavily paid to buy this luxury and are enjoying it to the maximum. It has the same benefit as does the “communitarian outlook”. If the communitarian outlook has resulted in developing a culture of buck-passing and shifting of responsibilities, the practice of blaming others has hampered the soul-searching and finding out the laws of nature. The analysis, obviously, gets over as soon as we blame someone.

I am not sure how long can we live with these very expensive luxuries, which – given our resources – we cannot afford actually.