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datapad
Saturday, February 05, 2005
...commonwealth essay finally done! 2 hours was all it took. unfortunately, those 2 hours occurred from 1am to 3am this morning. therefore, the train of thought might be just a wee bit fucked up at times. but still, here it is. SLOW DOWN, WE'RE GOING TOO FAST by Alwyn Ng How many times have we heard somebody bemoan that the pace of life in modern society is too fast for our own good? How many times have we heard someone remark that people nowadays are becoming too caught up with the petty frills and thrills of business and politics to stop for a moment just to smell the flowers? Or simply put, how many times have you heard a person--yourself included--utter comments along the lines of "We are becoming so caught up with success that we're missing out on the good things in life"? Leaving the obvious rhetoric in my questions rightfully unanswered, let me now take a moment to explain where I'm coming from. The civilized world today is a very complicated, busy place. Day in day out, people numbering by the millions from all over the world scurry about from place to place, each with their own agendas, yet all endowed with a single, all encompassing goal: to strive for personal fame, fortune, and overall success in the various aspects of their careers, be it business, politics, or otherwise. Just like a gigantic colony of ants or termites, human societal behaviour is indeed fascinating, yet at the same time puzzling to observe. One might ask, as has been done many a time before: Why are people so obsesses with success, especially when it comes to monetary gain? What is it that drives most people to quest for success, oftentimes with nary a thought for the welfare of fellow human beings around them? What is it that people hope to ultimately achieve? An expensive car, an expensive mansion, and an equally financially endowed spouse with similarly expensive tastes? It would definitely seem so, judging from the way people struggle amongst one another in their personal pursuits of materialistic wealth nowadays. However, if one were to venture out onto the sidewalks and ask just any random person wearing a pin-striped suit what his ultimate goal in life would be, I honestly doubt if he would be able to come up with a proper answer. There is a serious problem with people nowadays: that is, deep down inside, they simply have no idea what they want from their lives. People bustle about in their mindless, everyday routines, the only thoughts existent on their minds most of the time being those of showing up at the next destination on time, completing their current assignments on time, and generally just those of meeting one deadline after another, always being on time. But what for? The long coveted promotion? That pay-rise which would hasten the day that one would finally be able to purchase a station wagon? Or the simple avoidance of punishment? Humans, as it turns out, no longer have anything truly valuable to live for. Mankind's selfish, cold-hearted and one-dimensional pursuit of materialistic wealth for the merely superficial and temporary gratification that it provides is testament to the fact that most people no longer choose to pursue far nobler and selfless ideals such as Truth, Goodness and Beauty. Instead, greed pervades, penetrates and indelibly poisons the entire realm of our ostensibly civilised human society. These selfish ideals that people so shamelessly lust after, what is it that they can ultimately achieve in the name of mankind? Nothing. No matter how much money and possessions a person might have, at the end of the day, he would still be unable to cheat the passing of his temporal existence on Earth. After all, nothing would matter to him anymore once his time had come to pass, just as nothing would matter to a homeless beggar anymore once his time had also come to pass; therefore, why do people even bother about such purely material ideals? Are such things really that valuable to a human being after all? Think about it: is any amount of material wealth able to make a person truly, genuinely happy? Why be remembered by others as a selfish, greedy disgrace to the rest of society when one could be better remembered as a magnanimous, compassionate and above all, selfless person whose legacy and contributions to human society would be looked upon and emulated by future generations in time to come? A human being only has one life to live. Should he be wasting his precious time on earth stressing himself out, caught up in the rat race along with the rest of the crowd, chasing after ideals that would serve no greater purpose to society at large after he has come to pass? I think not. I believe that as part of society, it is every person's responsibility to ensure the well-being of the other human beings around him, treat them with compassion, respect, and unconditional love, and in doing so work towards the creation of a supranational, harmonious coexistence among all the peoples of the world. It is time that we as humans slow down from the frenetic, purposeless routines of our daily lives for a while, and start to actually think about our true roles in this vast universe into which we have been brought into being. No matter how highly developed, intelligent or civilised we might ever become; no matter how successful, advanced or fast-paced our society might ever become, we are but still mere pixels in the entire image that makes up our elegant universe; our lives nothing more than fleeting moments in the rivers of time. It would be reckless, irresponsible and foolish to be wasting this one shot we have at life chasing after such temporal and inconsequential ideals, with everybody trying to outdo the other in terms of personal accomplishments. Instead, we ought to be thankful for our very existence, and treasure our humanity as well as learn to appreciate the true elegance and beauty of the vast, mystic universe of which we are but an insignificant part, and to which there is still so much more than we might ever discover. Indeed, it is time that we put aside our petty differences and realise that acceptance and mutual cooperation are the only ways in which mankind would be able to strive cohesively as one to leave a lasting legacy in the annals of time. Our task now must be to free ourselves from the spiritual prisons with which we have ensnared and concealed our true identities, by releasing our true selves and widening our circle of compassion to embrace all human beings as well as the rest of nature in a celebration of beauty. For our existence might be merely temporal, and unable to compare to some of the other happenings in the grand scheme of things, but if only we as human beings could embrace each other and celebrate our humanity, it would not be too unfeasible after all for us to slowly, but surely, discover what it means to experience true beauty in our lives. Indeed, as Albert Einstein once put it, "Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion toward men and toward objective things." Perhaps, by ennobling our lives as such, mankind might one day be able to lift itself from the sphere of mere physical existence and realise what it would be like to be truly free. 1214 words ok so maybe i overkilled on the cheese factor. but sometimes when one wants to score high for essays with these kind of topics, cheesy is good! |
