3.

Social Norms Part 2. We live in a world where everyone yearns to live a life different than what they have. We see the wise men advising us to be satisfied in what we have at hand. We see the leaders in the arts and sciences, the pioneers of their respective field telling us to never sit around doing nothing, to grab any and every opportunity that life throws at us, to leap forward not caring of the consequences. We live in a world of hypocrisy, where an adventurous attitude is unwise, and a steady life is too boring.

Once we have passed the phase of elementary education, giving an insight in all possible fields of work (hopefully), we have to choose our vocation, and set our course for a steady life in the future, so that we are self sufficient in life. We work, for the initial period being full of energy and dedication, being new at it. We find a partner, and another phase of this life begins, one whose end is marked by what is known popularly as a mid-life crisis. We pass through it and reach a stage of old age. We now must have time to appreciate "the little things in life" (apparently). Then we die. The End…

This is the story of the average adult phase of human life. Something so important that I mentioned it here, given the fact that everyone knows it. It is the actual time that an individual can "contribute" to the society around. Why do we fear to do what is logical? It is not logical at all for this life to be normal.

Getting to the point now, the unwanted, biggest obstacle amongst the prevalent social norms around, the one that is the most hindrance, is the importance of a median. Why must we have an average in everything?

It is time now that the society grows up. It is time now that it understands the importance of thinking. The very existence of an average arises from the laziness of making informed decisions. If its average, its okay. Okay won't change anything. Okay isn't good enough for survival. Ants don’t stop collecting food once they have enough ration for every member of the colonies. They go on. And on. Until they can. The reason they can do this is that they are not bound by any invisible contract that a particular average is mandatory. If any member gathers less than usual, or more than usual, they know that for both the cases, the best effort was given. We have forgotten amidst these norms of ours, that we are like any organism on this earth, if not the universe; we must survive. Not just on an individual level but as a species. It is time we change the game. It is time we change our goal on the level of our race. We live to better the lives of everyone around us. This is the humanitarian aim. We must now live to excel. On an individual level. We must strive to live in a world where art is created for the purpose of kindling our imagination, dams are designed and built ingeniously to generate more available power, gadgets are made for making more free time available to be productive. When a new stride is taken in any field, it should not be required to be questioned on an ethical or moral point of view. Because ethics/morality are the second biggest hindrance amongst social norms. It is time we take in the fact that there is no divine rulebook or guideline that we must live by. That is something that other creatures need. As humans we have an advanced brain to help us do that. We all can think. So why should be knowledge a sin? It made sense when we were unaware of our thinking capabilities. Not now. We must understand the role morals play in our lives, reason why they exist, imbibe that in our thinking, and then abandon them. Because they weren't made to fit in every situation that we face.

Bill Gates, Stephen Hawkings and even Steve Wozniak, amongst others have raised concerns over development of artificial intelligence. They say that at one stage, machines will reach a stage where they are smarter than us. Computers are becoming smarter by the day. Why not us? Why be lazy and stop innovation? Why not take steps to reform our current norms? Finland has recently announced the decisions to scrap subjects in schools in preference to individual topics being taught and evaluated upon, breaking barriers for interdisciplinary studies. We must understand from this that no radical steps be necessarily taken to evolve; just thoughtful alterations are good enough in the beginning.

And now we arrive at another fundamental error prevalent in our system. In order to solve a problem, we must trace it back to its roots. So in order to tackle the problems we face in adulthood, we must look towards our childhood. Our parents are inarguably the biggest influence of our childhood. They teach us every aspect of living, and introduce us to these norms. They are bestowed upon an unquestionable authority: they know the best for their child. This norm, of blindly accepting this belief as a fact, needs to be questioned. I will take it up in the next post soon. So long, and I'll be back.