Once an interviewer asked her interviewee, “If you could define the whole society in a single word, what would it be?”. The interviewee took his time and answered unhesitatingly, “Hypocrisy!”. Whether he was right or not is subject to the subjectivity of our judgment of his evaluation or understanding of society. But there is only one thing certain: if he was not right he was not wrong either.
Before you accuse me of holding a pessimistic view of society, let me make it clear that this code-red blog is not intended to spread any kind of hateful or derogatory or vilifying remarks towards any culture, race, society, nation, cast, ethnicity etc.
Rather I will try to help you understand how we, mortal beings, behave in clusters or groups, how the weltanschauung ( i.e. worldview) you have is not yours, how your likes and dislikes don’t actually belong to you, how your preferences, choices and decisions are often influenced or shaped by the beliefs or disbeliefs which too are not yours, how what you hold as moral might not be moral and what you believe as immoral might not be immoral — in short, “you may not be what, you think, you have chosen to become but rather what, you can’t even imagine, you have been made.”
The way a single drop is reflective of the entire ocean it belongs to, similarly you reflect the society you belong to. The moment the drop drops into the ocean it becomes the ocean. Similarly, you might also have lost your individuality, losing yourself in the crowd of the society.
What is Indoctrination?
According to Google, It is the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.
Indoctrination is the burden you were unwittingly saddled with right from your birth. Just think of how, during the initial years of a child, a mother inculcates him with all the beliefs, disbeliefs, notions, perceptions, faiths, and morality that she has lived her entire life with. These are the foundations upon which the destiny of his future depends. If she lived her entire life as a monotheist, she would teach him to believe in one god. If she lived her life as a polytheist, she would teach him to pray to all the gods she had been taught to believe in. If she lives her life as an atheist, she asserts confidently the trite conventions, traditions or religious rituals of the religions to be idiotic to him. She is not to be blamed for it as she herself is a victim of indoctrination. She is just teaching her child what she was taught by her parents, who were taught the same thing by their parents.
This is how we pass on our traditional/conventional perceptions, beliefs and notions to our posterity. Now see there is nothing wrong in harboring, cultivating and fostering these cardinal (or abstract) gems only if the ideas being passed on are moral and healthy. This is how a child gets to know the difference between good and evil. But what if these things prove to be destructive to a child’s growth and begin to nip the imagination and creativity of a child in the bud?
Actually, the problem is that we are only instructed to believe and accept, keeping our mouths and minds shut. We are not taught to think the right way. We are not taught to question everything. We are not taught to analyze, evaluate and assess things critically, with an inquisitive mind.
Indeed, we are told what is right and what is wrong but we are never told what is right is right and why what is wrong is wrong, thus hindering the intellectual progress of a child.
During our initial years our parents are our role models and our mentors also. If they begin to fall prey to the indoctrination, promoting superstitions and rituals as something taught by the religions to follow blindly.
“No such thing as a bad student, only bad teacher.”
—The Karate Kid
The world had been believing in the flatness of the earth when someone came and proved that the earth is actually round. Only single person proved the entire world wrong, breaking the shackles religious beliefs.
You know what makes him different from the world is the fact that he could think — something that makes humans different from animals.
“I think, therefore I am.”
—Rene Descartes
So I encourage my reader to think. Question your beliefs. Don’t just believe anything anyone tells you. When you don’t know something accept that you don’t know it saying “ I don’t know right now but I will surely know sooner or later.” and then begin your search for the truth.
The awareness of the beauty of not knowing leads one to an appreciation of knowledge. The one not knowing has the potential to know anything.
Always ask questions. Ask the opinionated dogmatic people advising you to follow anything blindly, Do they themselves have their actions in harmony with their words?
Often the people visiting the place of worship can see gods in it but can’t see the beggar sitting outside it. The ones lacking humanity are generally seen preaching divinity.
Now what do you think of the question the interviewer asked her interviewee?
Now I ask you the same question If you, my dear, could define the whole society in a single word, what would it be?
The line following has been copied verbatim from the article ‘51 A (h)’ of the constitution of India. It is a fundamental duty of the people of secular India.
“To develop the scientific temper, humanism, and spirit of inquiry and reform.”
— Indian Constitution