Philosophy is personal. No wait, philosophizing is personal. It’s not supposed to be twenty people standing and nodding their heads, with little private conversations proceeding on the side – private conversations, maybe, about who saw what on TV last night. It’s not supposed to be people piping in with fucking trite observations with smug smiles on their faces. Either they’ve thought about something simple like that – there was a video of a woman with no hands, and she did about everything with her feet – for the first time in their lives, or they’re just so fucking stupid that they actually have some reason in their head to go and whore out their thoughts, with a smugness that’s even more infuriating. I can understand someone making a hesitant, impassioned speech about something that they feel strongly about. Smugness in discussing something motivational and inspiring? That’s about as dumb as you could get.
A few months ago, I was sitting on one of the small stools in the kitchen, the ones that make you feel like a little child again, waiting for the water to boil. I was making tea for my dad and thought how cool a feeling that was, to be home again, doing home-things in a warm kitchen where everything was as familiar as it was leisurely. But later, in a different city, in a place just called home, a place that I have to remember by numbers - fourth right turn, third house on the left - a place I have to recognize by signboards and which I sometimes pass over in the dark because I miss the gate, a place where almost-strangers let you in when you ring the bell; I waited the same wait, standing and waiting for the water in a newer pateeli . It wasn't warm at all; it was just a cheerless, empty, disconsolate feeling. It made me feel low to even think of another place as home. Eating in alien plates, drinking in alien glasses. I never learnt to memorize the house number or the telephone n
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there was something i was reading, on the difference between an academic and an intellectual - and why more and more of the 'intellectual' ideas are now confined to an 'elite' (if you may) and the general public are getting more and more divorced from newer ideas. the argument of that essay was essentially this: the intellectual is a PUBLIC figure - one who goes out and makes space for his ideas in GENERAL public, while academic is confined to an academia.
so while i may agree with the fact that 'discussing something motivational and inspiring' is a personal process - i am more inclined to believe that airing one's philosophical arguments has its own importance.
and yes, you're linked, finally. thank god. : )
Bilal: impertinence? Hardly :) This is the edited version, published after ten good minutes of thought. And yes, you're right - it would be hilarious. I'd probably crack myself up.
I agree that more people need to come forward and be accessible thinkers. Of course, the best would be those who could broach these topics, and then also leave people to think about them personally. What happened just then was that we were shown a video of a woman's triumph, all to highlight one of the company's own principles, something to the tune of "Never give up". And then there was comment mongering - and one of those impassioned speeches which I wrote about, one hesitant young man speaking out something which he really felt. That I can understand. What I can't is the rest, the other people who felt inclined to summarize the story, punctuating it with platitudes of their own. It was this apathy to original thought, this smugness of the know-it-alls that enraged me.