Rhetorical Questions
Can you hope to understand the world, if you don’t know it? Can you know the world, if you don’t even know who are you? Can you know yourself without losing the (human) form? And can you lose that form without your ego dying?
There cannot be any altruism without self-realization because there cannot be even a remote talk of understanding (of others) without knowledge of self. And without understanding, all what altruism is is just feel-good ego boost that may, at best, alleviate some symptomatic pain here and there.
Alas.
Protesters, mesmerized by a point on the horizon that always remains out of reach, stomp the world, “We want change! We want change! We–”
A passerby interrupts, “Then do these–“
“Do?” protesters stop, their blank stares turn toward the voice.
Brief moment of silence.
Protesters turn their sights toward that unreachable point on the horizon again and continue stomping in the tempo of a funeral march, “We want change! We want change!…”
Can you change society, if you stay the same? Can you shape it to fully conform to your resistance? No. There will always be elements that will escape your control. And, more importantly, society is us.
Only vanities like a hurt pride of your ego can prevent you from knowing the truth. Yes, all reasons why you are still choosing to not know yourself are this petty. And only lying to yourself stands in your way to admit that that is, indeed, the case.
So yeah, can you be an upright human, if you don’t know who you are? And can you live in an upright society, if you yourself are not upright?
You know the answers. The rest are just excuses.
