Idolatry

By Ayush Jain

In the modern capitalist state, the truest of all truths is that we must

be more than the status quo; a higher position; a higher salary

package; some more power. With all said and done, a person is

either an societal outlier meant to be seen with suspiction or a

success based on the capitalist idea of growth. This is not a critique

of capitalism or modernity, nor is this a justification for living a

shredded life of self loathing, blame and misery. Its an observation

of the pervasion of a fuctional concept into our psychological and

societal framework.

Many of the current generation think of the lives theirs homemaker

mothers lived as one of incompletion. A life without ambition or the

zeal to make one self big. It’s as tough for them to justify an action

without adequate reciprocity as it is to understand a life spent

devoted to caring for someone. Doing something just to make

someone smile, have them enjoy, or simply take care, need either a

societial/artistic/philosophical/miscellanous backing. Every action

needs a good enough reason. To make a spouse smile is “good”;

friend “okay”; a stranger “noble deed” – something to be done with

“spare” time.

Morever the capitalist growth is not growth for the sake of what can

be done with it. The mechanisms of fame/money/power/position

which can be used for purposes that a bring a mass improvement. Its

a growth that must be driven by the modern drivers. A higher

position/more money/ power/ fame, all because a person must keep

striving for them. A person must be a greater individual than what is

he, with the definition of the individual, neither a person’s own nor

fluid.

The modern times give us a questionnaire/ an interview/ an

examination/ a task list with a clock set.

Questionnaires/interviews/examinations/task lists that need not be

filled/given/taken/checked off.

By Ayush Jain