MERE IMAGE-WORSHIP?

The world is idolatrous. The moment I post, likes keep coming without such givers even having read the content of the post. The photo is all that matters.It is an intellectual shame and a spiritual shame, too. You must read what I painstakingly write, although, I must say, it is for me a labour of love, an exercise in literary bliss.

Irrelevant comments, hackneyed and insipid, also adorn invariably the outer fringes of my essays. The entire attitude seems to be to relegate the post to the waste-bin of one's unconcern as one chooses the free space of public opinion to chaotically give expression to one's random verbal urges instead of voicing one's considered thoughts and feelings that are in harmony with the content of the post and conducive to inspiring fresh thinking along similar and alternative lines.

The intellectual health of a polity needs constant exercise of the brain along creative lines rather than silly conformity to past practices and decadent habits. Worse still is indolence of the mind, a refusal to think for oneself and a mere giving in to a superficial stance on matters of great moment that require a citizen's active participation rather than an immature response, for the well-being of the collective life of a people. 

There are serious issues facing our country today, propositions that require head-on combating to conquer, matters that threaten the very fabric of our nation and the future of us all with it. For this we need millions of efficient thinkers who can set themselves to the task of comprehending the complexities of the national situation and not millions of fools who are merely content to eat, drink and make merry in the name of God and religion, patriotism and the nation. It is, thus, of utmost moment that every citizen takes upon himself a fraction of the task of nation-building through serious living and not frivolous floating in the name of life.

A billion strong population does not serve well the cause of the nation if they are mentally lazy, intellectually sterile and debilitated in character. Better by far is a much smaller unit of concentrated combination of wills which can bring about worthwhile social changes, provide effective leadership for the masses to follow and help themselves up the ladder of life, and transform the national space in a manner as to provide maximum scope for development of the individual for the fulfilment of both the individual and the nation.