The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I sure am not talking about Clint Eastwood's wild west cowboy blockbuster. This is a concept that caught my interest, about how gradually we develop inveterated opinions about the Good, the Bad and the Ugly things in the world, while those are entirely relativistic terms and it seems almost impossible at the first thought to accept that the way we live may be totally unacceptable to some one else in this world.

You probably know what I mean when we consider arranged marriages, sexual orientations, laws, customs, traditions accross different parts of the world. But then who are we to question other's beliefs, right? Is there such a thing as an absolute Truth, absolute Right and Wrong?

I think not. I think anything and everything is relative. You can spend some time and come up with the most abominable thing you can think of and I am sure there is a way to justify it.

When I think more about it, then it occured to me that it is the majority's opinion about what is good or bad. In fact, even better description would be to say it is majority's convenience resulting out of your actions, most of the times. The society, over time, tried out all combinations of behaviours and the path that gives least trouble to everyone else is the "best" path. I guess it fits the purpose Man being a social animal and all.

So what happens to one's creativity when we take up the "best" path? I can't help but remember how my wife runs for the nearest peice of wood like the wood must be scared, whenever I say anything remotely connected to a bad omen like death etc. She touches it and says "touch wood". What's more she is making me touch the wood these days. That way she is naturally controlling my urge to discuss anything out-of-whack with her. I am still working on a plan to discuss our life insurance policies with her, which probably will only happen after our rates increase due to old age. But that's a digression we don't need now.

I fear that we will become products of a society that likes nothing to change. Change is dreaded by most of us, because change brings the unknown and we are scared of the unknown. We worship the unknown (which is also called God in a sense, read my other article "Is Atheism Logical" for more details) and pray that the unknown does not turn out bad for us.

I feel that Beliefs, Traditions, Customs, Orientations are knowledge hinderers. They constrain our thought process, kill our creativity and stunt out ability to ask the right questions. Right remains right and so does wrong, while everyone else is busy in keeping it that way. One may say it's a way-of-life, but why do you need a way of life - only because you don't want to rethink your priorities. Nothing wrong with that, but in the process, more often than not we end up inheriting priorities from the culture we are in. They are not YOUR priorities!

So what's wrong in living like that? Accepting everything and taking a guided tour through life? Why do we have to reinvent the wheel, when smarter people have already tried and are willing to share their experiences in the name of religion and laws and what not. Do I think I can do something that they could not? I don't feel that I know the answer to that question, but it seems very difficult to follow a rules book for some reason.

-Sridhar