I don’t find anything surprising these days.
I suppose “anything” is an easily disputable exaggeration. Still, everything that happens seems to have happened before. Nothing feels original. Even new, unique creations are referential in some way. Maybe the world has run out of new ideas.
I’ve thought of many things that I believed were unique at the time, only to later discover that they had been thought of before. Not even recently—like, 500 years before. It’s neat that 500 century old ideas are still relevant, but in a way it’s also kind of sad. Haven’t we progressed past that point?
No.
Thought is overrated. My society praises thought, worships the intellect, peddles entertainment, and always keeps us busy. My world is dedicated to jerking off the mind. We are so seldom taught how to actually listen to our true nature, or how to act in accordance with our heart and soul. Even little vagaries—cliched phrases, tired old platitudes about following the heart—are tinged with intellectual toxins. We are never really taught how to feel our feelings, only how to reason with them.
I find that people are very good at thinking about things. People are very good at talking about solutions to problems, theorizing, and coming up with beautiful ideas. Yet I find a serious lack of action. I find it in myself, and I find it in my surroundings. Can’t you feel it in the air? Most people are desperate for a change in their lives. Not only on an individual level, but a global scale. We know the planet is dying. We know our leaders are corrupt. We know we have the power, and we know how to exercise it, but we don’t.
We don’t have another 500 years to sit around and theorize. The people need to move now. They know how, they just need to do it. I hope it happens in my lifetime, but it’s that same hope that keeps me complacent, waiting for “the change” to come. What I need to do is what we all need to do: act.
Now that would surprise me.
