Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought ‘a be a Man In Black.
Johnny Cash – Man In Black
The truth be told I can’t stand explicitly stated ideals. It’s not the ideals that I oppose, not really. It’s just somehow for me to hear them out loud is to belittle them. Perhaps I am embarrassed of ideals, of the equal parts fervour and fake-ness they can inspire. You wanna save the world? Do it! Subtly I say. Too much hypocrisy is attached to ideals and that too not even the explicit obvious type. It’s hypocrisy born of fickleness. So you see a movie about dyslexic children, who have to find their way in big bad world, or do a project about the tragedy of child soldiers, and you are affected by it you say, so much so that you were moved to tears cursing the extremely competitive world we live in where there is no place for deviance, or couldn’t sleep a night thinking of those unfortunate child soldiers, but then what? Do you pack up your suitcase and move out of the rat race? Do you spend the next week too thinking of those children? No, Not really. It’s not that they want to be hypocrites; it’s just a phase or a fad to state their ideals.
We’ve had two semesters of sociology, where you pick up these social issues, discuss and debate on them…and the class drags on with arguments and counter arguments and I am part of it too…but over the year I have got more and more sick of it. Of the arguments and counter arguments, of the attempts to find the real problem, the real villain, the real solution. Coz the heated debate, the search for the elusive solution ends with the bell. You close your books and groan over the fact that the next class is Contracts and that’s that.
I know I sound callous, and frankly I worry sometimes that I don’t care enough. Perhaps stating ideals inspire some – the few in a million who’ll actually make a difference someday and perhaps my problem is that I don’t think my ideal spewing acquaintances are going to be those people. Perhaps I am being a jackass at analysing others and their need to be uthophic. Perhaps it’s the thought that counts or some bullshit like that.
Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.
Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.
Ps: I actually just want to say that I love the song, and I guess I am not anything but a fine hypocrite myself.
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Now playing: Johnny Cash – Johnny Cash – Man In Black
via FoxyTunes
