These days ,I am thinking a lot about meritocracy.What is often viewed as a talent,excellence or geniuses is a result of access to resources. Discipline,rigour,obsession and hardwork are certainly important but our journey can be made easy with proper mentorship.Arguably,one must find peace and joy in the process of doing but the trauma of continued failure can't be ignored.As a human, how can we have control over certain feelings like desire, jealousy, lust, hunger and laziness?Or- should we never try to control them?
(Also, I have sent you a poetry recitation on messenger. I have been searching its writer since long but have failed.I would be grateful to have your help)
Suruchi, I don't know why this message was fermenting on my inbox for so long. And also my sincere apologies for the oversight on messenger, I don't use Facebook much lately.
Your question is deep, multi-faceted. Yes, the trauma of continued failure is real. The secular society puts a huge onus on humans. Meritocracy is the progeny of Secularism. If destiny is non-existent what function do we attribute to the notion of cause and effect? If we alone are responsible for our failures and successes, how does a "failed" person preserve their self-esteem?
There are two things: a. first of all, I think we should strive to be self-sufficient. Mainly in two realms, i. finance and ii. emotion. We should try to do the basic physical labor so we are not burdening anyone else. For example, I personally don't have a career. At every point of time, I have treated job like something that will give me money. People don't recognize me for my job. Most people know me for what I do during my leisure hour, the work none pays me to do. But if you do not come from wealth, you have to earn that leisure by taking up a job you might/might not like. So, the first thing is financial independence. Take up a job, any job, any menial job and don't identify with it. With that money, you buy yourself leisure. I do not judge people for what they do for money, but what do they do in the time, none is paying them to do anything. It could be art, it could be gardening, it could be taking care of elders, it could be collecting stamps, it could be cleaning the window sills.
Secondly, we should also strive to be emotionally self-sufficient. By that I mean, we should recognize we ourselves are responsible for our happiness and sadness. Of course, the external factors can be trying, but we must strive to build emotional stamina to take up tragedies without blaming people around us.
Once we achieve those, the real life begins. Meritocracy is idealistic. It discounts what Pierre Bourdieu calls "cultural capital". There is the material capital, of that plenty has been said. But there are intangible capitals. I personally think beauty, finesse, culture, even morality is largely the function of wealth. It is not a level playing field. There are so many factors that influence the outcomes. Again, if I was born in a wealthier family, had access to so called great education, I would have been in a different place. But the other story is also true. Had I been born in the same social bracket as I have, but as a boy, my theory is, less people would have been attracted to my poetry. There are so many dimensions to power. We embody at least one each. I have no delusions about what I represent as a woman. The patriarchal society tries to deify intellect as the higher dimension. But as Audrey Lorde would have said, to see the body, the beauty, the sensuality as the lesser of the two between mind and body is misogynistic. We as women have advantage that men might not, but objectified beauty is a depreciating asset. Additionally, having had born into financially-constrained environment, we might have been deprived of cultural capital. So, when two people put the equal amount of hard work and discipline, they might not achieve the same goal. There is no meritocracy. Inequality is an a priori.
By recognizing that it doesn't define you. What you do, what you achieve are contingent upon external factors. Neither your failure, nor the success is entirely yours. But who you are, how you think, how gentle you are, how kind, how self-aware--you can change that. Marcus Aurelius, the emperor and Lucretius, the slave, they were both stoics. They were both philosophers. We can be philosophers. Of course, none will reward you for being a philosopher. However, the life that is worth striving for is not the one that will fetch you money and recognition (though, I stress, we should pursue money independently so we may earn our leisure).
It is nice to be realistic. It is good to be aware of our pettiness. Jealousy, comparison, etc, are inevitable. To a large extent, these are survivable mechanisms. My best advise is try to be indifferent to your success and failure, and persevere regardless, because you see them as actions you need to do regardless in order to live. But philosophize. Strive for qualities that capitalism doesn't rewards--be kind, to yourself and others. Be soft. Happy, for no reason.
That I think is a meaningful life. The life worth striving for. Failures and success will come your way. Maybe you will fail more than you will succeed. But your job is something you are doing to earn your leisure. Even if you go the fanciest of schools, get the fanciest of jobs, what you are striving for really is happiness. Money, Plato said, is a means to an end. None wants money for itself but for what it can buy. But happiness! Happiness is an end unto itself. Find out little things--things that cost you nothing, that is not dependent on your success or failure--that bring you happiness. For me it is moon, flowers, water bodies. Understand that life is an opportunity to absorb so much beauty and wisdom, it is a wonderful prelude to the soft decay, the annihilation.
Ultimately, man is sovereign. We are gods, no less.
What does it matter if we fail sometimes? Or if we fail every time? Albert Camus said, Sisyphus, for whom the failure was daily and eternal outcome, Sisyphus was a happy man : )
discoholicmusic
gracieabrams
romaincrisis
origamiaround
snowghoul
