Is this the world we created?

Her eyes and brain were getting tired as she sifted through the high school examination papers one by one. As much as she loved teaching, correcting English papers was a bane which came as part of the job... The school wasn't too innovative with its essay topics either which added to the burden. This time around, the students were given a choice between 'If my pet could talk', 'How would I spend a million dollars' and 'Life in the 21st Century'. Most of the students opted for the former two topics (well, obviously) and those who were brave enough to choose the latter failed to portray their bravery on paper.. However, as she took each paper as it came expecting the same thing time and again, she found a little diamond hidden amongst the rocks.

Life in the 21st Century

Humans... Supposedly the cleverest species to have ever graced this beautiful planet that we call The Earth. A race which truly believes that the universe revolves around us, a race which considers itself above all the other species inhabiting this planet, a race which thinks that we can do whatever we want to facilitate life for ourselves...

I doubt any of us considers how minute we are compared to the universe we call 'home'. Consider this... There are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the world out of which The Milky Way is one such galaxy which is in a spiral shape. In that spiral, our entire solar system is situated in one single arm of the spiral. Our planet Earth is the 5th largest in that solar system which constitutes massive oceans and land masses. Now, you are sitting in one out of the seven huge land masses, in one country, in one state, then a city and then finally in a tiny space surrounded by 4 walls. We are extremely insignificant compared to the sheer size of the universe we are currently inhabiting.

Well, science shows that the formation of this entire universe is completely through random events, something we are not capable to define or even explain entirely. Our race, the ones with the most developed brains somehow decided to credit this to a supernatural being which nobody has ever seen and named him God. Fair enough, each to his own, I say... But, if we are all sons of God, the creator almighty why would any 'parent' want to make his/her children suffer in the form of diseases? Surely, he wasn't thinking,"Oh, I think this son of mine should be born with a defect which disables him from normal functions and Oh! This one here, should lose all control over his mind and body which will soon lead to him dying." It's all a random occurring of events! Random genetic mutations, natural calamities, formation of the animal kingdom, the stars... the list is endless! 

As humans, what we have done which is probably fatal to us as a race and immeasurably harmful to our planet is that we have begun controlling these random occurrences. We have created a divide, a difference between what was originally meant to be one thing : Natural and Man-made. Everything that man has made in this world is harmful to the natural way of things. Paper, plastic, steel, tar, chemicals, CFC gases... you name any man-made thing and it's something which will have a negative effect on what was meant to be natural. The saddest part is that we're so deep into converting this world into a man-made affair, we're beyond the point of return. The pollution, the garbage, the drastic and rapid change in climate is irreversible. We are trying to eliminate the natural part in our world and make everything according to our whims and fancies without caring about what effect our actions are having on the other species inhabiting the same earth!

Okay then, since we're molding everything around us to our liking anyway might as well do it to the best of our capabilities and such that it benefits our entire species, right? Wrong. Homo Sapiens Sapiens, the primate with the most developed brain, the only animal to possess an opposable thumb has managed to get everything as messed up as it was 'humanly possible'. Before we get to racism, crime, hate let's look at our lives for a moment.

So, you're born to a set of two parents (in an 'ideal' situation), you're instantly given a name, a religion, which in turn will define your beliefs, your eating habits and your prayers. You instinctively (naturally, mind you) learn to walk, to think, to speak, and then you have to go to possibly the worst man-made thing in the universe : School. School, where another set of human beings will impart the same knowledge they received from another set of human beings when they were your age. A place where they tell you what is right and wrong, the things you can do in this already defined society and the things which will make people judge you or call you something extremely hurtful like... crazy? They give you examinations to write which basically define in what grade of intelligence you fit since everyone is taught the exact same thing, at the exact same time and everyone is expected to know the same as everyone else (because we're meant to be equals, maybe?) Then... you're done with your basic schooling and have to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life which basically answers all the following questions how much money you will earn, who you will marry, will your parents be proud of you and whether you will be deemed a successful human being after your inevitable death. So you study hard to get into a 'good school' (I don't even know what that means, aren't all educational institutes supposed to impart you with knowledge beneficial for your future?) you 'educate' yourself to get a good job (good meaning one which pays well) which will in turn get you a good spouse since everyone who earns a lot of money deserves love. You coexist with another person in a man-made house enclosed by walls on every side and then you call yourself free. Marriage is also a wonderful concept we have managed to create. a legal document which allows you to live with the person you love and copulate in turn to bring another human being into this tiresome and repetitive cycle. You want to make babies with someone you love and are not 'married' to? Come on! What kind of a human being are you?! That's illegal!

And you earn money to keep yourself, your family happy (since money is now synonymous with happiness) by working in the same place, waking up at ungodly hours groaning and moaning about going to work yet finding the necessity of paper notes to be of utmost importance in the course of your existence. Soon enough, your body becomes lifeless and then depending upon what religion was thrust upon you in the beginning of everything, you either decompose in the dirt or find yourself in the form of ash. During the course of your existence you decide which person should govern you and those beside you, who should decide what is deemed legal and illegal in the place where you live... it's the same person who claims that you are a free independent citizen. You end up exchanging paper notes with the same person you 'elected' for using facilities like electricity, gas, water which, since man-made, are extremely necessary to our current form of being. Politics, you call it. "Government"

Ah! But how can we forget the social pressures of this world engulfed by capitalism... Success, becomes a very shallow term. An alternative phrase to 'Are you successful?' would be 'Do you have money?' You dress up, base your likes and dislikes upon what the majority wants you to choose. Media creating illusions of 'ideal bodies', movies having a direct effect on how you base your personality, the influence of social media on our lives is probably equivalent to meteors hitting the dinosaurs... From Michelangelo to Memes, we have come a long way. Here we are, trying to understand love and what comes along with it, dealing with heartbreaks, depression, judgements, insecurities... a natural turmoil. It would have worked fine if we hadn't understood love but we have severely misunderstood it and that is exactly where the problem lies. Hate... hate everything. 

Racism : hate everyone whose skin colour is different than yours albeit everything else is the same.

Sexism : hate anyone who does not possess the same reproductive organs as you do albeit there being no existence without the other.

Homophobia : Wanting entire influence on what another human should or should not do with his own reproductive organs.

.... and the list you know, is endless.

We hate what we misunderstand and we misunderstand what we cannot form our own unadulterated, unbiased opinion about. (Probably why babies love everyone?)

It angers me... Life in the 21st century makes me angry every single day. I look around at what we have done to our planet which was supposed to thrive and survive peacefully and randomly for times beyond us and it terrifies me. We have seized control of something we could never control and it has brought us to times like these. Well, all you can do is smile and add a little bit of love to a hopeless race and make the most of whatever little remains. Is this really the world we created?

10 on 10, she marked.