Imitation

Now that I’ve thought about it, I think this is one of the most common facets I’ve often observed in most my peers (and hence in myself). I struck me just a few minutes ago (July the 18^th, 2009, 21:00) when a friend of mine asked me why I had decided to put up a certain picture, I’d found on the net, up on my profile. As I sought the answer for this seemingly innocuous question, I questioned myself, why did he ask such a question? Why do people accept (or are comfortable) only certain stream of thoughts or actions? Why do we?

From the time we set foot on this world our cognition skills are honed primarily, I think, by two processes. One by experiencing- baby touches hot pan, baby burns fingers, baby learns (baby cries too). The other, I strongly feel, may be subconscious sometimes, is imitation- baby watches parent hate someone/something, baby begins to hates too(or is urged to) –in essence, the inception of instinct, the inception of hate. I think that the definition each individual’s feelings and thought process is down to that individual’s experience or what’s been subconsciously drilled into his/her head. But besides these two, there is the hand of genes underlying, which may be at the helm but I really don’t know to what degree. It may seem that these processes are quite imperative to survival. We can see that even the animal kingdom exhibits similar traits (Of course we too are part of the animal kingdom, but we intend to see ourselves as separate class altogether despite being descendants). Newborns learn from their mothers various ways to survive in their environment while they are nurtured. Again it’s through imitation and experiences that their learning curves begin. However one notable feature of these curves is that imitation is existent only for a short period of the adolescence. Of course there’s the fact that the mother and its offspring part ways shortly after due training and hence the cessation of imitation, discretion takes over.

Human instincts, I think, develop much the same way when we are but fledglings. Then we are taught, we continue to imitate. Unlike our animal counterparts we don’t set off on our own quests. We let our environment, our parents, our peers dictate and define our individuality. Although there may be a few defining traits in each individual we’re all, more or less, in close ties with our herd. Somehow from all this arises the evils such as hatred, jealousy, prejudice, et al. Before you know it you innately hate a country, a race, a religion, a class, a genre of music, a sport, a different opinion and a different taste. We have found ways to compare but just as frequently we’ve judged. I’m no exception and have fallen victim to afore mentioned. Nations have gone into conflict, still do. People are ostracized. Distrust is rife in varying magnitudes. Now, in retrospect, I’m certain I would’ve loved to continue with art, as I once did, instead of pursuing a tormenting career, where there always seems to be more room for people to go at one another, if it wasn’t for some intervention of my environment. To discuss a more common scenario, my friends ask me to indulge in their field, their specialties. Why do they want to me to mimic them? Why do they have this great urge to cast a shadow? It absolutely disgusts me to see these people covet such imitations. I hate these fucking assholes! They have a limited set of questions to ask in order to accept a person into their group. Is he good at studies? is he good at quizzing? Is he a real party-guy? Is he a mind-fucked stoner? ….err No but he is pretty good at something else. Screw him that’s useless. But there are these other fucking chameleons too. They roll out the red carpet and usher you in with their kind and then wait for the opportune moment to exploit you. We go great lengths to confirm to the rules set by our society despite the degree of discomfort we find in it initially. We get used to it; we become a product of their environment. Passion for whatever we truly loved is smothered in a heartbeat. Besides impeding creativity, in the bigger picture this could have an even more profound effect. The picture alludes to the fact that we haven’t seen a new stream of thought emerge in some time. We have for long dwelt in music, sport, art, literature. The 20^th century saw the birth of technology and it has created a lot of buzz no doubt. These fields have continuously gone through phases of innovations and improvisations. But I ask myself, when is that new field going to emerge, which will leave us, begging for more? Sadly, when there is a break through, we put it down right away and frown upon it for it might not confirm with whatever we expected from it.

I remember the first day in my 11^th standard tuitions when my physics teacher urged us all to try and be unique in our ways of thinking; he called it ‘originality’. I forgot about that a few days later…until now. Why should we continue to imitate and not accept a free flow of thought? Why has such a simple and rudimentary fact of life blown so wildly out of proportion? What is with this predilection for hatred? Why are we shackled by rules? Why the fuck am I writing this article?