It takes a lot of emotional courage and a sad hard look at life to see it all for what it truly is. A mere constructed and co-opted way of life, and not even one bit of it is natural any longer. I

t seems like living in a dream that has no end, yet the goalpost gets randomly placed anywhere else every now and then. In today’s world and time, there is nothing more absurd than the obvious identity crisis. 

Its absurdity is that humanity has completely lost its natural identity of just being human, and that all for one is one for all. It seems that it has become a bore just to be ordinary while finding and fulfilling purpose. The idea is that one becomes something, which in itself means one seeks to identify with something other than himself. Whether it is status, fame or just mere attention, today humanity will do anything to identify with any illusions, even at the expense of good and sound sleep. Needless to say, as much as there is a great renaissance to address the mental health crisis, no one is willing or ready to address its root cause. 

This is because the adopted way of life, which is miles apart from nature’s way of life, is inherently the root of humankind’s mental illness. There is nothing natural about sitting in a cubicle all day, staring at low frequencies and expecting not to get mad at some point. That is just the same as the person who wakes up in a prison cell and stares at the wall or ceiling all day while waiting for a snack break. Today’s humanity is plagued with so many lifestyle illnesses, yet in the same vein shoots itself in the foot by highly regarding the very same things that cause it. The body which was made to be mobile, stretched and consume food as fuel to get to go about doing physical activities today sits idle and dormant in the see of “convenience and comfort”, or simply put a “soft life”. Even the health experts seem to be not honest enough. 

Instead of telling someone to get “off their butt” to deal with their lifestyle issues, they would rather prescribe a pill because, clearly, a healthy person pays no bill. Truly, many lives could be saved with honesty rather than going around the “George Bush”, and indirectly propagating a society of snowflakes. A propagation of a society that is too sensitive to tell them the truth could be worse than death by electrocution. Most of today’s problems could easily be solved when we stop giving even the last person in the race a participation award, just because we do not want to hurt their feelings. It is important to tell someone that they have lost, and they could do better next time if they actually put in the work. 

What is important is to help the person understand what it means, and that losing does not have to become their identity. It is just as important, as well, to tell a learner that failing a test is not simply a measure of whether one is smart or dumb. It should rather be seen as an opportunity to review the learning methodology, the environment and so on, to help improve future performance. 

In this instance, it is only the person struggling with certain insecurities who would use moments of others’ low performance to psychologically belittle and bring them down. Until humanity slows down and takes stock of its normalised systemic irrationality, the aliens will continue to watch and endlessly laugh at this earthly circus.

*Uncommon Sense is published bi-weekly in New Era with contributions from Karlos Naimwhaka. YouTube channel: Karlos Lokos

– karlsimbumusic@gmail.com