Why do we fall, Bruce?

I stumbled upon this status message that a friend of mine had put up on her wall, and it got me talking to myself.

‘Why do we fall?’

‘Gravity?’

‘No Kidding’

‘I am not kidding. Remember, the apple… the Newton guy in white wig who screwed our lives with his laws of motion... in Physics?’

‘Ok fine. But weren’t you supposed to say “So that we can learn to pick ourselves up”, like Alfred in Dark Knight?’

‘I wish I could, but I don’t want too’

‘Wow! I am trying to get philosophical and you, dumping Confucius or Hume, quote Phoebe Buffay?’

‘Haha! I quote her as I see you are not listening to what I am saying and still playing that movie in your mind. We’ll talk when you have time for me’

‘Ok. You have it. You have my attention. But please don’t give me that gravity shit again or I’ll switch you off’

‘Well gravity sure is an answer, in a way. Before I answer why we fall, tell me why do we don’t? ’

I had to make a face at myself. My inner self loves patronizing me like this. Anyways, I continued half-heartedly. ‘We do not fall because we use our strength to keep our body straight up. It is the chemical energy that our body gets from burning the food we eat, that helps us stand up, or for that matter, controls our body motions. Is that enough or you want more’

‘Ha ha. That’s right. So I hear you saying that we need to put some effort to keep standing right?’

‘Yes’

‘That’s it. That answers your question. Every time we will fail to put effort into standing up to our beliefs, standing up to our faith, we will fall. And we can only pick ourselves up if we still wish to make that effort again’

‘Okay. So you mean to say that we lose because we choose to? Always?’

‘Nobody chooses to lose D. Situations make us give in. But if we still have faith in ourselves, God, or whatever/whoever we want to put it on, we will find the strength to at least make an effort to stand. And since you quote Dark Knight, let me tell you that our world, not just our city or country, is no different from Gotham. We are always under the siege of one villain or the other. The villains here might not be as classy as the Joker, but they are the hell as heinous. The sad part is, we have been under their spell for so long, that we no longer realize it. We have grown used to it to the extent that we accept all the wrong doings as general practice. Like giving bribe is the only way to get things done. We are fine with saying “as long as he is getting things done, I don’t mind bribing him”. Inefficiency, dishonesty, vileness and the like, all are acceptable till we get what we pay for. The rich and powerful nourish these devils to get their job done. The weak and poor keep crying for relief but then sell their soul for one fist full rice. We are all breeding this villainy inside us, like we are the horcruxes that save the soul of one common devil. We all, yes all, have fallen deep from our moral pedestals and we now shamelessly refuse to make an effort to stand up’

‘That… is scary’, it really was. I didn’t know so much psychological drama was going on backstage, while I was busy sorting my daily life petty issues. But then I thought, ‘If we are in Gotham city, shouldn’t there be a Batman on his way to save our lives?’

‘Batman! Ok. So one thing that people do not take away from these super hero movies is Batman or Ironman were people like us who chose to stand up and do something about the mess’

‘Hey that’s easy to say when you have so much money to build yourself a robo-suite or a batmobile’  

‘Classic interjection of an I-do-not-want-to-get-my-hands-dirty person’

‘Excuse me!’

‘No I won’t. That’s what we have been doing all this while. Looking for reasons to not do anything about it, and then we say that nothing good can ever happen to this country, even though inside, we keep wanting things to change. Tell me something. When do we want something?’

‘Uhhh… When we don’t have it?’ Stupid question.

‘Exactly! So we want an honest, trustworthy, incorruptible, hardworking, philanthropic, empathic, and blah blah person to lead us because we do not have these qualities in us. Now let’s face it. Our hero is not coming from another planet (Hopefully). So how do we choose such an ideal person from amongst us when none of us have those qualities? And even if we manage to find one person like that, the moment he disregards the “general practice” to bring about a change, and here I would like to highlight that change is never comfortable and is always challenged, we will feel restless and will pull him down with us. Why? Because in truth, we just like the idea of Change, and have no patience to suffer the ordeal that is a part of it. When your body gets seriously sick, you may need to be operated upon. This operation will bring you pain in the beginning, but in the end will free you off the disease. And that is what the process of Change is all about’

‘So that means that until we change ourselves, there is no hope for a better world?’

‘Hey, did you check out the new episode of Suits?

‘Suits! Wait a minute. We were having a good discussion here. You are digressing’

‘Hello! I am your mind, digressing is what I do. Later’

Every. Time.