STATUTORY WARNING- This article is for those in pursuit of happiness. Those seeking knowledge, kindly overlook, as you might be in for heavy disappointment.

I have often heard, “Only simple people are original” (Excuse me for taking the liberty of replacing the word ‘fools’ with a more genteel substitute.) If that expression is to be believed, the intelligentsia around the world is guilty of committing plagiarism. This is quite a black and white division, separating the innocent from the guilty; the simpleton from the intellectual. But what about those who fall somewhere in between – the common denomination? What about us – the gray shades?

We come across so many different ideas, beliefs and practices every day, whether it is through T.V, newspapers, internet or through interacting with different people, that it becomes impossible to differentiate our original thoughts from the borrowed ones. Does that mean our thoughts, our beliefs, our principles and even our actions are not completely our own, but in fact a result of the amalgamation of a couple of hard sells and some original thoughts.

But is having options a good thing or bad? Well that is surely a moot point. Whether it’s a matter of painting the interiors of our homes or painting the interiors of our minds, we are provided with a lot of options from which we can pick and choose the ones, we want to get colored by.

In an age where the entire world has shrunk into one big fat noisy market place, with myriad brands offering commodities ranging from detergents, health drinks, diet regimes, philosophical and spiritual ideologies, lifestyles to social causes, the question is- where do our loyalties lie?

What are we, but a race of brand sluts hopping from one brand to another, from one ideology to another, opting for the ones that are either appealing to our eyes, or appeasing to our wallets. Speaking of ideologies, I am reminded of an incident from childhood. I used to watch a show called “Heads and Tails”. In one episode it was told that drinking cattle’s milk coming from commercial dairy farms is cruelty towards their new born. For someone like me, for whom gulping down a glassful of milk every morning was the hardest part of the day, this episode was like manna from heaven. I declared that I would give up milk forever, of course for serving a greater good. But my mom was too smart to fall for these shenanigans. She said if I gave up milk, I would have to give up all the byproducts like butter, cheese, curd and chocolates. I dropped my partially pasteurized… I mean half-baked ideology in a heartbeat.

How different am I today from the child I was then? How far is a commoner ready to go for her principles? Why do our ideologies come with the conditionality of convenience and compromises?

Let’s take vegetarianism for instance. My question to all my fellow vegetarians who look for the round green signal of 100% vegetarian before cruising on with their shopping carts is, are you a 100% vegetarian? You cannot wear a silk sari, use cosmetics stained with the blood of exotic species and sport a T-shirt with a- “I am vegetarian” chest print at the same time. Call yourself vegetarian by convenience not by principle.

I blame the never ending options that we are provided with, for our shifting loyalties. We are told that if we have all options in front of us, we can make an informed decision. But who is to say that an informed decision is in fact the right one. In a world where even information is a commodity and broadcasting information a commercial venture, how can we rely on the information fed to us? Imagine how much time of our lives we’ll save if instead of pondering for hours over which cereal to buy, out of the 25 odd options available, we pick the closest one we can lay our hands on. And this is just one item from the list of grocery. What if we consider the entire list and the total time wasted? You do the math.

Let’s face it – these products with different brand names are more or less the same, no matter how much moolah the companies spend on advertising, to prove otherwise. Then why waste time on a Hobson’s choice.

When it comes to exercising our right of adult franchise, we decide to make an informed decision and vote for a representative with the least number of criminal records and a comparatively cleaner public image. This is possibly the sole cause of the sorry state of politics today. After all, the only difference between a criminal and a successful politician is that the former lacks the clout, the political muscle and the big bucks to buy off silence.

The benefits of not knowing, rather choosing not to know are many. India might have a high mortality rate with diseases and starvation aplenty, but we can boast of having one of the least numbers of hypochondriacs. The proof is the golgappas and bhelpuris from road side shops that we relish, ignoring the unhygienic conditions in which they are prepared. The computers at cyber cafes, the cutlery at restaurants, the seats and handles of buses, all hosting parties for germs, never bother us. Indians save so much on the trips to doctors and the trips to shrinks.

As far as supporting bigger causes and having ideals goes, the lesser we stay informed or in most cases misinformed, the lesser we get manipulated. The more we rely on our original thoughts and inner callings, the stronger we would feel about our ideals and harder would we stick to them.

Knowledge on the other hand brings with it, fear, apprehension and cynicism. Knowledge on anything and every thing comes with the same set of hazards. A simple man may get duped. But look on the upside – he may never realize the deceit and stay happy nevertheless. Those who seek information are the ones more prone to deceit and what’s worse, they are stupid enough to become the targets but smart enough to know they are cheated. The more we see, the more we hear, the more we get entangled in the web of lies.

We have all tried knowledge, let’s give ignorance a chance. Now those who are still not onboard and are hell-bent on cutting a Faustian deal would be doing so at the risk of making an enemy out of the Guy Upstairs. Remember what He did to Eve when she took a small bite of knowledge. Talk about biting off more than you can chew. Our personal credo should be – Ignorance is such bliss. There is nothing in this world that we cannot afford to miss.

(Image courtesy: lusi from sxc.hu)