The Master said: “To worship to other than one's own ancestral spirits is flattery. If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.” [Analects 2:24]
People of today, and somehow of the past, believes that one way to live this world of ours is to conform to others; trends, social fads, crazes, or even just by simply going to the canteen, we need someone to accompany us. We usually see ourselves imitating or any ways possible, fitting in to somebody's businesses. We even, some of the times, enter cliques of friends, not because we are sharing the same primal interests, but because we think their interests are quite more better and somehow worthy to be adapted for.
According to sociology, it is a nature of the person to conform, in order to somehow belong. They call it the "sense of belongingness". We do need to be attached to somebody or a group of somebodies; no matter how risky it would be, or why it should be done, or what is the incentives/punishments of such, for as long as we have a person or a group to lean on, we are on the right track. Such was explained in the social movements we encounter like for example: the violent rallies. Yes, there are people in a certain rally who are really eager, firm and of course knowledgeable of what they are shouting out there for. But somehow, there are also these who just rides freely and merely goes with the flow of such movement. Yes, they are not really assembling for what is their really cause, because they are just there to somehow feel that they belong, and therefore, not aloof.
Who can survive being alone anyway? Yes, there are few who prefer to be alone, but can they survive such? Well, I am not pretty sure they can. Even maybe the most standoffish of all the person needs someone or an alliance to join them. Indeed, we all need such accompaniment.
But, if you are to know something that is right, would you still prefer conforming and following those who are stupid and wrong in their beliefs perhaps? How long can you tolerate such incorrectness, if you do happen to know what is really the correct one? Would you still waste time and just sit around conforming something that you know is wrong? Or would you rise up and break your silence that no matter what will happen to you, even if everybody is against you and your idea, for as long as you know what is right?
Thus, righteousness for me then, must be accompanied with the enough courage, for what will be the used of righteousness, if you are the only one who follows such, right? Again, as Napoleon said: "We are suffering because of the silence of the good people". For what is good, if nobody knows it, or let us say, only few knows what is really right? In other words, one must be righteous and somehow courageous enough to impose the right way to the whole world while prudently accepting that there will be a lot of conflicts you will face, but as long as you have the right one in your hands, you are not to be afraid of anything at all. Hence, you are not the one who must conform to their erroneousness, for instead, they must be the one who will conform to you for your righteousness.
No comments:
Post a Comment