Dying without a thought

One of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century, Bertrand Russell, said, “Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.” A lion’s share of the evils in the human world could be pre-empted if people started making use of their thinking faculty.

When I returned home an hour ago after dropping Maggie at her workplace, Kittu, my cat, accompanied me from the car porch as he usually does and entered the house even before I did. He has inculcated a sense of entitlement, thanks to my pampering as Maggie alleges. He did something odd today. Instead of going to one of his usual places to sleep, he climbed on to the chair which I normally use for working with my laptop. He went to sleep within seconds. He usurped my place without a second thought.

 

Kittu: Self-contentment

Well, there’s no first thought either for him. Like Walt Whitman, I always end up envying his thoughtless self-contentment. Whitman wished to be like the animals. “They are so placid,” he said. “They do not sweat and whine about their condition … Not one kneels to another,” not even to any god.

But we human beings can’t do that, of course.  We have a more complex mind. So we sit and calculate the gains and losses of our loves. We calculate our neighbours’ gains and losses even more meticulously. We are so much concerned about their gods and totems, their ups and downs, their lifestyle or lack of style. And then we mess up our lives and theirs too. We give sweet names to all that mess: like patriotism, nationalism, gau raksha, and so on.

And these patriots and nationalists are always absolutely certain of themselves while wise people are full of doubts and hesitations. Of course, there’s always been a particular breed of people who rush in where angels fear to tread.  I wish those people would start exercising their thinking faculty. Just a wish; nothing in wrong in wishing, right?