Lennon, thou shoulds’t have been living at this hour. Then you would see for yourself how well you had envisioned this world of ours in your songs. I remember my younger days at college and university and remember my obsessive admiration for your songs. I remember some of the words now…
You can shine your shoes and wear a suit
You can comb your hair and look quite cute
You can hide your face behind a smile
One thing you can’t hide is when you’re crippled inside…
I felt the truth of these words ever so deeply the other day following certain incidents at my place of employment. I witnessed how a whole generation of youth has gone wrong in the aspirations it is chasing. There was what I may quite easily describe as a pitched battle between two sections, between members of one political ideology and those of another political ideology. I saw an academic institution turn into a political battleground, and I sensed the insidious support of certain section of teachers in this whole unfortunate incident. And I really felt that some people are ‘crippled inside’ and you cannot understand their motives ever. As for the students who seem to be lead by these supposed ideologies are Matthew Arnold’s “ignorant armies clash(ing) by night”.
I thought the academic field was a creative arena, where learning, discipline and a responsible attitude to life were to be nurtured. I have been rather rudely awakened. In this state it seems to be a rather slimy, shady area where your own features may be strange to you. It has become a playground for what Lennon would describe as “uptight, shortsighted narrow-minded hypocrites” and “neurotic, psychotic, pigheaded politicians.” Each is trying to say the worst thing about the other in hushed tones. I try to keep my head on my shoulders, quite straight, neither bending this way nor that till I feel my head reeling, till I could scream like Lennon : All I want is the truth now, gimme some truth now…
But where’s the truth?
Where is that world where life does not appear like an adversary, where there is just me, my truth and my sensations, my liberty to feel and speak as I will, to go which way I like to tread, to hold my beliefs as dearly as I like and not be suspected on account of them?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment