How We Went from Carpe Diem to YOLO: The Downfall of Consciousness

Oscar Knows...

With more people listing YOLOOOO as their life mantra while falling under the illusion that Carpe Diem is a kind of Italian pasta, the need to say something about it struck me as somewhat necessary. 

To provide you with some perspective on the abysmal direction which our society is heading in: A couple of days ago I found out Jason Silva was giving a seminar in Abu Dhabi for IBM Software Day and was staying in Dubai afterwards. In an attempt to explain Silva's magnitude think Richard Dawkins meets Ashton Kutcher . That kind of places him on the same pedestal as any huge celeb out there, seeing as he has 30k followers on twitter. But of course I only found out he was in town through his personal twitter account and not thanks to any trivial media coverage. For some reason though, media coverage starts to resemble a 3-day Indian wedding festivity when Kimmie or Paris grace us with their presence which is almost always tied with how much revenue their  widely publicized sojourn generates for the UAE. If that isn't enough, you'll also probably see the same story appearing in three different sources, of how well Kardashian wore that local Emirati dress and how she could totally pull off her own Aabaya fashion line. Again, this is just an example of how blindly people follow a trend. It is none of my concern if you are a legit follower of celebs and all their news. It is my every concern, however, to point out that even indifferent people find themselves coerced into this trivial cyclone of "trending" news just by the exaggerated media hype. Just typing this is giving me an aneurism. I think you all get the point I'm attempting to drive home so I'll just stop here. 

That being said, if I have to see one more Harlem Shake video being shared on Facebook I'm going to lose my mind!! Sure it was fun the first couple of times watching people manically humping air which made me feel like I was part of some orgy on LSD. However, the degree to which our idiotic species manage to saturate and completly drain a certain a trend makes me not only abhor that trending phenomenon but also the very individuals responsible for it going "viral". In turn, such frustration leaves me wondering how to make the outbreak of a new plague seem like an accident. 

Yes, that crazy gangnam dance was cute in a way that showed song lyrics don't really matter as long as there's a fab Korean guy doing fancy footwork in a Korean horse stable. So what if Honey Boo Boo Child's mom has a boyfriend and I'm still single as f***? Ok, and maybe I would have actually appealed to the Harlem Shake if my pathetic excuse of a campus partook in the madness... And lo and behold, all these acknowledgments still leave this question unanswered: Where do we go from here? 

What does it mean when an Internet phenomenon manages to awe and impress 1/7th of the worl'd population? Not only did we become so entirely consumed with discussing these global phenomena and actively "trending" them online, but more importantly we lost sight of the events that weren't as popular but which were more deserving of our attention and cyber activism. For instance, how many people knew that World Cancer Day was just 4 days into February? How many people actually gave a shit that Valentine's Day marked the first day of Palestine Awareness Week? What about the meteorite that hit Saudi Arabia a few days ago? or the fact that Abu Dhabi is now granting blue-collar workers a proper weekend? Human beings that are a part of this society, planet, and universe, can either be one of three things: A. Happy-go-lucky kind of people who would rather go with the natural flow of things because they're already overwhelmed with their own problems to divert their attention to other wordly matters OR B. Secretly informed, but they choose to be non-chalant  because they have a certain image to uphold, in which case they are hypocrits OR C. Fully aware of what's going on outside that circle of trending pop songs, videos, fluff news, and TV shows, but they think of such matters as a waste of time, and whoever dare diverge from whatever has gotten the majority's stamp of approval must be a loser, in which case I'd like to say to these people: CONGRATULATIONS! You are at the very bottom of Mother Nature's hierarchy of organization.

Ultimately, we live in a dog-eat-dog kind of world where one doesn't stand a chance if there's no feature other than an olive-shaped mole on a calf to distinguish him/her from a throng of atypical beings. Years from now, do we really want our future children to remember the uniqueness of our glorious youth with the story of that one time when we were so torn apart with which Instagram filter to apply on this one picture of food which then ended up getting 100+ likes, regardless? No one is asking you to join a cult or highten your eccentricity to the point of agressiveness. Just be aware. Be multi-faceted. Don't follow unless it is with the power of your own free will. One doesn't have to read volumes of books on philosophy or Darwinism to achieve that. As the self-explanatory Jamaican proverb says " Small small catch monkey". One Facebook page here, a retweet of a powerful quote from there, and one's consciousness becomes sensitized to the point where anything ordinary or banal no longer satisfies hungry curiosity. We should have utter faith that this strategy will serve our own wellbeing in the long-run. Each person will have a brimful to offer in terms of gregarious personality and witty discourse. Those with elevated consciousness won't panic all of a sudden when thrown into an unfamilair social/professional setting because they actually took the time to master the specific set of skills required to improve their understanding and perception of the world beyond its visible peripheries. They won't merely survive because they've learned to quickly adapt to change, but they will thrive in every aspect imaginable! Trust that those souls that merely exist without living, that talk without speaking, that hear without listening, that look without seeing, that feel without moving, are all doomed to perish in an evolutionary sense. But believe with every fiber in your being, that after waking up no one ever goes back to sheep. 

It's been said that modern humans nowadays
have an underdeveloped temporal lobe
Can you guess which area that represents?

Why is Depression a Thing?

Before reading this, make sure you WATCH this

Listen to: Cut Copy- Hearts on Fire

What inspired me to actually have the courage to write this was a phone call I received from my friend earlier today. She probably will detest the fact that I've decided to use her story as an allegory, but oh well this is what she gets for being stubborn and not letting me reach out to her sadness. I really hope she reads this, for words are really the most powerful weapon to mankind. But this isn't just about her, this is about those people who complain it pours the hardest on them and that they are not worthy of such a fate, while truth be told, it is they that insist on walking under the cloud. Now, before I come off as some know-it-all self-righteous smug bitch, I would actually like to think I know what I'm talking about, and that I have been in the camp of those who view the glass as half empty for too damn long. Frankly I wouldn't have had the incentive to be a "happy camper" if it wasn't for a particular incident that changed my perspective.

About three weeks ago, I was going through some hard shit as usual and of course when Majdoline is going through shit the entire household has to join in a lament with her. As usual, my dear mother was lecturing me on Emotional Intelligence, and as usual I wouldn't have any of it.  In retrospect, I now realize I used to always obstinately refuse my mom's advice, cry my sorry eyes out, and add the melodramatic exit phrase "You don't know what it's like to be me. You haven't gone through what I've been through *exit*". Much to my surprise and dismay, my said friend was behaving in the same exact manner. Hence, the uncontrollable sudden urge to blog about this big revelation I've had. So on that day, I was crying away to her in the living room and then I took a break and walked into the kitchen to stuff my face with some comfort food. At that moment my 16-year-old brother,who is just a hormonal bundle of teenage angst, came into the kitchen. Upon seeing me in that state, he burst into laughter (I did not expect his reaction to be any different) He turned to me and said very plainly, very sardonically " Majdoline, you're pathetic". For some reason, this sarcastic statement from a teenager with acne and an afro hit a little too close to home and unleashed the waterworks even harder. Thankfully, however, he did not relent and added:" You notice how every stupid little thing that happens to you, you go crying to mom about it, and then I have to hear about it from her, and then you stay in bed all day and you stuff your face with food because you think that's going to help...You know what? I'm more mature than you. Did you even know that all my friends haven't been talking to me for two weeks now because we got into a fight and look at me..do you see me acting like a homeless person bawling my eyes out? Do I look like I give a shit?..." Now I don't exactly remember his entire reproachful  monologue but it was what he ended it with that really struck a sensitive nerve, and which I stayed up thinking about later that night. As he walked out of the kitchen with his dinner, he paused, and looked at the corner where I was slouching and said:" You're a living proof of why men will always be better than women. You're a loser." and he left. Just like that. And I stared back in his direction long after he was gone, with my head cocked to one side and my jaw semi-dropped. Bader, is that you? I was scarred by his words yet healed. I was traumatized yet mesmerized. I was indignant yet grateful. Who knew that getting bullied by a 16-year-old was going to be the end of the old me. I hadn't noticed it up until now, but I guess that was the night the real transformation happened. It was the night the brand new kind of me was born.

Lately, I've been acting as a psychiatrist to many troubled and distressed people, since apparently I have acquired the reputation of a "good listener", and all throughout their complaints I always hear how hard change is, how they can't just open a new page all of a sudden without the memories coming back to haunt them. Some of them actually want the painful memories to linger. They keep thinking of "good change" as this huge feat that requires great effort and endurance and which can't be attained overnight. Well guess what: You're wrong and pathetic, and what you're reading now is a testament that overnight change is not only possible, but successful and extraordinary. After that fateful conversation with my brother, a much needed radical change happened to me and it was effective from the very next day. It's been about three weeks now, and I've accomplished so much! I downloaded more cheery-up music ( like this mind-blowing tune!) and deleted the depressing emo crap. I was jogging on a daily basis. I joined a Zumba class which I now look forward to every Monday and Thursday more than anything. I cut the weed out of my life, un-followed the negative and suicidal people from Twitter and Tumblr, and subscribed to more fitness and motivational blogs. I began reading a lot about Taoist and Sufi philosophy and implementing it in my daily life. I became more extroverted, started meeting new people, and became more intimate with individuals who turned out to have the same sense of humor and mentality. Not only did these actions bring positive and effective change into my life, but they also reshaped it in terms of spirituality and selflessness. I became more inclined to offer a helping hand, to listen, to advise, to care, to motivate, to support, and that just strengthened me even more. I derive my self-fulfillment and pleasure from that... Seriously, I mean how many people can really say "I made someone smile today"? Did you ever take time to think about that? What if I promised you that in making this mission your goal from now on, everything else will fall into place? Because for me, everything did indeed. Adopting this as my daily cause completed the cycle of fulfillment and happiness.

So I guess this is what I wanted my said friend to know, and anyone else who might be in the same predicament for that matter. Whether your parents are forcing you to transfer to a university back home, or someone has made you lose faith in love and trust, or your friends won't talk to you, or society has alienated you and classified you as eccentric, or your jeans won't fit anymore, and well I could list all the triggers that can piss all over your view of the world but still NONE OF IT MATTERS! Why? Because in all these circumstances you're basically turning over your fate and your emotional state to someone else. You are literally allowing another person/thing/circumstance decide whether you can be happy or not, when YOU truly are the only person to decide that. Get out of your dirty pjs, go shower, quit smoking, put on your sneakers and run like Forrest Gump, donate blood, intern at an art museum, do yoga at the park, teach someone how to do maths, dress up and go to a bar or a club and don't drink ( or get plastered, whichever is your preference, you know) just to prove that you can, take a surrealist painting class or writing workshop and pay an absurd sum of money to have a middle-aged white guy tell you how to write a topic sentence. Just Carpe Diem the shit out of this thing called life and victory will be yours! Ultimately, you will stand over and look down upon the faces of pain and sadness, and you shall feel nothing at all because you are a gorgeous human being. And because you're just so beautiful when you smile. You see, the universe is not outside of you, but rather the universe is concentrated within you. Take a look around, then reflect on your inner-self. You ARE the universe embodied. Everything your heart desires is what you already are! You're the only one with all the answers to your own questions. Have you ever heard of anyone who was indifferent and all like "yea yea whatever" towards the fact that their house/land might be sitting on top of a hidden treasure? On the contrary, they get super crazy and excited about finding it even if it completely depletes them of energy. THAT IS YOU! Your own brilliance and excellence is a treasure that must be dug up with patience and persistence from the abysmal hollows of your soul. Go absolutely crazy in your hunt for the treasure! Be passionate and articulate and outspoken and confident and flirtatious and kinky and intelligent and bold and simply amazing and rejoice plenty! Once you do that, you'll soon realize nothing is missing, and in that definitive moment, the entire world is yours.