I was discussing the ironies of human condition and related perils with my inner circle (conveniently). One of friends quoted a saying in Urdu, which loosely translates into “Wisdom is in limited supply and sacred generally, however, wise people are generally unsafe and probably endangered in an ‘ignorant’ surrounding”. We deliberated this for a while and concluded that – One of many subtle incivilities of our times is that: the rare bulb’s get hanged by the crowd of candles. N.B., We are going to push this BULB and CANDLE metaphor to the next level – so strap in your cord tightly!
CANDLES are afraid of the light of the BULB – they do not know ‘WHY’ it shines so bright or powered differently or does not have to be sparked by a matchstick and has different thinking/beliefs to us. He is not enticed by the same thing, he is not afraid to shine alone and even if we ostracise him, he keeps shinning. Candles can easily join heads and continue the same bandwagon/following the flock thinking. However, when they see the bulb, they cannot enforce the same thinking that they’ve adopted and are afraid that it threatens their values, beliefs, self-serving and privileged status quo. The simplest solution for bulb would be to ‘hang’ the bulb – for reasons which all candles would understand and feel its justified, but mainly for merely, being different, having consciousness and trying to go beyond our human tunnel vision of that particular time.
It is worth noting that same as five fingers, not all candles are alike, most of them do depict shades of the following:
- They all consider themselves as special (self-conceited) and even bulb in their own right, however, some are less/more insecure than others.
- They have high toxic self-esteem and low self-awareness.
- They show some traits of Machiavellianism and are interpersonally exploitative to varying degrees.
- They are a proponent of most widely held belief/ideology aka conditioning (geographical, social/cultural/personal) of their time i.e., king is wiser than the dynasty, the world is flat, humans are born good or bad, religious people do not have human needs etc.
- They don’t only buy into the existing predominant ideology i.e., Communism, Marxism, Capitalism or Socialism but develop protectionism i.e., believe it’s their life’s purpose to enforce it.
- Their compass is more external driven, because well they adopt existing values/ideologies. But there is an element of people pleasing/validation with self aggrandisement focus – probably because they share the ‘wax’ at the bottom with other candles.
- They feel that ‘Bulbs’ or anyone against their incomplete knowledge/privilege is unnecessary, should be restrained, where needed eliminated.
Individualism vs Conformity
This article isn’t pointing to the general human tendency pertaining to diversity of human thought or tendency or have a binary approach to most things in life i.e. for and against.
If we conform too much—i.e., if we completely surrender our individual identity to another person or to a group—then we lose a sense of who we are. And because we have no sense of who we are or what we want, that surrender renders the relationship meaningless.
But there’s an opposite approach to human relationships, as well. We can try to be completely different from everybody else. We can become contrarian. We can wear our hair in a weird way and stop showering and adopt a small pack of feral wolves and speak about ourselves in the third person.
This is fundamentally a ‘candle’ paradox, as bulbs are too self-aware to fall into this trap. This desperate desire for individuality is motivated by the same thing that motivates the conformists of the world: the desire to feel important. In the case of conformists, they try to feel important by mimicking and being accepted by someone they admired. In the case of the weirdo individualist, they seek to feel important by being incomparable to anyone else. The punchline, weather you act like some people or act exactly opposite to them – you still base your life preferences/identity – ‘around them’ not yourself and the quality of your thoughts will be determined if they are all candles or bulbs? A good mix of wick and tungsten filament? – I warned we are going to push this metaphor 😊 (Excerpt – The Three Paradox – Mark Manson)
Pathological/Historical Context aka ETIOLOGY:
Some known bulbs throughout the history have been Edison, Einstein, Leonardo Di Vinci, Newton, Kant, Tesla, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Confucius, Lao-Tzu, Buddah, Rumi, Manto and I’m quite sure it’ll be Prophets before that – all had a hard existence, original work, constant resistance, selfless in many regards despite having their human failings and enabling us to do way much more what candles would have achieved with their limited wicks. Have a look at ‘Socrates’ who was forced to commit suicide through poisoning charged with corrupting young Athenians by his ideology – the ideology – not overly complex but more around morality and ethics (which is a turnoff for most humanity – because it shows them the mirror they’ve been avoiding day in and day out) – For example, one of the greatest paradoxes that Socrates helped his students explore was whether weakness of will—doing wrong when you genuinely knew what was right—ever truly existed. He seemed to think otherwise: people only did wrong when at the moment the perceived benefits seemed to outweigh the costs. Subsequently, Socrates’ life became an exemplar of the difficulty and the importance of living (and if necessary, dying) according to one’s well-examined beliefs. That’s another difference in the Bulb’s and Candles – they believe in the cause and would sacrifice themselves, not to gather applaud, but merely knowing that change requires sacrifice and they’re not as up themselves as Candles. Whereas a Candle, will never let their light be dim unless they are glorified, applauded and fake notoriety – it’s again run for fame vs sanctimonious ideology. P.S. After Socrates, his corrupted student Plato became a legend picking his tungsten filament when he was hanged by the candles
The list of examples is not all that exhaustive, I am sure you will find similar elements, personal life experiences for many of the great thinkers – just google the term ‘great thinkers’ you will get the same names globally and then adjusted for region/your search history (Echo Chamber).
After spending a little more time and wick, in some instances some candles who spend time with bulbs also start mimicking similar habits – quite fascinating, because their initial stance was an animus one and we’ve evolved it to a productive and mutually advantageous stage. I am sure, anyone who can be taught compassion, empathy, positive self-esteem and contribution – does wonders to the world, but it’s probably the biggest ask in the universe. No wonder The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said “In this world take pity on three kinds of people. The rich man who has lost his fortune, the well-respected man who has lost his respectability, and a wise man who is surrounded by ignorant” (The Forty Rules of Love, Elif Shafak). Also, the bulbs have this ‘selflessness’ about their being, I feel sometimes they realise that their calling/idea is much bigger than them that they die by the sword themselves. Candles, well, being overtly selfish is kind of their gig, notwithstanding its mainly due to unconscious emotional pain and ignorance.
“I don’t regret that others stole my ideas. I am sorry they don’t have their own” – Tesla
But there are exceptions to the rule, some Bulbs are quite vindictive about the ideas/patent shit and have destructive personal contribution to immediate surroundings while having innovative and social output i.e., Steve Jobs.
Theological/Rational Explanation aka TELEOLOGY:
All humans are afraid of what they do not understand – we all have an egoic mind, which is busy doing labels, judgements, assessment, comparisons, creating incessant noise which ends up consciously or subconsciously us defining our ‘self-worth/identity’ and ‘whole being’ with it. Eckhart Toole describes this phenomenon in his book – The Power of Now. He says the mind cannot see the tree, the mind can only know the color, labels, and things you internalize about the tree. Similarly, the mind cannot know you, it can only run on what it is provided access to – but if the cog takes over the machinery, then the real ‘you’ is lost – When mind takes over all aspects of your life including your relationships with other human beings and nature, it becomes a monstrous parasite, that, unchecked, may well end up killing all life on the planet and finally itself by killing its host. Also, along the way whatever damage you cause to the environment and people around you, you will justify it as, necessary self-preservation. What do you expect you handed your consciousness to a survival tool i.e., your brain what else would you expect? The dominance of mind is a stage in human consciousness and, we will all be fools if we think it’s the resting place for it. (Excerpt – The Power of Now).
Solution:
I feel we’ve been taking the emotionally savvy and reactionary stance to this conundrum. The healing starts with self-acceptance for oneself and acceptance of others. Perhaps the solution is to approach this from compassion instead of animosity and empathising with the limitations of being human. Guiding the candles from a place of egalitarianism and trust. As we undertake the journey of self-awareness for a candle, it undergoes transmutation and becomes a better bulb.
At the end of the day, it is more about ‘LIGHT’ than the method of delivery via candle, bulb, tube or a star and removing darkness from ourselves and the world.
Sources:
- Images from Wallpaperflare
- The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
- Nehamas, A., 1998. The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault, Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Sartre’s philosophy is known as “Existentialism”. For an intro to Sartre’s ideas, check out Existentialism is a Humanism (1946). And if you’re really ballsy/a masochist, you can try to tackle his magnum opus, Being and Nothingness (1943). Existentialists believe that we’re born without purpose into a world that makes no sense — but each person has the ability to create his or her own sense of meaning and peace.
- If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
- The 3 Paradoxes of Life – Mark Manson
- Why do so many mediocre men rise to the top?
- New ₤50 Note Features Alan Turing
Disclaimer: Being a rationally irrational human, I don’t carry as notion and fascination that I am a bulb, or even a decent candle – or a hybrid. I am merely trying to write around the diversity of human experience across the bell curve of existence and emotional skewness and biased kurtosis with a massively large error term. We have to start somewhere and it’s the epicenter of the only thing sacred in this universe, as per Kant, human consciousness and this includes all consciousness irrespective of being a candle, blub, tube, northern lights or galaxy full of stars!
