Everyone grows up. Everyone has parents. And everyone's parents teach their kids certain lessons of life which according to psychologists is recorded in the child's brain for the rest of his/her life.
As we grow up, we never question those lessons, the "ethics", the "rules" which we were made to follow as kids. But why not?
The moment we fail to do so, we become sheep. We become followers of other's beliefs; Our parents, our teachers, our guardians, our family and all others that we ever encounter for our entire life. Because without question, day after day, without knowing the reason why, without thinking about anything as an individual with an open mind, we tend to blindly follow whatever was fed into us at a time when we were incapable; or in other words, during the decapacitated duration of our lives.
For instance, have we ever thought, why is it considered to be a good practice to touch elder's feet? Or most of us just do it because the family has been doing it for years.
Why have heavy breakfasts? Why work in the day and sleep at night? Why differentiate between genders while talking to them or seeing two of the opposite together? Why think in a certain way that everyone is thinking? Why cant humor be injected into the practices which have remained serious for so long? Why marry? Why study and then get jobs instead of getting jobs and then studying?
When we challenge that thought, that is when we become people. We refrain from being animals at the point when we refuse to follow blindly. But it requires us to question, and to challenge. We have to challenge everything that has been taught to us. No matter what it may be, as long as we have our reasons to believe it, we are people. Everything that we do or say or think, must have our own reasons to validate. Our beliefs. Not those which have been passed from generation to generation. Sure, genetic effects on the thought process will be there. But the thought is still independent and unique to the individual.
What was correct in the certain period of time, may not be true today. We should have been outdoors playing in our childhood according to what our parents and their parents did in their childhood. But if we do the same today, we're just likely to return with a sunburn. We pass on the same message to our kids, who knows they'll return alive or no?
Circumstances change, people change, trends change, and traditions must also change. The thought process must change. And we need to question, to challenge and create our OWN beliefs based on our OWN reasons to survive and make a life for ourselves. We will encounter situations in our life to which our traditions will have no answer to. We will need to reason then.
And if we behave like sheep... well, may be it'll be the dinosaur story all over again.
