I've been wondering for a while now: why do we feel the need to "express" ? And some of us have a greater need than others. Numerous forms of art have taken birth over centuries, just out of this one primordial need. Is this good? Bad? Ugly?
I sometimes fear that, lost in the need to express, I am probably losing time evolving. In the time I spend writing or painting, could I be reading and observing and absorbing? But those books I have lying around me were the products of expression. So then is it just about the quality of that output? Knowing fully well that the products of my expression are not going to have as much or as far-reaching an impact as those of certain other people, like say, Salman Rushdie, am I just wasting my time? But it's not the result that drives me, it's the need. And I can't reason with myself to stop doing what I do...! Or should I just be happy to sow seeds of thought through the work I do, in a few people around me, in my small way?
Over time immemorial, expression and evolution have been two pillars of human civilization and progression, each one feeding on the other. That said, can one's own expression help them evolve? I have not found an answer to that and have been searching for that... Is my constant need and search for that one ultimate moment of content when I have expressed myself obscene, in a way? I hope to reach a conclusion.
Well, now what were these three paragraphs?!!
3 comments:
This post has had and will always have a lasting impact on me. Its an extremely interesting idea that you have brought up- something that hasn't really struck me.
While it may be true that we shouldn't "indulge" in expressing, thereby losing out on shaping and sculpting our ideas further for our own intellectual (or any other) growth, in other words, evolving; I see expressing also as contributing to evolving. Expressing leads to exchange of ideas... and the 'incoming' ideas will influence u in ur subsequent evolving. Its like a billiards table- ideas bouncing back and forth, each deciding the fate of the other. After all, we are social animals and I dont think evolving completely independent of other people is possible, or even healthy. So expressing plays an important role.
Its not about how much impact your expression has on humanity (ref. Salman Rushdie in your post)- its about how much it contributes to your own growth. And I guess we shouldn't think of expressing as a means, but as an end in itself- that it gives u pleasure.
Digressing a little bit, there is this common yet very interesting idea in the Philosophy of Language that what u express can never be exactly the same as what u conceived in your head- something along the lines of "language distorts the mind's reality"...
But well, language is indispensable and will live as long as humanity lives.
PS: Why is this not on Cyberdiaries? :)
Actually, i dont understand how we'd be wasting time expressing our ideas!If it isn't expressed it isn't an idea. How can it evolve at all if it isn't expressed. How would you even know if an idea evolved when it isn't expressed? Doesn't evolution happen through expression?
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