Contemporaries II

This is the second entry in the series 'Contemporaries'.
In that series, I have asked friends, comrades, companions, to speak. Individuals who inspired me and moved me and have influenced this blog to a great extent. 
I wanted to lend this space, so others can hear their voices and 'see' them.
For without them, this blog might never have existed.
And also I was tired of my own voice, my own writing, my own drama. 

My next guest of honour is an uncompromising Taurean. We had our share of differences and we still disagree on many things, but I have tremendous respect to the person who managed to shake my very metaphysical foundations (and that is not a code phrase for kinky sex). 
Few can achieve such a feat and few can boast such accomplishment.
My radical Taurus friend combines the sensibility of high Pop culture, the brooding Taurus temperament and a healthy preoccupation with morality and metaphysics.
And the essay he very generously agreed to share with me, reflects a lot of his concerns, fears, aspirations and philosophy.
You can agree with it, you can disagree with it, but it definitely shows an inquisitive and lively mind.
Without further ado, put your hands together for the Prophet of our times :)



The anarchistic crazy sane man.
Why can't I be a prophet?

What makes a prophet in the human sense?  
They looked deep hard enough into life. Broke it into pieces to learn how to enjoy the bigger picture of life more lively. And people mostly are lazy, and that what makes a prophet, prophet. And people just follow them. They got inspired by their perseverance in those mythical stories. People fall in love and idolize the prophets, thanks to their talents and charisma. But they broke it all down to be talented in the first place. And what makes a prophet much different than an artist, thinker, philosopher, or scientist?

Why do I want to be a prophet/artist?

Because I want to make life meaningful. Because of the unpleasant itch I sense whenever I follow a rule I didn't make.(What if those rules are too easy or too difficult that they become unbearable?) I want to live to the fullest-I need to actually. And I do not get why I function that way. But it's pointless to find out why I am the way I am. (not the lack of trying if that’s what you are thinking) but it's terribly “to the point” to use what you have and accept the way you are and the consequences of being who you are- and this is the religion I want to preach-Life is yours for the living.
 But how do we know the life we are living is the best of shows? It's simple; look harder. I want to be a prophet and break it down like scientists broke us down to atoms to understand how we function and maybe help us find a way to be happier. Yet, we are too fucking lazy to break down ourselves and see right through ourselves. (And we wonder why our lives are miserable and pointless!)
For a lot of us heaven and hell are the reasons why we think our lives are not pointless. But is this it? That's the only standard benchmark for life to be NOT pointless?!?
What about all the wonderful people who don't believe in religion or god or life even?
And what about the people that believe in themselves?
Why should we bother with anything if we don't believe in ourselves?
Prophets... I mean artists, broke down their thoughts, feelings and the world around them and realized they had so much to say. Because they are feeling more than a regular human being would. And they realized that words are not their best tool of expression.  They felt pain and joy and they wanted people to feel what they have felt. A prophet or an Artist tends to influence people through various mediums.  A string is a string, but musicians knew that different kinds of strings would make different kinds of feelings. Did you ask yourself how on earth a human being managed to create a violin that makes the sound you enjoy with its full abstraction? If that's not because of the few who managed to break from the prison of ignorance and inspect every detail possible that life has to offer, then it's because of some kind of intervention. And for a lot of people, it's only logical for that intervention to be "god". But if I believe in god I'm entitled to and should believe  E.T's journey to earth then back to where s/he came from  is  logical as well. It's as credible as when Moses split the Red Sea. And it's also as credible as a song, a movie or an invention that will change your life forever more. It's as credible as sex between two or more people feeling those few seconds of utter bliss.
So yes, I want to be a prophet/artist because I took in so much and still am. I want to be an artist and a prophet because I want to live for others. So others would remember me and take my path, because with all my might I tried to break down life and make it beautiful. I'm slowly reconstructing the meaning of life that was forced fed to me and I'm starting from the roots. I ripped them out off and planted my new seeds.  The seed that will become my own creed or my own religion that befits me most and the likes of me, and the individuals, like me, who decided to break down life and will be prophets for generations to come.

Don't tell me I can't create a religion or condemn me for making one because my sentences are long and difficult. I don't see people complain when they read their "holy" books. Maybe my words would require as much dedication and hard work to be explained. But you see, that's the magic of it: people will have different opinions about what I say, and the powerful and strong will have their saying whether what I tried to say should see the daylight or not. Because they will benefit from it one way or another. And who believes in me, with their best effort they will find the wisdom behind my words and live a life where they find ecstasy around the corner. And others will find my words disgusting and ridiculous because they were forced to see life through their ‘God’ only and believe I'm a bullshitter. Others will just see what I’m saying is bullshit… just because to them.. it’s just bullshit. Just like Jews thought pagans were sinners and Christians find Jews horrific/ out of the ordinary beautiful; or Muslims who believe they are the last holy message that was sent to earth and the rest is pseudo. And I'm no better than those religions. And we are not any better than the rest of the universe. And because there will be so much dispute about what I say, people will settle for the word ‘interpretation’ and therefore- with the right marketing- these words can be the new religion and it will go into the vault of eternal enigma to be reinterpreted through out the ages. Until it loses its spark because few individuals will come a long and will have the same instincts to rebel against what becomes standardized and BOOM… history is repeating itself. So why can’t I be a prophet??
I want to be a prophet because you are reading this and you are thinking. And if you are not thinking, it's  because you are hating what I'm saying so much that you just want to go ahead and be stubborn and defensive- offensive at times- to feel superior and smart.  And some of those haters will hate me even more. They will realize what I'm saying here has value ; and few people actually are influenced by these abstract shaped things called “letters"  that are shaped up in blocks  called "words"-words that make a person shiver out of ....( place the word of your choice) so naturally I'm standing in the way of other schools of life. Few of them will settle for calling me crazy. But others won’t settle unless I’m silenced. Because I ‘stir’ things others want calm. Those few others will want to kill me. And I’m not only talking literally. They will want to kill my joys because they believe I don’t deserve it. They will suck my passion out, dry. They will taunt me and anyone else that might remotely think they are entitled to have the freedom to express themselves like I do….. Doesn’t all of this sound familiar? Does the word ‘Religion’ ring a bell? Do you see how I can secretly creep into your thoughts and morph them into mine, but “in your own way”? I want to be a prophet because I want to know I made a difference. I want to be a prophet because I want pieces of me to be inside others, and others will pass me onto others. I want to be a prophet because I want to be eternal.
I want to be a prophet, because I believe in humanity. I want to be a prophet because I lost faith in humanity. I want to be a prophet so you can be a prophet. So you can make yourself happy. So you can make yourself a live example of what a real human being is all about. (what the hell does that supposed to mean??!! Real human?? Seriously?!!??? Which is the real human being; the innocent? The one in power? The one who submits? The one that conquers? The one that kills others? The one that dies for others? The one scrutinizes? The one that gets away?.....)

I want to be a prophet . Because I want to live and die happy.

Why would I want to be a slave for anyone or anything? Why do YOU want to be a slave? (If you think you are not a slave in chains smothering your mind and heart, why are you submitting to words that are written on paper by people who never lived long enough to be met and argued with?) I want to be a prophet because I want to see life the way it’s meant to be seen. But to see it all the way until the end, I have to push further into my own inner world so I would be able to compare to the outer ones. And if I realized I want to be a slave, then I’m not really a slave.
I’m just free.
I want to be a prophet because I love myself and you.  I want to be a prophet……because I love freedom.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi,

I am PhD researcher at SOAS, London. I am at the moment finishing my thesis on Counter-Authoritarian discourses in Egyptian blogs, including your fantastic blog.

I want to email you about a question, but can't find your email ID.

So it would be great if you could drop me a line on Ghazal@soas.ac.uk then I could take it from there and let you my query.

Cheers!

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