Adit Garg Week 15: The Power of Dreams
Take a second to look at the world right now. From the computer you are reading this blog post on, the bed or chair you are sitting on, all the furniture around you, the house you are living in, to even the government and system you are living under. Everything around you is just the culmination of individual dreams parsed together, and as you will see, dreams have proved to be very powerful in moving people and changing the world. Humans have a skill that is unique to them: they can imagine a world that does not exist anywhere in the present but may exist in the future. Humans are able to present these ideas to the world, and the result can be beautiful. At times, if enough people are moved by the idea of such a world coming to fruition, the world might as well become real.
One of the most influential speeches to communicate a dream comes from Martin Luther King Jr. In front of a huge audience in front of the Lincoln Memorial, he iconically immersed his audience into a world where "the sons of slaves and the sons of former slave-owners" could be friends and people would not be judged by the "color of their skin by the content of their character." Who knew that a speech that only spanned 20 minutes could change the country forever.
America's landing on the moon also started off as nothing more than a dream. President Kennedy gained support for his dream by presenting the feat as an act of heroism. Although it seems absurd, President Kennedy actually managed to gain support for the mission by actually explaining how hard it would be. He explained how they would have to send a rocket the "length of this football field" to a celestial body that was "240,000 feet away" and that the citizens would have to be bold in doing so. Surprisingly, instead of scaring America away, they felt inspired and heroic by the idea of making Kennedy's dream a reality.
Inventors too also have to convince investors to fund their ideas. Writers have to convince movie studios to create their movies. CEOs have to convince their workers to stay content with making a business idea a success. By successfully convincing their audience to invest in their dream, these people end up building what we call life.
However, in the same way that humans have the ability to create an imaginary world, society also has a way to stop the development of such dreams. When children are little, they all come up with their own unique way of seeing the world, and they are encouraged to show it in the things they do like playing with figurines by using them to enact made-up stories and drawing. However, as we grow up we start to be exposed to so many ideas like social norms, taboos, ways to behave, and things that are considered "weird." These ideas narrow down our scope of what we can do and who we can be so much that we become programmed to think like everybody else. We can no longer think on our own merit because we become so hungry for validation that thinking for ourselves is uncomfortable as we need to step outside the "scope" that we are encouraged to stay within.
We are all born visionaries and we are all born creative geniuses, but society holds us down and suppresses that genius. As Pablo Picasso once said, "we are all born artists, but the hard part is staying an artist." We may have heard of people around us being called immature and childlike, but the greatest inventors and artists are the ones that can reach their inner child and let it out through the work they put out without the fear of being called crazy and stupid.
Hi Adit! Firstly, I must commend the theme you usually cover over the scope of all your blogs since they truly encompass experiences that we, as teenagers', tend to encounter in our daily life and mindsets. In a society where we are given the “freedom” to go and learn from others, as teenagers' we often take this phrase to the extent at which we define ourselves with the “social norms, taboos, and behaving methodologies'' that are basically created to “define our existence.” As a means of fitting in with the crowd, we want to stay within this “circle” so we aren’t considered as “weird” or “awkward” by the people around us. Society plays a large role in plotting a stop to our personal development since we are willing to change ourselves for others. This can greatly lead to suppressing our inner capability like you mentioned. Thank you for your blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Adit, I really enjoyed the philosophical manner in which you presented your blog, and I agree with a lot of what you said. It’s not something that we do not really think about, but a lot of the things we consider an integral part of our lives like cars or computers started out as a crazy idea in someone’s mind. It’s crazy how many innovations are actually inspired by things in fantasy or futuristic novels. Clearly, having the ability to dream and believe in the impossible is key to technological advancement. However, it is also true that our society judges these people and this fear of people’s judgment prevents people from toying with these “weird” ideas. It’s quite saddening that a lot of the people we consider geniuses today were labeled as crazy maniacs and treated as outcasts during their lives. Hopefully one day we can create a society where differences are encouraged and people uplift one another rather than tear each other down. Maybe then artists can remain artists and geniuses can remain geniuses.
ReplyDeleteHi Adit! I love the first paragraph of your post about how everything exists because it is someone else's dream, and coincidentally I've recently began thinking about things in a similar way. When I browse the internet and see really advertisements for really useless products or really poorly crafted video games, I try my best to not clown on them by telling myself that someone poured their heart and soul into it and its success would mean a lot to them. However I haven't really considered this for normal household objects where every unique design of chair, table, and cabinet everyone owns was designed by someone who put a lot of effort into the process. It is quite unfortunate that it is the norm in our society to put down things that are considered "weird." I used to be able to ignore this and actively tried to be weird and found it funny to make people uncomfortable, but not too uncomfortable to the point where they never wanted to interact with me again.
ReplyDeleteHi Adit! Your observation about how everything in our environment is a result of dreams was really interesting as I had never thought of my surroundings in that way before. However, I agree that the conveniences in our daily lives are ultimately the result of human dreams and innovation, and I think that it's often taken for granted. The fact that our computers are the result of decades of engineering breakthroughs that accumulated over time or how our modern ideas of equality are the result of centuries of various social and reform movements is quite underappreciated. It is unfortunate that social norms can at times stifle the revolutionary or innovative minds of young people, but it also makes sense in a way. After all, so many famous historical figures that made permanent impacts on a certain aspect of society were individuals that didn't necessarily conform to social norms but instead rose above them.
ReplyDeleteThis idea that everything we do is a product of our dreams is something that I have once considered, but I have never really given it much thought. It is true however, that those artists that we celebrate at the greatest of their times tend to be considered insane at their times. I do find that the idea that social norms can so greatly muffle the best ideas of people is highly depressing, but it is undoubtedly true. There is also this idea that dreams are also lost to rationality: that the new Einstein is actually working for a CS company because it just pays so much better than anything revolving physics. Life seems to be nothing but failed dreams and ruined stories.
ReplyDeleteHi Adit, I really like the idea that everything around us is a product of our dreams or someone else's dreams. That's honestly a really beautiful way to look at the world. We, as human beings, are truly an example of how dreams can come true. It kind of sounds straight out of Disney movie, but it definitely holds some truth to it. There is also truth to your secondary point; society can always find a way to interfere in our dreams. But in a way, every aspect of society is also a product of one's dream. It's definitely an interesting philosophy, and I'm glad you took the time to talk about it. I look forward to reading your next post!
ReplyDeleteThe concept that every existing thing or idea is the culmination or dream of someone else's work and efforts is a really cool and intriguing concept to think about. So many things that I interact with on a daily basis I haven't really considered as products of significant effort. For example, the pencil I use everyday wasn't something I considered took a lot of effort or technique to design but is still very effective and features a fairly appealing design. However, seeing it as the culmination of hours of work and resource makes me see it in an entirely new light. A lot of these ideas were probably the only real goal or work of someone else, and to consider that makes a lot of products and tools a lot more gratifying to use. Conversely, it makes me more irritated that products that have been around for ages, like Microsoft Word, still can't manage to do basic tasks like moving around images.
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