Áron Antal
The past few days were sunny and warm. And yet, no matter how much I would love to go outside, my being ill doesn’t let me do so. The same situation has happened to me twice this month, although the first occasion wasn’t as serious as this. Isn’t this interesting? A man with an immune system of two or three times his age, who has never been to a hospital in his life, except the time he was born, a man who hasn’t had any serious illnesses in four years, catches the common cold twice in a month, and this annoys me. Why? God knows why. But this surely is a contradiction.
I think everyone in their life felt at one point or another a sort of pleasant pain. If you would like to explain to an alien race what pleasent pain is, I’m sure they couldn’t understand. The concept of pleasant pain is a contradiction, yet we experience it quite often, for example via relief.
When a couple in a movie breaks up, we often hear the phrase: “I love you, but we are not meant for each other.” This is also a contradiction, but this one doesn’t make nearly as much sense as pleasant pain.
The point is that contradictions surround us, and are essential to a certain point, because they add a certain mystery, something that will force you to think about them. The problem is that our society today is a contradiction in itself. It has become a part of our life, a tool for a lot of people. Social media sends you the message that you should be perfect, you should be beautiful, a perfect housewife or businessman. The expectations are way higher than anyone can reach, so people try to “make the best” out of themselves. They show that they are always well prepared, never tired, always smiling, never dull and do some sports on a daily basis, summarized: they are perfect. And because most people think the same way, they believe it. The truth is; no one is perfect. The models on TV aren’t perfect. YOU aren’t perfect. And the most valuable people are those strong enough to show that they are not perfect and won’t stand in the line to reach the unreachable. Those are perfect, who are imperfect. What’s disappointing is that the perfection-chasers don’t realize that they are chasing a false dream, and even if you tried to convince them, they would either get mad at you, or would stay unpersuaded, because they live in the sun of popular approval.
Today’s society is built on false impressions, because the people who belong to it are false impressions themselves, and that’s why it’s rotting. I realised these types of people annoy me the most in life, those who are pretenders and hypocrites at the same time.
Now, you probably agree with what I said, but is that what you really think, or is that what you would like to think? I’m not saying that you are one of them. You have to decide….