Is it just a word? An affirmation of understanding or an acknowledgement of ambiguity maybe. I found myself saying it to myself to calm me down from the horror of the last few days. I heard it said to me for exactly the same reasons. Having dealt with (or tried to, which is the same thing if you give up) on the majority of the new challenges I undertook, I always found someone (or myself) telling me 'It's Ok'. While this always sounds good to hear, it never really offers a solution, other than implying closure, and the option of moving on.
Let me ask you this, in the event of failure, is moving on an option? Is it a way of telling yourself that the ultimate goal of life does not get affected by this failure. What is the ultimate goal of life, is it not death?
Philosophy never really answered this question. I am not going to, I don’t intend to I can’t.
What is the purpose of fighting a battle in life for the better part of time, when eventually all goals are redundant. All goals are consequent 'means' to affirming to the self some activity, a thought, a verbiage or a revolution, and making a success of them. So is success ok? Is failure ok? Are both ok? Do we need to examine the relevance of success and failure to arrive at some conclusion regarding the importance of ok?
Let’s try.
What is success? For many it’s at some level a combination of material and non-material gain which is linked to either a novel method of execution of a skill, or a novel skill, ideology etc. The non-material portion of the total gain is usually self-actualization, while the material is usually the gain from 'selling' the skill/ideology. Failure is the absence of success, despite its expectation. A very significant point here, the pain of failure is directly proportional to the degree of belief in your expectation of success. So when someone says 'it's ok', does it mean that its fine you did not succeed, your expectations were not 'feasible' or the effort was not enough to achieve success. So is it ok? For me, I have come to (slowly and painfully) realize that we are essentially alone, leading lives which honestly are complicated by a collective consciousness that society keeps pounding into us. Media, propaganda, agenda and any collective ideology always pushes some boundaries which once encouraged individual sanity. We keep pulling ourselves further into societal pressures, telling ourselves it's ok', it’s better to be a part of everyone and lead on towards a common happiness.
Let’s look at an example: early on in cricket's heydays, a player's useful playing life was the better part of 20+ years. Almost every player was able to achieve this lifespan, within himself and retire with at least a measure of glory. What was missing? A lot ... No media glare, no constant evaluation and analysis of lifespan with the way a player plays every delivery, no probing at his house, his life. The game was a 'trifle' more important and the people who enjoyed the game, considered players as a small part of the overall definition. Today we (yes we are the media) have a different focus, bearing the fact that we have access to so many avenues and places for growing talent, marketing novel forms of the game, packaging it to make it more eye candy than technique in short blurs the line between the existence of the game for its own sake, and the marketability of the 'product'. So what happens to our player? His useful life is relegated from a classy 20 year career to a flashy 7 or 8. At least there is a direct movement towards this stage. Eventually the game will morph into a mangled version of itself and maybe discarded altogether when another form of entertainment proves vitally marketable. It’s a matter of time; the old timers are fighting a losing battle.
We are 'evolving' into an ok generation, where there are so many options to try, there is a whole stream of consciousness creating multiple choices to one path, so that success is easier, alienation is made redundant, and it’s all milk and honey. We have realized somehow that life is simply being ok, and that failure and success are veritably similar in trait, and consequence. Perhaps the objective of life is this, but its method is destructive, it does not create encourage and grow, it cuts slashes and bleeds, and then says its ok, move on. Is there an option? Is it a self stroking affirmation of incapability? Is capability overrated and its meanings contorted to some unbelievable social thought? Or is it just a word in a book, which like everything else will be marketed as the thing to believe in, until its glory is marred by a single unbelievably creative philosophy of evolution which attempts to destroy our belief in acceptance. Until then, it’s ok...
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