The Common Room Is A Place Of Irony
If you are or have ever been in a Higher Institution, you've most likely had the common room experience. The common room is a common place you occupy, to sit on common chairs and watch common television. There are laughs, there are jokes and a couple couples having PDA (Public Displays of Affection) but look closer and you will see the splinter that is at the heart of all human conflict.
The common room is communal, built to foster togetherness, and it's a good notion, a laudable thing really, but the thing is, we were never created to be common. We go to the common room because we dont want to be alone, we want the blanket comfort of being in a crowd, to take advantage of an instituted sense of belonging. We seek to show off our vast knowledge of the European league, to duke it out with naysayers that Messi is better than Ronaldo, to speak in slow whispers of waning or brimming love. We bring our variant selves and motives to common ground. It's not a bad thing, we go there to lounge, to relax, it's not a bad thing. Even the bible in 1 Corinthians 10:13 speaks of commonality saying that there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. But realise, temptation is common, the way out or over temptation however bares no such distinction. We may have common demons, but their exorcisms will vary, and that is where the common room is ironic.
Throughout our lives we are conditioned one way, dragged through the same excursions to the same future and therefore given the same expectations, and to every generation it always looks like they will end up in the same place doing the same thing at the same time. Some fall for it, they give into form thinking it's what everybody's doing. Did I say some? I mean most. Society is a victim of itself, even now that the world preaches individuality, as being the full pursuit of self, we fail to realise that being taught that we are all different and believing it, makes us all the same. It's confusing yes, that's why it's an irony. Diversity is conformity If diversity is advised, or if I'm different and your different because they told us to be, aren't we the same in our difference?
The greatest religion in all of the world is not Christianity, Islam or Bhuddism, it is in fact Humanity. Humanity has several denominations, there is the UN, the AU, EU, ECOWAS, and even the Common Wealth (no pun intended). They are powerful, poltically correct and even moralistic mega churches that believe in the common good (darn, I did it again!). But like we saw when man came together to build the tower of babel, it is doomed to fail. Because of the sin nature, humanity cannot save humanity. Try as we may, we come together like synchronized swimmers, only to come apart like a shark attack.
Imagine the Avengers discovering an ancient relic, a blueprint for an utopian; perfect society. They build this new state on the principle of commonality, and there is total peace and unity, no crime whatsoever. That's what the United Nations, the African Union and even your Head of Department tries to achieve; commonality. But could such a thing last? I've read enough comic books to know the answer is no. It's a noble pursuit, one that should not be discounted, but diplomacy does not a paradise make. To narrow it down, remember when Damon in TVD was compelled by Klaus (I think) to kill Elaina and he couldn't stop himself? But then when it happened to Stephen he could? Did that mean Stephen loved Elaina more? No. They were just two different people, and Elaina ended up with no restraint Damon anyway.
Difference doesn't announce itself, it gets announced a la Holy Spirit descended like a dove and said..., a la John The Baptist "One comes...". Now JC, JC was different. Not because he went against tradition (no, no, no, he fulfilled ALL the law), not because he had weird clothes (that was John The Baptists shtick) but because He came here and did exactly what he was put here to do. We may all have one goal, but we cannot all have the same part to play in it's achievement. Be ye defenders (left wing, right ring, whatever I don't know these things) be ye strikers, and be ye mid-fielders, but do not be common, in the common room.
The common room is communal, built to foster togetherness, and it's a good notion, a laudable thing really, but the thing is, we were never created to be common. We go to the common room because we dont want to be alone, we want the blanket comfort of being in a crowd, to take advantage of an instituted sense of belonging. We seek to show off our vast knowledge of the European league, to duke it out with naysayers that Messi is better than Ronaldo, to speak in slow whispers of waning or brimming love. We bring our variant selves and motives to common ground. It's not a bad thing, we go there to lounge, to relax, it's not a bad thing. Even the bible in 1 Corinthians 10:13 speaks of commonality saying that there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. But realise, temptation is common, the way out or over temptation however bares no such distinction. We may have common demons, but their exorcisms will vary, and that is where the common room is ironic.
Throughout our lives we are conditioned one way, dragged through the same excursions to the same future and therefore given the same expectations, and to every generation it always looks like they will end up in the same place doing the same thing at the same time. Some fall for it, they give into form thinking it's what everybody's doing. Did I say some? I mean most. Society is a victim of itself, even now that the world preaches individuality, as being the full pursuit of self, we fail to realise that being taught that we are all different and believing it, makes us all the same. It's confusing yes, that's why it's an irony. Diversity is conformity If diversity is advised, or if I'm different and your different because they told us to be, aren't we the same in our difference?
The greatest religion in all of the world is not Christianity, Islam or Bhuddism, it is in fact Humanity. Humanity has several denominations, there is the UN, the AU, EU, ECOWAS, and even the Common Wealth (no pun intended). They are powerful, poltically correct and even moralistic mega churches that believe in the common good (darn, I did it again!). But like we saw when man came together to build the tower of babel, it is doomed to fail. Because of the sin nature, humanity cannot save humanity. Try as we may, we come together like synchronized swimmers, only to come apart like a shark attack.
Imagine the Avengers discovering an ancient relic, a blueprint for an utopian; perfect society. They build this new state on the principle of commonality, and there is total peace and unity, no crime whatsoever. That's what the United Nations, the African Union and even your Head of Department tries to achieve; commonality. But could such a thing last? I've read enough comic books to know the answer is no. It's a noble pursuit, one that should not be discounted, but diplomacy does not a paradise make. To narrow it down, remember when Damon in TVD was compelled by Klaus (I think) to kill Elaina and he couldn't stop himself? But then when it happened to Stephen he could? Did that mean Stephen loved Elaina more? No. They were just two different people, and Elaina ended up with no restraint Damon anyway.
Difference doesn't announce itself, it gets announced a la Holy Spirit descended like a dove and said..., a la John The Baptist "One comes...". Now JC, JC was different. Not because he went against tradition (no, no, no, he fulfilled ALL the law), not because he had weird clothes (that was John The Baptists shtick) but because He came here and did exactly what he was put here to do. We may all have one goal, but we cannot all have the same part to play in it's achievement. Be ye defenders (left wing, right ring, whatever I don't know these things) be ye strikers, and be ye mid-fielders, but do not be common, in the common room.
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