Sins of Individualism

Why Suicide is the final solution for Modern Man

Superman at bridge

There were three Homo sapiens The Apeman, The Modern Man and The Superman. They looked very different from each other. Only a biologist could say that they belonged to the same species of the animal kingdom.

They all lived on the same island. They were constantly in conflict about values. The conflict grew in magnitude with each passing day. The thought of suicide occurred to them simultaneously. They reached to the bridge. They did not know what was at the other end of the bridge. So far they could see, it was spread like Anaconda on the sea.

The Superman  decided to walk into unknown and discover the other end of the bridge. He had accomplished impossible by sheer 'will to power'. He was an explorer and instead of reason he had more faith in the power of his sub-conscious mind.

The Man had a doubt if he can use the bridge which was made by 'the strength of collective man' to attain his personal objective of suicide. He stood on the bank in contemplative mood. He desired to be 'loved alone' due to his 'self love'. He loved the seclusion caused by his self love. He had no desire to cross the impassable sea of universal love.

The Apeman was interested in suicide out of curiosity. He wanted to survive even after committing suicide. He had survived so far only because he trusted his instincts. The Apeman reached to the conclusion that he would not ‘exist’ if he commits suicide. Recently he had herded cattle and his likes on a mesa. Now he was most powerful amongst all hilltop habitations. He was Seer in the eyes of his people. He knew about some others of his kind who lived on the same island, but thought and acted differently. But he kept his own kind away from those contaminated species. So The Apeman decided to return without committing suicide.

The Modern Man was looked down upon with contempt from The Apeman and The Superman. He was left alone at the bridge. He thought that not only the other ‘classes’ but his own kind also hated him for what he was and what he had accomplished, by inheriting sustained variation due to his constant 'struggle for existence'.

The variations were infinite and inheritance was never absolute. Moreover, he could never know if the variation would be beneficial or harmful to his species in the future, even though they helped him in survival. The struggle that was once need of the hour became his inherited trait.

The ‘fear’ was now an inherent part of his ‘psyche’. He had created new ‘phantoms’ to be afraid of. All phantoms, since the beginning were byproducts of ‘death’. The modern man was determined to conquer this fear. He wanted ‘Nirvana’ not only for himself, but for the entire race of modern mankind. He acknowledged himself as ‘absurd comedy of reproduction, and had no interest in perpetuating a comedy that turns into tragedy. Death was the only rational solution.

So he jumped from the bridge.

Surprisingly, he did not fell in the river. His location was restored by a electromagnetic device. The bridge was a modern bridge made by modern technology. Nothing could fall in the river which could pollute it. The sensors observed that the Modern Man had contaminated mind. The sensor also suggested the Modern Man to read the "The Waste Land" By T.S.Eliot.

Keep reading for the interpretation of "The Waste Land" by the Modern Man.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

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