Abortion of Reason and Thought

Abortion is illegal, only of a human fetus – It is not, however, of thought, creativity and imagination, for every child who is impregnated by curiosity holds a fetus of creativity, imagination and thought, which, if allowed to run its natural course, would give birth to a revolutionary and productive citizen. This fetus is aborted in numbers – in public schools all over Sri Lanka, ruthlessly on a daily basis – which is why our country, so dull and rusty, hasn’t had a single philosopher, a single noteworthy writer, a poet or a musician after the tide of 50’s and the 60’s. All we have left are poor reiterations of what’s already been said and done – novelty is a luxury we’ve seldom had.

The blasted teachers, shove ‘em away and replace them – but wait! – those innocent people raving and riding the unfriendly tides to make a living – what have they done but follow the instructions that they receive – are they capable of altering the practices that have been glorified through decades?

It’s a conspiracy, one of the most hideous conspiracies – to keep the young blind and poor, to insulate them of thought and reason, to guide them as sheep and draw the illusion that capability and worthiness is measured by an exam, or a university entrance – to hijack knowledge and replace it with dull, rancorous, dry,outdated textbooks – to tell them that being innovative and imaginative is to err – to abort that fetus, to make a grown up, income earning taxpayer, but not a human being.

When a few manage to breath fresh air into this infested vacuum, they are challenged, tormented, tagged terrorists and are ultimately removed from the system Its easier to manage sheep, than to manage humans – to manipulate and rule over the voiceless, thoughtless, faceless Sri-Lankans, is easy.

Maybe thinkers are what we essentially need to ease down the ethnic conflicts, to sooth the scars of racial prejudice, to culture a class of literature that inspires humanity and rational thought, to make a better system in which oneness is our religion and equality is our race – with the public schools of our nation working its best to make sure the exact opposite happens – I’ve long since given up my optimism, the light at the end of this tunnel seems to be emitting from burning corpses.yet again, I fear.

Article by – Vajira Sooriyarachchi