Engineer Equals Philistine

(continued from Part I - A Taboo Called Engineering)


Now let me make one thing absolutely clear - any person on being specifically asked about their opinion will in all probability not spout all of what was written in the previous part or what is written underneath. So don't start thinking where I got these ideas from since you are thinking in your head, "Hey! I don't think like that and frankly I don't think anyone else does either - anyone other than you, that is" 'coz frankly, there are certain things you just draw from experience. Six years is a pretty significant length of time, and if you disagree, tell that to those who are busy publishing the debut novels of 12-year-olds.

There is a set of allegations levied against people who pursue science-related fields beyond 12th. It is the revenge of arts and commerce, served cold after having let it occupy the freezer for an intermediate period when the official stance of the young and the visible was, "whatever you do, you should be good at it". Clearly they don't see the need to do that anymore, so it's all out in the open now.

We can't appreciate art. We don't have an aesthetic sense. We lack the designer's perspective.We just don't have the eye for photography. We have the poetic sense of a sixth grader who has just been exposed to Wordsworth and his Romantic brethren. We have absolutely no flair when it comes to writing. We don't have any idea what we're talking about when it comes to the cinematic medium, especially when it comes to the technical aspects and acting prowess. We don't belong in theatre - not on this stage, not on that stage, not on any other stage, not on the street even. We are tone-deaf, lack the ability to arrange or compose melodies and cause bathroom mirrors to crack when we try to sing.

We lack creativity. We have bad tastes in anything and everything remotely connected to the fields of entertainment and lifestyle. We have no taste at all when it comes to fashion. We lack the talent as well as the spirit when it comes to sports. We were born to follow in a herd, never to stand out of a pack and lead and thus should spend our lives following instructions that no one cares about, not even the person giving them out. We are the connoisseurs of mediocrity. We have absolutely no idea when to put an end to things.

What's mentioned above is just the tip of the iceberg. All these are assumed to be true just like axioms back in middle school mathematics, and are used to make a bunch of derived, secondary allegations. These are fewer in number but much worse in taste, and fall into one of two categories - you never had it in you and realized that early, and you might have had it in now but you lost it because you were (and still are) a coward. Both these arguments not only fail and are highly prejudiced but are also borderline supremacist. No, let me correct that - they are already on the wrong side of that frontier.

(NEXT: Part III - Sad But True)