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The story and the personal analysis that I am going to write below give the due credit for its central message to the New York Columnist- David Brooks.
From the very start when an individual is at his or her early stage of exposing himself or herself to the reality, uncertainty, and strangeness of the life, they are at the journey to find their not-yet-established identity and build upon it. However, this journey comes to an end so soon due to society’s and societal organizations’ constant appraisement and requirement of resume virtues. Today I will not narrate a story that relates solely to me but a story that relates to everyone hence should concern all of us. I have always been praised for my efforts and hard-work , which have all the time been intended to develop my external self that involves the required skills and competencies for the necessities of the mundane life. At school times, I could be praised on my virtues of being friendly helpful courageous brave or considerate, but high grades or my diligence had always drawn to the attention before the class, before my parents as something essentially praiseworthy. That is to say, the development of our internal self is always suppressed by more weighty preference to one’s areas of growth for future-oriented success. However, the matter is that I could not comprehend my being in complete conflict of external and internal self and the mundane world’s suppression of the latter one over the former as I was, from the very beginning, surrounded with an environment necessitating the imbalance relationship of resume virtues and eulogy virtues, and was unconsciously accustomed to such imbalance without even questioning the accepted norms about it.
Although it took me a lot of time to comprehend the nature of relationship of eulogy and resume virtues that is set by preference of the external life’s needs and necessities, eventually I refused to come to terms with highly appraised resume virtues. It all started with a mere simple question: is it what I yearn for? I was at my 18s and intensely interested in debating skills and communicative competencies. Roughly during that period, there was a brilliant opportunity to join intra-university debate tournament. Without any hesitation, I made up my mind to join this tournament as it would be a fulfilling experience to practice the skills and competencies I wanted. However, it turned out to be more than a merely fulfilling experience; it provided a condition where I could, for the first time, unlearn the nature of common sense approach toward placing an intentional dichotomy between resume virtues and eulogy virtues. It taught me such a great lesson that woke me up in an eye blink. After the debate rounds drew to a close, one of the participant girls highly impressed my English speaking skills approached me to confess her admiration to my high proficiency of English. That was a moment when after all years of conflict of 2 horns of virtues inside and outside me, I did not feel the same ecstatic sensation of pleasure of compliments and praise that I had felt before. That confession obliged me to ponder on the cultural societal oppression born by eulogy virtues so far. And it all started with a mere plain question: Is it what I yearn for? It was indeed what I yearned for, but it was not all that I set myself to long for and accomplish. It made me recall any moment of my life as of yet where I had been literally confessed in private on the basis of my friendliness, empathy or humanity. No such confessions occurred to my mind, sadly.
That bitter revelation made me think all the possible reasons about this imbalance preference. There was a wide range of questions in my mind though I could not come up with shrewd answers to those philosophical inquires.
In what ways there could be changes in the world if we brought the balance to the relationship of external virtues and internal ones? It was hard to envision a society or a world where all the men were equally engaged in both developing themselves as a virtuous human and improving their skills and competencies for the job market. However, my central quest was not revolving around the reason why the society opts for the resume virtues but rather how the harmony between these 2 types of virtues could be of great help to reduce immoral acts, and solve certain societal issues. These are the questions that I wish to have a reply, but for now I fall short of having a foresight of it. Perhaps, in the long run, my area of knowledge would be to conduct a metaphysical research about it, and in that regard, I hope, I would contribute to the beautification of the world we shelter in.
Given this, I consider that a human should always think outside the box and get out of their comfort zone of thinking in order to really comprehend the nature of their actions, their wishes, their beliefs, and their creed of moral rightness and wrongness; or else, men always will remain stuck in orthodoxy of unconsciousness and men’s wishes, actions and beliefs will be to a larger extent, shaped and get a meaning and sense by and under the pressure of popular mindset. The story that I told you started with a minor occasion and a plain question, my being confessed about my high proficiency of English, and my contemplation about whether this was the kind of admiration and reverence that I long for. However, thinking outside the confines of the box enabled me gaining a new understanding, into nature of the perpetual conflict of two types of virtues.
BY: Sona Verdiyeva