Forty Two (42)

Technorati tags: Hitchhikers, Miscellaneous, question, 42

Ever read Douglas Adam's "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"?

"The answer to the ulitmate question, of life, the universe, and everything is... forty two".

Huh? Yeah, valid response. The same response of mankind when Deep Thought revealed the ultimate question, after the completion of a 10,000-year algorithm. (If you've no clue what the above is all about, get a life! Turn off your TV and read for a change).

The problem was that ultimate question was never really determined in the first place. What happens after that is beyond the scope of this blog (hint: read the book, dummy; or if you're from the spoon-feed generation, watch the movie).

And that, my dear, is the point of this post: asking the right questions.
(asking the right questions, and more, in the full post)

Asking the right questions can be the panacea to many social ailments that we seem to be afflicted with. Having produced an entire generation on spoon-fed thoughts from a bowl of mush we call the Education System, our beloved asylum comprises, for the most part of inmates that don't bother asking "Why?", "How is that possible?" or any damn question at all. Instead, we jump to conclusions. But jumping to conclusions is one of those exercise activities that won't burn any calories whatsoever.

Jumping to conclusions. The biggest affliction this asylum suffers from. Take the recent brouhaha over the menace of "Black Metal" (or as TV3 chose to call it, Black Mental - which is a clear indication they jumped to a mental-ly defective conclusion). Black Metal is loud, noisy, not very pleasing to the ear, and the kids that listen to this stuff wear black - so it's gotta be evil! Hey, it must be true, the papers say so, TV3 says so...

But did the majority of the asylum inmates bother to ask the right questions, like, "Would the authorities recognize Black Metal from other types of loud, noisy, not-very-pleasing-to-the-ear varieties of music?", "What's wrong with wearing black?", or "What's the big deal?". Well, I can safely say not many did. Least of all, our so-called mainstream media. Nope. We report, we editorialize, we write what we're told. Ask the right questions? Noooooo! Don't wanna end up like those guys at China Press, now, do I?

Don't get me wrong. I know the jagged edge that separates between getting your license yanked, and continuing to provide the public with (ehem) news. So what happens? The truth gets obscured, but who cares? No one will bother to ask anyway...

Questioning authority, it seems, has become one of those taboos against Asian Values. Believe, accept, obey. Oh look, there goes Bigfoot!

Some of these media goons, however, take obscuring the truth to a new level - you know, and I know whom this refers to (but if you don't check out the "Media & Black Metal in Malaysia" blog). And they get away with this because no one asks the right questions.

Believe, accept, obey. After all, your entire existence boils down to... forty two.