When you think of ambition, you would think Alexander the Great. Genghis Khan. Napoleon. All great conquerors that wish to take over the world… You see them in stories, fantasies, novels, real life perhaps... They hatch dastardly plans, concoct crazy inventions, scheme all night. And they laugh. They never seem to stop laughing. It was as though they recorded it down beforehand and loop it throughout when a evil plan is concocted or in action.
But yet, their aspirations are not the widest. No. They were held back by limits set by society; there is a degree of rationality in their plans, as though as there are walls that they acknowledge, even the most crazy ones where a maniac just decides to chop up a victim because he felt like it. There's always this hero that stops the villain in the end.
In fact, the biggest ambitions…
… actually belong to children.
You see pure, innocent children. I see the most irrational, power-hungry monsters that have ever been stuffed into a human body less than half the size of an average adult…
Exactly what is the impression I get when seeing children... Children, especially the young ones, are pure. They have not been exposed to the cruel limits of the world yet, haven’t experienced life-changing experiences, have not gained knowledge to rationalize. All they have is pure instinct, and their world is shrunk into the housing around them. The place where they were born and raised, where they play, learn and pick up basic skills that make humans, well, humans.
And then, most children are exposed to fantasy. Ducks can talk, cows go over the moooooooooon, the beanstalk grows so tall that it beats the crap out of Taipei 101 in terms of height. Humans complete incredible feats through force of will (dreams do come true!) or flashes of ingenuity.
And then, they began to dream, they wish to emulate the protagonist. They role play, they draw out distorted figures. But the meaning is there.
Most, if not all, young boys wish to become someone great, a Hero, if you will. They want to take a great big flaming sword, slay the vicious fire breathing dragon, and save the day. Every little girl wants to be that princess that gets Prince Charming in the end.
Stolen story; please report.
What is incredible about these, besides their childish aspirations, is that they were made without considering any limits whatsoever. No child is going to be slaying any dragons in real life, for dint of the fact that there are no dragons, for one thing, and for another, if they do manage to get their hands on a whacking big flaming sword, the first thing that is likely to happen was a grounding of a lifetime.
Yet, the wish, the dream is still there. It is so incredibly pure, so incredibly… stupid, that no one believes that it would ever come through. It’s just a childish wish, they say. It will never happen. And yet, I look into the eyes of a child, and I see Hell. That burning desire in their eyes, to get what they desire. As distorted as that viewpoint sounds, if I can channel all that desire, that pure, pure belief, one can definitely take over the world. I just know it!!
And then they grow up, and all that desire is weeded out. Most people began to know their limits, accepted them, and went on to live in a dull, drab life where they have to pummel out a living everyday. Thanks a lot, education.
And yet, that desire still endures, albeit in a diminished state. People began to look to other means of living out that dream, that burning desire that they once nurtured and held on with their very lives. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the highest tier of Self-Actualization, if you will.
Some started trying, tooth and nail, to earn incredible amounts of money, believing that it was the means of finding meaning in life, through indulgence or philanthropy. Others did what they always wanted to do, a neat little aspiration that was rationalized and put together with their limits in mind. Others just move along an infinitely long road, life seeking a purpose. Others chose to retreat from society altogether…
And then you have those that look to another reality… And that was what I was like back then…
- Ravings of a Mad Man, written 16th June 20XX