If I had a choice,
I would backpack
See the sights,
Swim the oceans,
Fly the skies,
Touch the moon,
If I had a choice….
Do I have a choice?
To not stay grounded,
Not work in the correct job,
Not marry one you choose,
Not be hounded by your moralities,
Not conform to your norms,
Do I have a choice?
I made you,
And now you stalk me.
I told you to protect my like,
And now you attack me.
I could change you,
But I am bound by the rules I created.
Oh society! Give me the choice.
—
Society was a concept whose seeds were sown when humans beings started living as a community. Initially there were just a few families (yes, back in the Stone Ages). As the communities grew larger, there arose the need for a set of rules; rules to maintain order, to protect people’s interests, to protect their privacy, to make sure the race of humans progressed up the ladder of evolution.
Who would make these rules? Humans, of course. Although by then, the meaning of the term humans was slowly morphing into an equivalent for ‘man’. So the manifesto of what constitutes society was drawn up from a largely one-dimensional perspective, not a ‘human’s’ perspective but a ‘man’s’ perspective.
After centuries, people are now waking up to this realization that the definition of society is highly skewed. And there is a change, although very subtle. It may take another couple of generations before this change is noticeable. Call it moral rights, call it gender equality, or shroud it in a blanket of feminism, times are changing and the definition of ‘society’ as our fore’fathers’ defined it is changing with it.
Poetry lover? Check out Six Centuries of Great Poetry: A Stunning Collection of Classic British Poems from Chaucer to Yeats
