00:00There are some books that name the fear you harbor so accurately that you're surprised somebody was able to put
00:04it into words so well.
00:05I recently read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and it's a chilling mirror of our present times.
00:10This book is about a fireman, except in this universe they are the ones who start the fire and what
00:14they burn are books.
00:15Books are the ultimate enemy of the people in this world because the books make you think, they make you
00:20talk and worst of all they make you disagree with each other.
00:22And why would we want to do any of that when we can just stuff ourselves with entertainment 24 7
00:26and build parasocial relationships with bland character
00:29that has no real identity that we watch on our giant television walls.
00:33The book also reminds us that fire can be used in two ways, to burn or to warm ourselves.
00:37One of the biggest takeaway that I got from the book, even though it's never said outright, is the question,
00:41what are you leaving behind?
00:42Your legacy is all of the things that people remember about you and how many lives you have touched.
00:47We are so busy performing moral superiority that we do not realize we are losing the exact thing we claim
00:52to value, critical thinking.
00:53To be able to hold simultaneously two truths at once, you have to be able to expand your mind.
00:57And books are the best way to do that.
00:59There were so many powerful lines in the book that captures the sense of doom that I sometimes feel.
01:03But one of the underrated lines in the book that I really liked was this.
01:06When was the last time you were really bothered about something important, about something real?
01:10I feel like we are constantly bombarded with news of despair one after the other,
01:14until we slowly drift into some sort of mental paralysis.
01:17I worry that one day we might just stop caring altogether.
01:20I know this might sound like panic, but some surveys done in the United States shows that about
01:23third to two-fifths of the population did not read a single book in the entire year.
01:28And in India, even though we do read books, most of them are textbooks for exam preparation
01:32rather than recreational reading. Ironically for such a grim subject, the book did give me hope.
01:37It showed that people will resist. There will always be people who would preserve books
01:41and would want to preserve ideas despite everything. And I truly believe that humans will always have
01:45that hunger for curiosity. It may cure the cat, but satisfaction will definitely bring it back.
01:50So please pick up a book today. Ideally this one for humanity.
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