Accomplishments

Why is it that people want different things? Why is it more accepted to want what everyone wants? We are likely to have a genetic composition that predisposes us towards wanting social approval, or society can't have evolved to the extent it has.
We are even now constantly selecting for such combination of genes, as getting married and having kids is, perhaps the most universal social conduct gaining high approval.
Working as a volunteer for the rights of adivasis or minorities, going around the world, discovering a drug, appear far, far down in the list of approved activities, if they appear at all.
In most countries, joining the army, working for the government also make it high on the list.
What about death? Of course, I am not talking about approval here, I am talking about acceptance. In the US, death is considered to be bad, in fact any american reading this, will probably exclaim, who doesn't think death is bad? And how could it not be bad?

Well, there are in fact plenty of scenarios when death could be preferable. Abject poverty, for one, where one is realistic enough to know that there is no way out. No light at the end of the tunnel. Or when life has taken every glimmer of hope or happiness.
And of course the obvious matter of matter- maintaining the cycle of nutrients and life.
In fact, the charm of life is that it won't last forever. Otherwise, what little motivation people have, to be a better person, learn a little more, see or think or do more, would be successfully procrastinated to never getting done.
I do believe that most cultures, living close to nature have a much higher acceptance of death. It doesn't make them uncivilized. According to me, that is something to emulate.
Many religions also view death as bad, apocalypse promises to kill all the non- believers. Others escalate death in the name of a religious empowerment as a sure shot way to eternal happiness. But then, I don't believe God made religion anyway.
The other most socially approved act is to have children, the opposite or the beginning leading to death, depending on who is thinking about it. Someone once said that having a child is an act of very high optimism. One must be optimistic enough to believe in the best possible future for their children, obscuring all mishaps and unpleasantness that must have befallen them, while growing up. Perhaps magnifying the happiness children bring, to overshadow the essential sacrifices for bringing up children. We must be evolutionarily wired to achieve that level of obscuring as well. Or perhaps the need to be needed is powerful enough to overcome everything else.
So what is an individual's contribution to society, children? some skilled labor? Is it overreaching to want to do something meaningful that outlasts your generation and want a family? Or is it even possible to do many things well? Bringing up children well, is no small task, somehow our parents managed it well enough, but as technologies bring in more negative forces to take away the innocence from our children, it is getting harder and harder. Maybe only in my imagination. But game-boy, definitely doesn't make friends, or improve imagination, when a short answer to everything is easily available on the internet, why read a book?
Is that where, some socially incompetent geniuses come in, who are responsible for the few breakthroughs that can occupy whole generations in their repercussions?
But if you haven't had time or the thought to read about everything that can affect your child, not limited to good parenting books, who let us all admit it, have nothing to do with the real world after the child is born. Everytime something bad happens to your child, you will blame yourself and not without reason.Unless, you are reading real child psychology, which if you have time to read, after your child is born, you belong to a tiny elite percentage of the world population. You have also probably read economics, art and literature that can give the rounded development a child would need. You may also have achieved the level of meaningful success in your field of choice, enough to be an expert who is valued and can keep up with little effort. Well, you may well be fictitious. And still not be able to change the course your children's lives take.
What do you want your child to be?

So, what do I want to be?