What's to "Like"?

I see the futility in what I am about to write about. Partly because a lone piece of writing that talks about a word that virtually plagues a big chunk of our lives now, the screen in front of us, shall only fall short of proving a point, if ever there was a point to prove in the first place. Here's hoping that wouldn't be the case, at least for the small bunch of people who by mistakenly click the link to this page. For if you clicked it intentionally, goodness! You're jobless! Let's begin. 

There's nothing wrong in being liked. There's nothing wrong with aspiring to being liked. The deal is that being "liked" is a vague way of being. Formless. It's neither here nor there. An asymptote to neutrality, specially when what you look for is a polarized opinion. Liking doesn't guarantee anything. If someone says "I like your idea.", more often than not, the next statement is going to start with a "But...".

Another example that could be rather useful in real life is when a girl says the words "I like you.". If you're a guy, buddy, run for your life! Run for your life like a bunch of ferocious mad dogs are after you! You know why? The next line the lady is going to say is "But... not THAT way."

K.O!(Knocked Out, for those who haven't played the game Tekken)

Not much here for the ladies. For them, we have Ms. Deepika Padukone doing a marvelous job at juggling with all the Choices on the planet. Is it just me? Or does no intelligent soul understand how badly a two-and-a-half minute video can screw the concept of women-empowerment entirely? Specially in our so called "Chauvinistic" Indian minds?
Besides, liking is so completely stripped of exclusivity! Agreeability is fine. It is also mortally boring. Sheer dearth of energy. See. You could like ice-creams, chocolates, pizzas, milkshakes, appams, dosas, idlis, Batman, and also the guy/girl sitting next to you, all the same. There's this abundance of things to like. You could even make a list of things you like and put them in order, starting from  the things you like most to the things you like the least. If compliance is the motto, the word "Like" does a superlative job. If diplomacy is your thing, again, few words were crafted with greater perfection to beat the word "Like". Again, one could escape a tight situation using the word. Then again, how many situations can you escape before you run into one there's no way out of? The kind that most of our fathers must have told us to stand tall and fight our way out?

It's sad how most of us, specially guys, have our thoughts mollycoddled by our surroundings... It's like how Tyler Durden says in the movie Fight Club, 

We’re a generation of men raised by women.

It doesn't sound all bad until it comes to standing up for ourselves. The balls just seem to be missing somewhere. Instead of letting out ourselves when we need to, we bottle ourselves, trying to act civilized. "Nice-guy syndrome". NICE... Another cousin of the word LIKE. Get a NICE education, then a NICE job, then a NICE partner, then a couple of NICE, pesky kids, a NICE retirement, basically a NICE life, and you shall be LIKED by everyone. This happens to be the motto of a huge chunk of us.
Another thing! Being Nice doesn't mean being Chivalrous. Chivalry is a dying art. Our niceties plagues our society.  

By the way, if anyone wants to truly experience the essence of Fight Club's storyline, read the book Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk!! Each line is an epiphany! And could anyone tell me how the author's surname is pronounced?

There's another word to join the bandwagon. And that is "Good". Actually, there must be a lot many words that belong to the bandwagon. Just that I happen not to recollect them all at this point of time. A line from the movie comes to mind at this point. It's from another crazy-as-hell movie... Whiplash

The like goes this way...

There are no two words in the English language more harmful than "good job". "

Now, here's what you do when some smart-ass takes your thoughts, improves the wordings, and puts it in his movies.... You quote the lines in the movies. Also, to think that one's thought is original is, well, a waste of one's ability to think. Point being, we are 7 odd million people. Taking all of human history into account, there have been about 10 billion of us, if not more. It would be a farce to think that our ideas, even the ones that look like they have the potential to revolutionize all of humanity, came to only one among 10 billion minds. By that, in no way is it implied that one shouldn't act upon the seemingly one-in-10-billion idea. Mankind depends on such epiphanies, even if they come by means of substance abuse! All I'm saying is if  you want to write amazing lines, either make them yourself, or watch lots of movies, and read lots and LOTS of books. And I'm a hypocrite for saying that. Anyway, moving on! 

About all words that reek of impotence, or indifference, if one may, it's not possible to remove them from our word-bank, given how strongly etched they are into our surroundings, and ourselves. The very least one can do is not be too happy about what the words mean. 

Like is just "Okay." It ain't Crazy-Freaking-Awesome! It ain't even close to "Love".

Nice, again, need one elaborate?

And then comes Good... Well, it ain't good enough if it's Good. Let's not get too orgasmic hearing these words. Anyway, what was I saying?