I For An I

There is a catastrophe going on, and no one's paying attention. We are running out of originals. Of everything. We now officially live in a world where everything we own, wear, see, hear or think, has been picked up, at some point, from a shopping mall of sorts. One of a thousand similar items for sale.
When was the last time you heard a truly new thought or idea? Or a song that doesn't remotely remind you of others you've heard? Of movies, i'd ask if you've seen one lately that didn't turn out to be the copy of some obscure Korean or Spanish flick.

The entertainment world is facing the problem that virtually every form of art (thats worth knowing), will eventually face.. How to deal with the Rip-offs?
I heard this story of one scriptwriter, who once approached a top Bollywood producer with some new movie idea; he was laughed at, given a stack of old English classics, told to go through them and come up with a Hindi Version. And the title, of course, would be the name of some old Bollywood song. Or if they've run out of those, a new Bollywood song. And after that, random English words like Footpath, Raincoat, Welcome... Somebody shoot me. Or help me shoot them.

The sad thing is, its become so rampant that its starting to seem reasonable.
Its not just the electronic media thats plagued by this epidemic. The London Eye is set to have an Indian twin. Maybe they'll call it the Mumbai Ankh. I dont object to two countries progressing on the same lines, but works of art and creativity are reflections of individuality, apart from progress. To blatantly copy such a thing would be the ultimate admission of a lack of any individuality whatsoever.

The war between the Creators and the Predators has been immortalized in Ayn Rand's 'Fountainhead'. Anyone who's read it will remember the feeling of disgust towards those who are unable to create anything by themselves, but will 'mooch' off those who can. Here's the real truth. There are very few aspects of our lives that we cannot trace to some external source. That doesn't really mean we're mooching, but it does mean we're being influenced far more than we know, even in our personality and thoughts.
The important thing, according to me, is to recognize which parts of you are truly yours. Because thats where your originality lies, at the core. Somewhere between all the defenses and pretenses (known and unknown), there is you.. a creator of original thought. Those are the thoughts you need to hear, for they're the ones that basically define you. They're there somewhere, in the midst of all the junk in your brain.