The Rise of Fast-Food Ideas and the Decline of Deep Thinking in Nepal

Today, many of the thinkers, writers, teachers, and idea-makers who once shaped society have lost their influence. The platforms where ideas were created and debated have weakened. In their place, emotional, shallow, and unstable thoughts are growing fast. We are witnessing an overgrowth of what I call cheap thinking.

Ideas today appear quickly, spread fast, and disappear just as easily. They have no depth, no roots, and no long-term impact.

Fast-Food Ideas, Shallow Minds

Philosopher Hannah Arendt described thinking as a slow and lonely process- one that grows through self-reflection and inner struggle. That kind of thinking takes time. Unfortunately, Nepal is slowly losing this ability.

In the past, ideas were born in many spaces:

• Philosophers and intellectuals raised serious questions

• Political party schools debated ideology

• University classrooms focused on discussion, not only careers

• Writers and poets created metaphors for resistance and change

Back then, political leaders, teachers, professors, and writers were driven by ideas, not only by power or money. Today, those spaces are shrinking!!!

As a result, we are building a society where ideas do not last. And without lasting ideas, there can be no strong foundation for society. New political conflicts appear every day, scandals replace one another, and public memory is short - like walking forward while erasing your own footprints. What kind of journey is that, if you don’t know where you came from?

Empty Political Talk

This is why political speeches today sound loud but mean very little.

People talk about socialism without reading Marx.

They praise democracy without understanding Tocqueville.

They shout about development but forget that development is not only about economic growth.😎

True development also depends on social structures, power relations, culture, and institutions. Without understanding these, political talk becomes an empty performance.

Weakened Universities, Dry Knowledge

Serious discussions about development must ask hard questions:

Who benefited?

Who was excluded?

Why was change unequal?

These questions help build strong ideas. But today, people avoid deep thinking. Their language sounds intellectual, but their practice is hollow.

Universities - once strong centers of knowledge - are becoming weaker.

• Resources are declining

• Academic freedom is shrinking

• Serious study is replaced by light, quick learning

• Politics dominates classrooms, and  utilitarian

The soil where ideas should grow is becoming dry.

Students Without Depth

Students graduate without understanding basic thinkers on power, inequality, history, culture, or the state. If universities only distribute degrees, how can a country build intellectual strength? Fast-food ideas are easy to consume - but they leave the mind empty.

Youth Caught Between Worlds

Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai describes our time as an age of intense imagination. Nepali youth experience this deeply. They travel, study abroad, and connect with global ideas through digital media- feminism, climate justice, mental health, queer rights, colonial history, indigenous knowledge ete....

But when they return home, they face outdated systems: old politics, weak administration, rigid education, and slow institutions. This gap confuses them. The problem is not that Nepali youth lack ideas - it is that they face too many global ideas but too few local spaces to apply them.

Silicon Valley dreams collide with Kathmandu’s old disorder. A young person returns home after years abroad and is greeted by rude airport staff or a broken suitcase lock. That single moment speaks louder than any speech - it shows how our institutions treat imagination, hope, and change.

Final Thought

Nepal does not suffer from a lack of voices. It suffers from a lack of thinking spaces. Until we rebuild places where ideas can grow slowly, deeply, and honestly, we will continue to consume fast-food thoughts - full for a moment, empty in the long run.

#thought #Nepal #Desh 

#upadeshsjbkunwar