Let us start the year with OM
It is about two words starting with the letters one
with ‘O’ and another with ‘ M’ that are either going to cause lot of things happening around
or will be caused due to many things
happening around.
The activities referred by these two terms will
dominate the socio-political, socio-economic, geo-political and multitude of
media space.
Well, to those of you who have not guessed them yet,
they are ‘OUTRAGE’ and ‘MIGRATION’.
Both emanate out of some justification [right or wrong
is relative and debatable] manifest and encounter unreasonableness.
As we are going to discuss in generalities we are not
going to take any sides for or against any specific Outrage or Migration.
Outrages are exaggerated and /or instigated to outrageously unreasonable proportions affecting too
many people, damaging many things and sometimes even the environment as whole.
Migrations are encountered with too many unreasonable restrictions and restraints.
We need to go to the root of these two issues.
Both have a few things in common which are, of course,
not new roots that have taken place on this great planet [great because it is
the only planet known so far that has continued to allow our existence] but
have existed for several centuries.
These roots have created and destroyed several lives
and civilizations for their sake- they are ‘Identities’
of various hues and colors and all their concomitant factors and
manifestations.
To make it more easily understandable they are identities
of religion, region, language, ideologies, political and cultural affinities,
social and economic conditions and many other manifestations of variety in the
lives of human species.
Most of these identities mainly and mostly are almost
an inevitable outcome of the socio-cultural milieu where we are born and they
evolve along with us and permeate into us as our second nature and at times has
so much control over all our actions that we are not even aware what is our
original nature, if at all there is something distinctly like that.
Everything associated with such identities are
constantly encouraged or enforced to ensure that we fit into to be glued into a
set of group identity through the language we speak, through the religion we
follow, through the political ideology we support, through the social system we
are in, through the cultural values that are inculcated and so on.
There are many such sets of group identities where
each group identity creates at least a sense
of belonging that provides a comfort
zone whereby one is basically
recognized, classified, labeled as having such and such specific identity or
identity of a specific group which in addition may get many other benefits like
certain privileges and entitlements.
So, most identities, per se, there is nothing wrong
with them considering more than the compensatory trade-off one gets and the
comfort zone one enjoys due to the identities.
Many aspects of identity are, at least, partly decided
naturally by the socio-religious-cultural milieu into which one is born. In
some cases, identities are also scrupulously and enormously nurtured through
rewards and fear of social exclusion etc.
So, most individuals cannot afford to ignore or be
indifferent towards these identities at least till their teens because per se
there is nothing wrong in some of these inevitable identities.
Besides, even when one is grown up as identities
having permeated into the socio-psychological and emotional life of most beings
and acts almost like a second nature and hence, difficult to ignore or to get
rid of.
Also the fact that most aspects of every identity
[cultural, religious, ideological, political etc] have contributed something to
the individual and society, which both the individual and the society may
enjoy, participate in, get entertained, celebrate and, perhaps, for some
activities connected with those identities will be the profession, survival
element and everything connected with life. So, totally getting away from certain
aspects of identity [like mother tongue, native food habits, local traditions
etc] may cause a disorientation that may land one to lead a life of in vague
inanity or inane vagueness. So, instead what is required may be a
willingness to accept various and different identities, and if possible
entertain and enjoy them all.
Life is lived and experienced as a nonstop motion and
live activity within the very limited time space conundrum of a few years and
limited space wherein one cannot afford to sulk away from many activities [
however meaningless or useless they may sound] with too much of seriousness.
We must humbly accept and understand that neither mere
utilitarianism nor much accepted materialism nor much projected spiritualism
nor ever enjoyable Epicureanism nor egoistic self venerating narcissism nor
much hyped capitalism nor socialism nor any of the many other ideologically
conceptualized or visualized as a single most ideal ‘ism’ as the most suitable
one for social engineering and hence, can be homogenously applied for the whole
of humanity because none of the above can exclusively satisfy or offer or
fulfill all necessities and wants of all human beings. Nor can anyone resort to
noncommittal cautious escapism.
Perhaps, at best one ‘ism’ that may be labeled as ‘contextually
relevant pragmatic humanitarianism’ which can have a mix of some or all the
multitude of ‘isms’ referred above may be worth considering.
As Irving Babbitt says, “A Person Who Has Sympathy For Mankind In The Lump, Faith In
Its Future Progress, And Desire To Serve The Great Cause Of This Progress,
Should Be Called Not A Humanist, But A Humanitarian, And His Creed May Be
Designated As Humanitarianism.”
We all must remember that no one is Omniscient, no single
thing or idea is a panacea and no single specific way of life can be said to be
the best one for all everywhere. Therefore, no one can deny or defy the
importance of anything.
From the time we are born we are
married to many things connected with life either with or without our knowledge
or wanting it or the list of compatibilities that we expect etc. Most aspects
of various identities are also such things. The moment we are matured enough
and see the uselessness or non relevance of certain identities or come across a
different identity which we may feel or think is a better we always have the
option to give up our marriage to the existing identity or identities but as Robert Anderson says, “In every marriage more than a week old, there are grounds
for divorce. The trick is to find and continue to find grounds for marriage”,
because sometimes it may turn out that a known devil is better than an unknown
angel.
So, it is wiser to accept multitude of identities
because multitude of identities manifest the inherent variety of life as well
which also we can neither do away with nor deny their existence.
However, the most ideal life is one where everyone
must have a freedom and option to choose any belief or also a lead a life of
dignity without any belief, as Jodi Picoult writes. ‘I consider myself
spiritual and I am married to a man who is both atheist and humanist. My kids
have been raised with the traditions of different religions, but they do not go
to church or temple. Everyone should be able to believe what they want or need
to believe”. And I would like to add one should be also able to live without
the need to have any specific belief or any belief at all.
The most important thing is when we have left a
particular identity we must not feel left out.
So, identity
emerges and evolves, variety is
inherent aspect of life and the
corollary is obvious that differences are inevitable.
Accepting and understanding differences,
contradictions and diversity are the seeds of creativity and resolutions
leading to harmony and these are very well explained in this one page write up
Stefan Zweig
writes, “As one who knows many things, the humanist loves the world
precisely because of its manifold nature and the opposing forces in itdo not frighten
him. Nothing is further from him than the desire to resolve such conflictsand
this is precisely the mark of the humanist spirit: not to evaluate contrasts as
hostility but to seek human unity, that superior unity, for all that appears
irreconcilable.”
At first we
need to accept and try to understand these facts as they are.
Once we accept and understand them as they are, then,
we may also avoid the chronic
psychological and intellectual weakness of viewing various or different aspects
of life as ‘this versus that’ ‘ us versus them’ and contribute to creating
divisions, magnifying them and messing up the whole of social, psychological,
emotional and intellectual aspects of life. This may be replaced with ‘this and that’ ‘us and them’.
For these to happen we need to keep a check on our PA – Perspective and Attitude.
Perspective is to see the
differences, do the analysis, use all energy but work towards synthesis and
synergy.
D.J.Mercier,
the Archbishop of Malines has said even “Sound Philosophy sets out from
analysis and terminates in synthesis”.
Attitude is how we
relate with everyone and how we relate to or react to ever changing situations
/circumstances /scenarios/events/environment/new relations etc irrespective of
whether we continue to cling on to our identities.
Don’t get
outraged thinking that I am
migrating from the main topic.
There are some inevitable, inherent, internal factors
as well as external influences and instigations that are vital to a better
understanding of these two issues
‘outrages’ and ‘migrations’.
Differences and variety may be projected as divisions
by vested interest groups to divide and prevent unity and oneness.
Differences are
Inevitable;
Variety is
Inherent and
Synergy is
Indispensable to
Offer
Nicely the Oneness of all.
There must be ‘acceptance’
of all the differences and variety and ‘fulfillment
in our relationship’ or at least ‘a
sense of satisfaction, conviction in how we relate irrespective of how others
relate’.
Life is
never fulfilled with unfulfilled relationships within the family,
with others in the society, with the environment, with the many sciences,
subjects, systems that we come across which are useful to us, used by us or we
are used by them and so on. So, the quality of life is the manifestation of the
quality of the inter play of these various relationships.
Even
in parenting after donating a sperm and leasing a womb and initially taking
care of the physical well being of the Child it is all about weaving meaningful
and mutually respectable relationships emotionally and psychologically all the
while factoring in many socio-cultural changes and the generational
differences.
How can we succeed in
overcoming the difficulties and fulfill all our relationships?
Probably, we can, if we sincerely, seriously
and sanely try to understand them through two important primary factors, namely
completely listening and curiously learning followed by involvement and
responsibility and all these done with total intensity and intense
totality.
Very often the greatest mistakes in our
relationships, overall perceptions and evaluations occur because we read three
fourths, listen half, understand quarter, think zero and are indifferent
to the impact of our actions, reactions, thoughts and words on humanity and the
environment.
“In the end nothing less
than the whole of everything can be the truth of anything at all”- William
James
So, how we accept or deal with our own identity/identities and how we relate with identities of others is
going to help us deal with these two issues of ‘outrage’ and ‘migration’.
Mostly,
we deal with identities with fondness, ferventness, faith and fanaticism as the
multiple frequencies of the spectrum of affinity- ranging from subtle to
substantial to sabotaging impacts.
These
frequencies are not mere verbal nuances but can be nice or nasty depending on
how they manifest the intensity of one’s reverence, reaction and how everyone
relates with those identities.
If we adopt the
armor of sense of balance and the tool of refined rationality devoid of any
identity based reaction to anything, though this may sound very
idealistic or even utopian, then, it serves to provide a level playing field
for all individuals irrespective of any identity.
Rational approaches
refine what is otherwise viewed as contrasts that divide into variations that
seek synergy.
Life is impregnated with
the inevitable polarity principle in many aspects and identities are no
exception.
Identities
of all hues while they enable creating social groups at the same time enfeeble
options for universal acceptance or peaceful and compatible cohabitation.
I have very often held
that identity, though inevitable, excessive and exclusive veneration of it is
at the heart of many problems be it in the realm of religion, region, language,
tradition, culture, nationhood and so on.
In a sense identity
symbolize a fence, while it draws a boundary it is also the link that
recognizes outside area or other person’s arena.
Most
importantly, we must acquire the wisdom to make unbiased balanced views on
everything concerned with life so that we can try to grasp the meaning of life
with all its harsh realities and real hues and facets of variety that life is
made of.
There is a wonderful
explanation of identity creation in Cognitive neuroscientist Bruce Hood's
exploration of the building blocks of what we experience as the “self” in "The
Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity'[1]
Unfortunately,
unintentionally, unconsciously we may all end up extolling the wrong things.
Both our individual self
and social self are to a large extent shaped by how we relate with our
circumstances and how our contexts relate with us.
Most of
the individual problems and group pogroms are the result of identity crisis. This [identity adoration/affiliation] is a
very important part of study of personal psychology and socio-psychology which
gets neglected or does not get the prominence it deserves because the
predominant factors that create these identities and factories that produce these
predators are the patrons and promoters of ideologies. Now recently,
technological advancement has also jumped into this band wagon
There is nothing wrong
with identities per se nor are they avoidable. For example if someone is
born physically beautiful, mentally brilliant, in a highly respected
family in a particular nation following certain language, religion, culture,
tradition etc with some type of specific behavior then that person would be
identified with all those things. What can that person do about any of those
identities which he is born with, born into, groomed up with along with social
inculcation, indoctrination, insistence or voluntary inclination or interest
etc?
There is nothing wrong
even in human mind getting into judgmental mode based on these identities which
is one of the natural consequences of identity affiliation and which is what is
happening all over.
There is nothing wrong
even in the human mind making comparisons, analysis, criticisms etc based on
these identities which are again natural consequences of affiliation to
inevitable identities.
The
problem crops up when these identities create narrow walls of prisons of the
mind and thereby creating incompatibilities and intolerances in the functioning
of many vital tools of life and not letting life to move on smoothly in its
tracks.
In brief our thoughts,
ideas, actions, feelings, interactions, attitudes are all to a very great extent influenced by
how we relate to changing situations /circumstances /scenarios/events/environment/new
relations while clinging on to our identities.
Even within specific
identities there are varying degrees and intensities of manifestation.
Any identity is /all
identities are a stumbling block to any realization or unbiased
relating/relationship as well.
As James Braha writes, in
the wonderful book ‘LIVING REALITY-My Extraordinary Summer with “Sailor”
Bob Adamson’,
“You can only know
yourself by being yourself without any attempt at self-definition and
self-description. Once you have understood that you are nothing perceivable or
conceivable, that whatever appears in the field of consciousness cannot be
yourself, you will apply yourself to the eradication of all self
identification, as the only way that can take you to a deeper realization of
yourself. You literally progress by rejection—a veritable rocket. To know that
you are neither in the body nor in the mind, though aware of both, is already
self-knowledge.”
The
real nakedness devoid of any cover of identity may enable us and equip us to
face reality unbiased and without any pre conditioning.
Some great souls have
even opined that we can even pose real questions only from this state
as Terence Mckenna says, “You are not naked when you take off your
clothes. You still wear your religious assumptions, your prejudices, your
fears, your illusions, your delusions. When you shed the cultural operating
system, then, essentially you stand naked before the inspection of your own
psyche…and it’s from that position, a position outside the cultural operating
system, that we can begin to ask real questions about what does it mean to be
human, what kind of circumstance are we caught in, and what kind of structures,
if any, can we put in place to assuage the plan and accentuate the glory and
the wonder that lurks, waiting for us, in this very narrow slice of time
between the birth canal and the yawning grave. In other words we have to return
to first premises."
Do we create our identity
and getting confined by it?
Or whether some identity
actually influences and/or creates us?
Or can we tweak some
parts of the brain surgically and create a complete leap away from affinity to
identities so that individual perceptions, actions, attitudes and social
behavior can be freer and at least devoid of problems caused by contradictions
and ideological constraints? [After all, physiologically even DNA is
tweaked to produce unimaginable results].
Outrage
epidemic is the manifestation of individual disagreements and
disenchantment that have always existed but has become easily collective,
inflated and exaggerated due to Outrage industry which is promoted as a trend, originally
confined to a few privileged and propaganda peddling outfits is now empowered
to engulf everyone everywhere though advanced and easily accessible misuse of
technology. Many gullible and vulnerable people are caught into this whirlpool
that dangerously sucks everyone around.
Whatever is happening
today is a heady mix of many highly volatile things/aspects which can turn
anytime anywhere equally provocative and aggressive. These manifest certain
feeble atavistic tendencies; histrionic reactions to historical blunders; self
created or aggravated problems further fueled by sensationalism seeking media,
scandal mongering journalists, victimhood peddling outfits, guilt inflicted
international manipulative operators, fanatical bonding with misinterpreted
superficiality of certain ideologies and
edicts, perverted unsolicited participation into the internal affairs of
ideologically different outfits, extrapolation of certain ideologies across
vast areas of human activities, urge to homogenize and so on . There are
certain common factors to all these: like misguiding and misusing certain
individuals by emotionally charging them, funding them etc.
Levels of scrutiny,
extent of criticism, limits of tolerance, philosophical consolations and so on
and all of them become very elastic or rigid depending upon
whom they affect at that particular instant and how the affected people take
them or react to them.
Depending on the nature,
circumstances, situations and nurtured attitudes, proportionately, the
reactions, retributions and revenge will manifest.
If by nature and nurture
the creatures caged inside the identity cages are soft and mild, then, their
reactions also will be manifested in varying degrees of intensity like soft and
sophisticated exhibiting either gentle acceptance of inevitability or graceful
withdrawal from the cage or a meek surrender out of utter cowardliness or
silent fuming in frustration or total fatalistic indifference.
However, if those inside
identity cages are wild by nature or nurture, then, the reactions towards any
slight disturbance to their caged comfort will be very violent, aggressive and
criminal.
On
one side while the outrage industry keeps magnifying the short comings or
discomforts, either real or projected through propaganda and injects a sense of
insecurity to one’s identity cages, one feels that the comfort zones are
shaking and no more reliable and contemplates on migrating to a better place or
ideology, which though may be good or great in reality or in projection, the
transitional period will cause further disturbances. While outrages may be earth quakes of varying magnitude the migrations are tremors.
Perspective of Learning the
importance of following are required:- Unless and until there is a natural or
socio culturally initiated importance given to sophistication and adjustments
necessary for a collective cohabitation
of civilized life with humanitarian concerns and environmental well being (
which means addressing many problems of vast number of people and also
acknowledging the sensitivities of modern life styles without compromising on
certain very essential aspects of life and a responsibility to leave a livable
planet for posterity) all sorts of chaos and cut throat activities will
continue and they can get further fueled if the economic conditions are also
poor.
Attitude of Adjusting
relationships that is required for these transformations:-
All relationships effect
a transformation, a transition from a present status influencing and impacting
ourselves, others, our environment and our very relationship which causes this
and so on. This transformation happens due to many of the factors mentioned
above in the normal process in a gradual way or sometimes by suddenly
overcoming the constraints of time and space, and due to different affinities
to various other identities.
This happens when there
is unqualified complete love as Jeff Brown points out "You don’t
measure love in time. You measure love in transformation. Sometimes the longest
connections yield very little growth, while the briefest of encounters change
everything. The heart doesn't wear a watch- it’s timeless. It doesn’t care how
long you know someone. It doesn’t care if you had a 40 year anniversary if
there is no juice in the connection. What the heart cares about is resonance.
Resonance that opens it, resonance that enlivens it, resonance that calls it
home. And when it finds it, the transformation begins…"
I
have used the capital letters ‘L’ and ‘A’ for Learning and Adjusting to
indicate that life is a LA LA land, it involves a process of constant Learning and Adjustment.
We have evolved from kuru
disease attracting cannibals to crew travelling to other planets.
Let us forget what must
be forgotten and remember what requires to be remembered.
We must not forget that
we are all human species and we must remember that this wonderful planet is
meant for many other species too.
It would be pertinent to
mention what ― Idries Shah the great Sufi writer says in Reflections
“You have not forgotten
to remember;
You have remembered to forget.
But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering
to remember - and generally more practical.”
https://app.ayoa.com/mindmaps/99abefbb-2e3e-429c-8410-212c037b2ae4
[1] Amazon review of the book runs
excellently as , "Most of us believe that we are unique and coherent
individuals, but are we? The idea of a "self" has existed ever since
humans began to live in groups and become sociable. Those who embrace the self
as an individual in the West, or a member of the group in the East, feel
fulfilled and purposeful. This experience seems incredibly real but a wealth of
recent scientific evidence reveals that this notion of the independent,
coherent self is an illusion - it is not what it seems. Reality as we perceive
it is not something that objectively exists, but something that our brains
construct from moment to moment, interpreting, summarizing, and substituting
information along the way. Like a science fiction movie, we are living in a
matrix that is our mind.
In The Self Illusion, Dr.
Bruce Hood reveals how the self emerges during childhood and how the
architecture of the developing brain enables us to become social animals
dependent on each other. He explains that self is the product of our
relationships and interactions with others, and it exists only in our brains.
The author argues, however, that though the self is an illusion, it is one that
humans cannot live without.
But things are changing
as our technology develops and shapes society. The social bonds and
relationships that used to take time and effort to form are now undergoing a
revolution as we start to put our self online. Social networking activities
such as blogging, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter threaten to change the way we
behave. Social networking is fast becoming socialization on steroids. The speed
and ease at which we can form alliances and relationships is outstripping the
same selection processes that shaped our self prior to the internet era. This
book ventures into unchartered territory to explain how the idea of the self
will never be the same again in the online social world."
The author does all these
while analyzing the biography of the most paradoxical character Howard Hughes,
at once a legendary aviator, movie mogul, tycoon, and socialite, and a
reclusive billionaire housebound by his deathly phobia of dirt. He was a
fearless aviation pioneer who set and broke countless records, yet he remained
terrified of dying from germs. Hughes spent his final days unbathed, dressed in
rags, with long sticky hair, curling nails, and the remnants of five hypodermic
needles in his arms. He was worth $2 billion!!
