We are
already living in an age of outrage let not social media further it by
inundating with its own ideologically biased selective narratives.
1. Outrages?
Are all
Outrages exaggerated
and /or instigated to outrageously unreasonable proportions affecting
too many people, damaging many things and sometimes even the environment as
whole.
2.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.
3.
In the name of outrage
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 fuelled 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.
4. Outrages emanate from Identity cages
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. Outrages may manifest like earth
quakes of varying magnitudes.
5.
Nature of Identity?
Many 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 and celebrate. Perhaps, for some of them, activities
connected with those identities will be the profession, survival element and even
everything connected with life.
6.
Can everyone get rid of identities?
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.
7.
Life and identity?
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.
8.
Is there a non- controversial and please-all ideological identity?
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.
No single system indicated can exclusively satisfy
or offer or fulfil all necessities and wants of all human beings. Nor can
anyone resort to noncommittal cautious escapism.
Perhaps, at best one ‘ism’ that may
be a mix of ‘contextually relevant,
economically beneficial, socially harmonious, philosophically open, rationally
reviewable humanitarianism with scientific outlook ’ which can have a mix of
some or all the multitude of ‘isms’ referred above may be worth considering,
provided it is pragmatically viable?
9. Identity, variety and division
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
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/spirkin/works/dialectical-materialism/ch02-s11.html and
https://www.creativitypost.com/article/janusian_thinking
10. 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 it do not frighten him. Nothing is further from him
than the desire to resolve such conflicts and 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.”
10. ‘This versus that’
and ‘Us versus them’ syndrome
There is a 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’.
11. For these to happen we need to keep a check on
our PA –
Perspective and Attitude can calm
outrages .
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.
Differences and variety may
be projected as divisions by vested interest groups to divide and prevent unity
and oneness.
Picture
12.
Acceptance and relationship
There must be ‘acceptance’ of all
the differences and variety and ‘fulfilment 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.
13. Inclusiveness
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 ‘outrage’
14. Dealing
with identities
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 armour 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.
15.
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.
16. Identities, their two contradictory and
conflicting sides.
Identities of all hues while they enable creating
social groups at the same time enfeeble options for universal acceptance or
peaceful and compatible cohabitation.
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'
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.
17.
Identity crisis
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
18. Are
identities per se, wrong? Probably may not be so.
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 behaviour
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.
19. 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.
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."
20. Beyond
and besides identity
20. 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 wellbeing ( 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 liveable planet for posterity) all sorts
of chaos and cut throat activities will continue and they can get further fuelled
if the economic conditions are also poor.
21. Identities and relationships
21. 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 or
despite all 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…"
https://app.ayoa.com/mindmaps/99abefbb-2e3e-429c-8410-212c037b2ae4
https://app.ayoa.com/mindmaps/99abefbb-2e3e-429c-8410-212c037b2ae4
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