The outlier
The whole concept of society is to bind a group of people with a certain code of living and rules. The purpose is that everyone is on the same page and things work in a certain way. Then only will it work as a well oiled machine. Here everyone has a certain role to play. It is like a team game. We have been brought up this way. But still we find there are certain outliers in the society who do not want to be a part of this play. While in a society everyone is expected to be serious and responsible about his role, an outlier will not take any of these things seriously. He will just watch the drama.
A sane society will always have an outlet for these outliers as these people are beyond the rules set by the society. They can be free thinkers, different thinkers, monks, saints who do not view the world the same way we see. They can have a different perspective about everything that the society wants to impose. A sane society will not banish these people but these people will like to stay on the fringes of the societal structure. For them everything that is happening in the society is a play and a Maya where we have our individual roles to play. They do not want to identify themselves with the persona and the ego of the society.
An insane society will not allow the outliers to stay beyond the rules of the society. It will force everyone to live by the rules of the society and anyone not willing to do so will be punished. In that case the society becomes a prison and freedom is snatched. But every society will have some people who are just not tailored to play by these rules. These societies make us believe that this prison is the freedom that all we need.
But here starts the beginning of all that is bad. Now it becomes our town, our city and your town and your city, our rules versus your rules; our country versus your country; our belief versus your belief. These things are taken so seriously that it becomes a cause of conflict.
Sometimes when we think deeply we also think like an outlier. An outlier is just watching the game from the sideline and generally you will find these people to be happy and carefree about the things happening around. Because they know it is part of the script by which a society plays and plays seriously. They know that rather than playing the role as per someone else’s script, it is better to play by my script. They believe that everything that is fundamental to our life and nature is playing its own game and we are no one to say that you cannot play your own game.
What if everyone wants to be an outlier? That is not going to happen because we are so programmed that we enjoy being part of the societal mindset, we feel comfortable within it. It is not that one is inferior and the other superior because both have their respective importance in the whole play. Just as no one can say soccer is better than hockey because it is all a matter of individual choice. Most of us are so fascinated by the being involved that we are not made to be an outlier. It is also difficult to withdraw from the society. It is not easy to leave the dance of the society and be part of the divine dance.
With the world getting more and more materialistic, now we see a lot more people feeling the urge to be an outlier but only a few will be so. It is not easy to be a free thinker.
Being civilized
If I call someone uncivilized then he will probably be very angry with me. That is because we consider ourselves to be civilized. In dictionary the common synonyms of civilized will be educated, refined, polished, gentle, refined, polite, well mannered, sophisticated, urban etc. Antonyms would include ignorant, uneducated, uncultured, vulgar, ill-mannered, barbaric, crude, rustic etc. So if we try to picture a civilized person our mind will come up with the picture of someone in a proper western dress doing a good white colored job or business. On the other hand the picture of an uncivilized person will be a native American or the Australian aboriginals or African tribal. In fact now everything civilized is as per what the western world is doing.
Civilization is an evolving thing. The early human hunter gatherers were not civilized because they did not have any higher purpose other than the day to day living. Then the societies and kingdoms started to form and they decided the rules of the society and what is right and wrong. If you are doing the right thing then you are considered civilized and if you are doing the wrong thing then you are considered as uncivilized. In other words one had to conform to the dictates of the society and the ruler. With the advent of industrialization many European countries went on a spree to conquer countries in Africa and Asia and imposed there parameters of civilized society. Customs and cultures which were local were considered uncivilized. An industrial society was considered civilized and a agrarian society was considered un civilized. Then came the age of science and technology which further complicated the idea of civilized society. A country which is advance in these is considered more civilized than the others. A person adopting the natural way of living is uncivilized and a person adopting the technological lifestyle is civilized.
If we go a few centuries back we will see that in Europe there was witch hunting and burning, which was accepted then. Countries’ fighting with each other was considered ok, burdening the poor working class was considered ok, slavery was ok, uprooting locals and sending them to far off countries to work was ok, looting the wealth of other countries was considered ok, killing in the name of religion was considered ok, wiping off the aboriginals was considered ok. Were these things civilized and expected from countries which considered then civilized? These things are happening even today but in a subtle and refined way without the stigma of doing it.
Then came democracy in the West as a better option than monarchy and dictatorship. This was spread to countries as a better form of governance even though many countries did not ask for any advice. Now a democratic government following capitalism was considered civilized and communist governments were considered uncivilized. To impose their system we had the cold war and even the hot wars.
At last came equality of men and women and the discrimination based on race, colour etc. Even after adoption of democracy it is only in the last century that women had the right to vote, work, a say and value. But the spirit of brotherhood as envisioned in the Universal declaration of human rights is still a far off dream.
When we look at the life of the aboriginal tribes across the world through our civilized lenses we tend to miss out the fact that they are actually civilized in their own ways. Though it may not fit our definition but that doesn’t mean they are not. Their life is also based on kinship, clans and in complete harmony with nature which developed over thousands of years and steeped in rituals and spirituality. They had developed their own weapons for hunting, they had vast knowledge of flora and fauna and their medicinal value, they also used the stars to navigate, they also had the knowledge to build shelters and cook, they also had the knowledge to deliver a baby, they also had rules governing their lives, they also had their myths and folklores dances and songs and they also had wisdom of the wise man. They had their own ‘uncivilized’ civilized life. But it did not take much time for the white westerners to almost wipe them off, capture their land, and enslave them.
We know that even now it doesn’t take much of an effort for an individual or a nation to transform from civilized to uncivilized. It didn’t take much for America to invade Vietnam and Iraq; it doesn’t take much for China to loan money to poor countries and usurp their land and infrastructure. It doesn’t take much for a man to cheat others; it doesn’t take much for big corporations to create monopoly and evade taxes. It doesn’t take much for a person to fight each other for small reasons.
Maybe, maybe not
Let me tell you a story. Once there was a farmer in a village. He had a horse which ran away one day. So his neighbor came and said, it is so bad that you lost your only horse. The farmer said ‘maybe’. The next day his horse returned and along with it came 3 more wild horses. The neighbor came and said you are so lucky that now you have 3 more horses. The farmer said ‘maybe’. Next day his son was trying to tame one of the wild horses and fell down and broke his leg. The neighbor came again and said it is so sad your son broke his leg. The farmer said ‘maybe’. The next day the local military people came to the village to take new recruits and felt his son due to broken leg. The neighbor came and said you are so lucky your son got exempted due to broken leg. The farmer said ‘maybe’.
It is a common nature among us to be very thoughtful about the consequences of things we do or things that is happening around us which might affect us. We have our pre programmed mindset to decide whatever that is happening is good or bad. Then we get happy or depressed about that incident. This causes a lot of heart burn as we get sad when something bad happens. We curse ourselves and the whole world that why I am the one facing difficult times. We are programmed to think that only good things will bring more good things and bad things will bring more bad things. But life is not always like that. Life doesn’t work like a mathematical equation because too many variables are there in life.
This brings to my mind another point and that is life in itself is purposeless. It is we who assign purpose to it and when we fail then we feel as if we have failed in life. The complete nature functions on the principle of purposelessness. It is quite difficult to accept this fact as we have been programmed to think otherwise. We compare purposelessness with uselessness, as if there is not future and life is a waste.
Have you thought that why we need break from our so called purposeful life. It is because we look for purposelessness. When we go on a holiday we want to relax and keep our mind off from the grind we have in our purposeful life. In other words we are looking for a few days of purposelessness. With no particular purpose in mind we walk along the beach in sunset, or walk along the mountain tracks with no specific destination. When a musician makes notes it is not for a purpose but it is just a outlet of his creativity and that it makes him happy. There is no other inherent purpose of it. Likewise is the case of a painter. What purpose does the waves have when one after another crashes into the shore without any break. We look at the world from the eyes of a creator, thinking that we create something therefore it need to have a purpose, as an engineer thinks that he will build a building for a particular purpose.
Do you think that the purpose of an apple on a tree is that it is meant to be eaten by humans or birds? The apple grows because it is made that way and not with the purpose that it has to be eaten by us. If there were no apples in this world then the world would not have been something different. Wheat grows not to feed us, it just grows naturally. It is us which use it as a food source. So it is we who are assigning a purpose to it and not the wheat.
We have been brought up with the mindset that we need purpose for everything in life, but actually nature has created life without any purpose. We are the most intelligent being on this planet so we cannot stop ourselves from thinking about purpose of everything. Most of our life also goes by without fulfilling any higher purpose just as one in a billion people. But we feel happy with the small purposes which we create ourselves and achieving those.
If you ask the farmer if life has a purpose, he would reply maybe, maybe not.
The world wants you to be a conformist.
Our life is lived by a set of rules decided by the society and those rules are imposed on us by our parents and schools until we become matured enough to understand that we are being forced to live a life which is not ours. We are expected to conform to the society to be an acceptable member of that society. This is like living a duel life even without understanding we are living a duel life. We become so used to this that our non conformist self is forced to think that being a non conformist is a social crime.
It is the easiest to be a conformist and be one of the herds than stand out. It gives a sense of security and a sense of anonymity among the society away from its glare. Except a few, most of us fall under this category. We are meant to listen to what others think about us and behave accordingly, we are meant to do what most of the others are doing. We are meant to feel what most of the others are feeling.
A conformist life revolves around a set parameter. We are supposed to take in face value what others tell us. We are not supposed to accept authority without questioning. We are supposed to go to college because all others of my age group are going. We are supposed to work long hours in our desk to call ourselves doing something productive. We are supposed to think about starting a business but never do it. We are supposed to go on some foreign trips but only to the popular ones. We are supposed to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. We are supposed to take a loan and pay off the debt for the next 20 years. We are supposed to take shortcuts in life. That is a lot of supposed to- and there can be many more.
Actually we dread to be a non conformist and do something different because then we will be in the minority and alone with others being judgmental about us. Our mind is programmed in such a way that we tend to find protection among the masses rather than standing out. Though in our lives we oscillate between being a conformist and a non conformist but we seldom have the courage to go against the flow. So live a life of duel personality and live a life which is below our potential. In school when teacher ask who wants to be a great leader or a great writer, the students will mostly look at each other. But if the teacher asks who among the class can be a great leader or a great writer the students will very easily take some one else’s name. This is because we are not taught to develop a confidence that we can be someone great. We grow up thinking ourselves incapable or I can’t achieve any greatness. Confidence comes from being better and not just thinking we are better. Likewise we think we are great without being great.
So we spend our whole life just to adjust ourselves to the rules set by others and forgetting what our inner voice is telling us. We are so much bothered about thinking what others will think about me if I do or not do a thing that we start killing our inner self. We stop questioning both the society and ourselves. And I must tell you the government likes these types of people as they are the least problem creator for them. They know that whatever they do and however they justify it, the people will accept it in face value. It is the minority few who the government has to tackle and therefore it becomes quite easy for a democratically elected government to start behaving in a fascist way.
The golden goodie
Life is giving a complex set of problems to us with the assurance that if you solve this then you will reach wherever you want to reach. After you solve one problem then you get a relative peace until the next one crop up. And so, life goes on solving one or the other problem with the expectation that the golden goodie is at the end of all this.
The first one comes in our childhood and that is education because solving the education problem will lead to a good job. Then you get a job which solves the problem of money which is required to live the life the way you want to live. But a single job won’t solve your problem because as you grow up you need more money so you keep changing jobs for increased salary. Then you feel like having a life companion so you look for someone whom you think is the right choice for you and then you marry her. Then you think that you need children and so you have them. Then you keep saving money so that once you retire then you have a comfortable life and enough to cover your medical expenses. Then you think you have achieved everything in life but when you look back you feel you have missed something. You wish you could have done better.
These problems which the life threw at you were the stepping stones to a brighter future- that’s what you thought. Same is with the other things in life. You want to have peace of mind. But to have peace of mind you need to accept that you lack peace of mind, if you want to end your inner conflict then you have to accept that there is a conflict within you. Once you accept that you lack peace of mind or you want to end the inner conflict then you have a desire to do it. But the more you try to end those more you stir them up. This is because you think that you need to solve these to achieve what is beyond it. The end result is that you expect that after solving this you will achieve something. In this process we stop enjoying the journey and just focus on the end result.
But life is not about the journey or the end result of it. It is about enjoying everything that life throws at you. Say for example swimming. If you love swimming then to reach from one end of the pool to the other end is not your aim, your aim is to enjoy the splash of water against your body, the strokes you make, the floating sensation. Once your focus is to reach the other end then you stop enjoying the other things. So in case of life also, it is not about a journey from one stage to another but enjoying the moments within it. If we look to find joy at the end then it will never come unless we find the joy all along. Another example is that of a road, the road is not the destination but the road will take you to a destination. The road doesn’t end at your destination but goes on, it is your choice what you choose as your destination.
Our life is dictated by the economy of wealth which is based on the concept of scarcity. While the economy of nature is based on the concept of abundance, There are way more sperms than that we require, there are way more plants and animals than that we require, there are many more stars and galaxy than that we require. Nature and life is way more abundant without any scarcity. That golden goodie which we desire is not beyond that abundance, but within it. We are so used to the concept of scarcity that we forget that we not in a queue for that golden goodie, we are in the midst of that golden goodie but we just don’t see it.
Crypto is the favorite punching bag in India now.
Indian media and social media are now abuzz about crypto as the government is about to table the much awaited crypto currency Bill in the parliament within a month. The pro and against lobbies are churning out arguments on whether crypto should be banned in India or regulated. RBI which is equivalent to FED in US is dead against crypto; the government which was earlier in line with the RBI thinking seems to have softened its stand a bit and wants to regulate it. The government had a meeting with the stakeholders and the government view is derived from the discussion in that meeting. The actual Bill is listed in parliament though the content has not been made public till now. The Prime Minister of India with whatever he has been fed made a statement in the Sydney Dialogue that crypto should not fall in to wrong hands and spoil the youth. I fail to understand from where he got this idea that it will spoil the youth.
The first concern of the ‘against’ lobby is that crypto has the potential to be a cause of financing terrorism, narcotics, money laundering and every other illegal activities under the Sun. Crypto originated in 2009 and in India very few people had even heard of crypto till 2016, with no proper exchange existing in India. Just like many other countries a few cases of use of crypto for illegal activities have been unearthed in India and also a case of politicians, bureaucrats and Police officers using crypto to launder their corruption money. If crypto will get banned then this system will not stop but will go underground but still function. Whereas after regulating it the government will be able to monitor trading activities and collect tax.
‘Hawala’ – It is a system of money laundering which has been in use in this part of the world for decades. Suppose I want to send money to a person in USA without using the regulated channels - I deposit some Indian currency in India with an agent and someone in USA will give the equivalent amount of dollar to that person, off course after a commission cut. This is the most favoured way of financing illegal activities in most countries. This system is also used by some common people to send money to relatives in foreign countries beyond the limit set by the government.
3 years back the Prime Minister of India suddenly came on air at 8 pm and announced that 500 and 200 denomination currencies will be illegal from tomorrow and those bills have to be deposited in banks and exchanged in to other denominations from banks. This was done to wipe out black money. People rushed to banks from the next day, stood in long queues to get them converted.
Now with the might of the government and so many agencies working for it, it has miserably failed to control illegal activities using fiat money for the last 50 years. Did the government at any point of time felt threatened by its own currency?
The second concern of the ‘against’ lobby is that crypto will erode the sovereignty of the official money of India. In this case the main target is the stable coins pegged against a fiat like dollar. The government thinks that money from the traditional monetary loop may shift to the stable coins. The native currency may lose value. I think this is ill-founded as the fiat monetary base is too big to be dented by stable coins. Also as long as stable coins are restricted from being used as a currency for routine day to day use then it is no threat to the local fiat. Does the government not have faith in the power of its fiat?
The third concern of the ‘against’ lobby is the volatility of the crypto price. Retail investors entering crypto with due diligence are aware of it and play that way only. It is the reckless price chasers in short term who burns their fingers. But similar is the case with penny stocks stock markets which are pumped and dumped leaving behind a trail of burnt fingers. It becomes an individual’s responsibility how he wants to play. If government institutional investors are not entering crypto then there is no problem of capital erosion.
The fourth concern of the ‘against’ lobby is cheating and rug pulls whereby investors lose money with no recourse to remedy. This is where regulations come in to protect investors from such type of operators. It exists for stock market and therefore can also exist for crypto market.
At present the government will not give a level playing field and let the citizens choose, that is too big a thing to ask. In fact a lot of people must be waiting in the sidelines just because the Bill is not placed and the law is not framed. I expect a lot many people will enter crypto in India once the fog is cleared. At present it is only crypto which has the capability to better the financial condition of the middle and lower middle class provided they play it with caution and not treat it as a get rich quick scheme.
Youngsters these days .......
In our days we used to play outdoors- these youngsters can’t get over the mobile phone. We used to have so much respect for elders- these kids just doesn’t respect elders any more. These and many more are examples of generation gap which we often here. This is not pertaining to this generation but even a thousand years ago we would here some different examples of it, and a thousand years down the line we will hear something else. It is also not a geographically isolated phenomenon but is prevalent everywhere. This mental gap between 2 generations is the outcome of different thinking pattern in different times. The younger generation thinks they are more tuned to the current time and the older one thinks that the new ones are less matured. I even notice it in my house with my 20 years old son.
Both the generations see things from their perspective rather than from each other’s stand points. It is like 2 people standing on opposite banks of a river. For one the boat is moving way and for the other the boat is moving closer. If not handled properly it can lead to major issues between parents and children including lack of trust and tension. Mostly it starts in adolescence and spill over to late teens and even twenties, then slowly the younger generations starts to understand that parents will be like this only and therefore starts to adjust with it.
It has been seen that authoritarian people will think that the new generation doesn’t have respect for authority; the intellectual people think that the new ones don’t read books; the intelligent ones will think that the new ones are getting dumber. The older generation thinks that they faced tougher times so in general may have a superiority complex. Now life is materialistically far easier than in older days. Also the experience and opinion about the newer generation may be influenced by the behavior of a small sample size and thereafter generalizing it to the whole lot of newer ones.
A lot of things change with time and across generations they may be speaking with different terms of reference. So it is more likely that what was normal in our younger days may not match with what is normal for the new generation. Actually for one the time is slipping away and the other is embracing the newer times. None the less it is better to adapt with the new times rather that freezing ourselves in the past. As time goes by the older ones need to understand that it is they who need to change more and move along with it, otherwise it will only cause pain and frustration. My youth was in the pre internet era but if I don’t adjust myself with the present times then it is me who will suffer and no one else.
Matters become more profound when the gap is across three generations that is grandfather and grandson. In such cases times were so vastly different that it becomes almost impossible to adjust. My mother is from the pre pre-internet era and is living well into the internet era but she has not been able to adopt this revolution and therefore is dependent on us for everything which otherwise she could have managed herself if she knew how to use a smart phone or computer.
Another cause of this generation gap can be the lack of communication between the old and new ones. Now a day’s life is hectic for the new generation that often a proper communication takes a back seat. It is important that the channels of communication between both the generations should be open from both sides and use regularly. Gripe can lead to a feeling of being left out. The older generation should have an open mind and an accepting mindset to accept the changes that happen with time and try to embrace it.
It is important to understand that we from the older generation cannot change the time and cannot stop the change. It is more our responsibility that we change ourselves with time rather than live a life in the hangover of our past.
Marriage
Marriages are made in heaven but not necessarily the experience will be heavenly. Marriage is a common feature in every corner of the world and the process of marriage is always bound by a religious function that is it is solemnized in the name of one god or the other. Some sort of priest is always involved in it. It is as if the seal of approval is given by god so that the god fearing couple stays within the boundary of marriage institution. It is as if people will stray if god is not involved in it. But it has not been so always.
Of all the animal kingdom marriage is only unique to humans. Evolutionally our immediate forefathers lived in groups and had sex with multiple partners. The female species was not dependent on the male in any way and could gather her own food also. So there was no need of a commitment to stay together. Then slowly we started walking on two legs, we moved out of forest to the grass lands and our brain size became bigger. This large brain size is the reason that a child is born in quite a helpless state requiring great care, unlike the primates.
Life was tough in those ancient times and to survive they needed one person to provide food and protect while the other looked after the fragile children. This was the genesis of early form of commitment like marriages today. They would stay together for about three to four years till the child became self sufficient to some extent, and then they would part ways for other partners. Agriculture played a big role in this as now people became tied to the land. Now the men being stronger tilled the land for food and the women looked after the household and children. Slowly this became the default system and formed lifelong relations. Then this monogamous relation became a dominant part of our culture. But the real purpose of marriage was always to see the children survive which syncs with the evolutionary strategy of being a dominant species.
Another angle is that female sexuality was always dominant and men wanted to control it by ways and means. With the creation of the institution of marriage, attested in the name of god, the society expected to control and channelize the sexual desire within the couple only. But now we are on the top of the food chain and no longer need to fear about getting killed by wild animals, now we live in a world with abundant resource and now women are a big part of our workers being financially and socially independent. So all the reasons why we needed the intuition is not applicable now.
A research found that percentage men in marriageable age thinking that a successful marriage is the most important thing has dropped by 6 percent in the last 20 years. Similarly the same percentage has dropped by 9 percent for women in same age group. But marriage is still thought as the highest level of commitment towards each other with the complete approval of the society.
The advantages of marriages are many- companionship, stability, emotional support, sex life, financial benefits, legal benefits, inheritance benefits to even tax breaks and insurance benefits. Likewise the same advantages can also become disadvantages like infidelity, lack of compatibility, lack of freedom, being stuck due to the stigma of divorce or raising children, custody battle, joint liabilities to even expensive marriage expenses. In third world countries like mine arranged marriage is still the most common form of marriage where both have little interaction before marriage and the societal pressure to stay together in spite of differences is huge.
While in west the divorce rate may be higher than here but here the lack of compatibility rate is higher than the divorce rate, though with more women getting financially independent the gap is closing down fast. Now most young women don’t need a provider of food and shelter and they are earning themselves, and they are less willing to be the home maker. The greater the women liberation the greater is the decline in either of them seeking marriage commitment.
Though still now a dominant percent of millennial genre think that raising kids is an important duty but they assign less importance to getting married. Thus a new form of open relationship is sprouting these days where they stay together without the commitment of marriage but with all the functionality of it. There are quite a few alternatives like live- in relationship, co habitation or even creating a living will. Maybe those Bonobos’ where actually right all along.
Our mindset is still heavily inclined towards the institution of marriage as a confirmation to being part of the organized society but with time things change and we are in the midst of that change now.
A 'stupid' article.
Let’s face it- we all have made some stupid decisions in life and will make a few more. These decisions can be regarding career, finance, relations, interests and goals in life. But these stupidities have its utility as these make great learning experiences in life which otherwise we would miss. In some cases these stupid decisions become a boon for us otherwise it becomes a bane. None the less such decisions can be turning points in life as the outcome our decisions show up in future.
People like me are not destined to be great because our whole life is based on cautiousness; we are the play safe types. We don’t not want to deviate from the middle path too much because we are afraid. But all greatness lies who take bold decisions which otherwise is termed sometimes as stupid decisions. People who stick to the middle path are destined for mediocrity. What if Columbus did not want to sail and rather settled for a job. What if Einstein settled for the clerks’ job he was doing and stopped pursuing science? Who would have known Edmond Hillary if he had not climbed the Everest? Great things are achieved when people get out of their comfort zone. Any great thing has to pass through the door of stupidity when it fails but that door can also lead to breakthrough in innovation, thinking and creativity.
In our routine life we often see people in high paying cushy jobs resigning to start a start up or pursue a hobby and passion. We see students getting admission in the best of country’s’ engineering college only to drop off after a year to pursue study in literature or fine arts. We see people doing extreme adventure sports in the name of hobby.
Some are destined to take ‘stupid’ decisions in life and achieve greatness; some are in double mind to take that decision. As parents, teachers and leaders it is our duty that we do not curtail their flight and give them the space for experimenting.
There is another angle to this stupidity which is more of social in nature and it has been classified as the five laws of stupidity. The first law states that stupidity is irrespective of race, religion, gender, profession etc. It is a universal phenomenon. No one can say that people living in rich countries are not or less stupid than people living in poor ones. Same way is with religion and gender or any other classification we make. We will find stupidity everywhere.
The second law states that we often underestimate the number of stupid people around us. This is because most of our opinions about others are mostly based on superficial criteria like a person who is in a very good job will not be considered stupid by me, similarly about education, or race or income etc. Our decisions are influenced by many such criteria as to whom we consider stupid. If we are using these criteria to form our decision then we ourselves are stupid.
This social theory of stupidity is based on the definition that you are stupid if you are causing loss to others without benefiting yourself. In this third law we see some variables based on the following matrix.
On the X axis is the loss or benefit to themselves criteria (from left to right). On the Y axis is; are you benefiting others or causing loss to others criteria (from top to bottom). From this matrix we see that if you are benefiting others as well as yourself then you are intelligent. If you are benefiting others and causing loss to yourself then you are helpless or a naïve person; it can be said that you are allowing yourself to be exploited. If you are causing loss to yourself as well as others then you are stupid. And if you are causing loss to others and benefiting yourself then you are a bandit or a selfish person.
The fourth law states that stupid people are consistent in their behavior or in other words they consistently cause losses to others as well as themselves. This is because it is very difficult to make a stupid person realize that he is stupid. It also states that the level of stupidity of a stupid person is underestimated by a non stupid person. A non stupid person will always underestimate the damage that a stupid person can cause.
The fifth law states that a stupid person is more dangerous than a criminal and bandit. This is so because the actions of a criminal are predictable that he will do everything to benefit himself and loss to others. But in the case of a stupid person it is not known and not predictable that what he will do to cause loss to himself as well as others. A rough example can be that a stupid person can burn his mattress to kill the bedbugs rather than putting the mattress in sunlight.
These laws are more applicable as a collective social behavior also where we act in a certain way under influence of someone else like a political leader or cult leader. In every country you will find such people who are holding positions of power and taking stupid decisions and influencing people to accept their stupidity.
These are not my laws but of an Italian Carlo M Cippolla.
6 from the other side is 9.
A common story which you all might have heard before. Two men are sitting in a bar in Alaska and after a few beers the discussion veers towards god. One is religious and another atheist. The atheist say that one day he was out hunting when a blizzard came and he was stuck. When things started getting bad he prayed that if there is a god then help me get out of here. After some time a stray dog from his village comes and shows him the way to his village. I know what you will say – the religious man said that who you think sent the dog to you. May be the dog was just passing by and helped him. It all depends on how we interpret the story. Both the people interpret the incident as per their belief and ideas most of which are ingrained by the society and it is a blind certainty for them. This certainty is not to be questioned but everything is to be understood and judged within the parameters of this certainty. So is the title of this article- 6 seen from the other side is 9.
Our school and college education is all about imparting knowledge but that knowledge is meant to light up the wisdom within us and not just understanding some theories rules and laws. It is not to tell us what to think but how to think and giving us a choice of to think without any closed certainty. A closed mind is like a prisoner who doesn’t know he is in a prison. Once we know how to think it will lead us to the awareness that what I consider absolute certain may turn out to be 100 percent wrong.
Though not literally but we consider ourselves to be at the center of the universe. That is because the whole universe is there because I exist and my thoughts and thinking interpret how the universe works. This is the default setting within all of us- My interpretation of things is final. The world is all round you and you are interpreting it as per your understanding. In other words we are self centered. It is very easy to get influenced by the monologue you are having in your head. Learning how to think gives you a control over what you chose to think and how you think and not fit into pre defined thought process.
Your daily life is a mundane repetition of a cycle. You wake up get ready then go to office, work like there is no tomorrow, exhaust yourself and then return to your home through heavy traffic cursing all the way due to boredom and frustration. Then you return home, tired, watch some TV or listen to music and have dinner and sleep only to repeat to cycle each day of your adult life. The day you have to shop you go to the store while returning from work, which is already full with men like you. You somehow finish filling up your cart only to line up for checking out. Other men and women equally frustrated and tired like you are standing all around you. Then after a long time your turn comes and you pay and return to home, more tired.
It is easy to curse the boss in your office who makes you work like a donkey, all the vehicles in front of you on the road and the ones cutting you ahead, and all the irritating people standing in front of you on the line to check out in that store. That is our default setting because I am in the center of the world and all others are making my life difficult, that the world is not going as per my priorities. This thought process is so automatic in us that we don’t think about a choice of how we interpret things going around us. We will not consider the fact that the other person may had a worse day than me, maybe he got fired from work that day, maybe the lady in front of me during check out is here after doing 2 tiring jobs, maybe the guy cutting me in my lane is in a hurry to reach the hospital to see his son who had an accident. It is more likely that I am in their way. It is hard to think this way as then I will lose my place as the center of this world, I will have to make a conscious effort to think that way.
Once you decide to exercise your option to think differently then only you will have the awareness of the frustrating consumer lifestyle we all are living day in and day out. Then you will understand that you are not at the center of the world but you are one of the crowds who is blocking others way. That will be the freedom from the closed mindset to the freedom of real understanding and education. The day you will focus on what you chose to think, that day you will enjoy real freedom from the materialistic men money and power to the holistic freedom of a bigger awareness that life is more than the blind certainty prison you are living in.
The four goals of life.
Ancient Indian scriptures have enumerated four goals of life living in an organized society. These four goals combined together form the object of human pursuit and is the sum of all efforts of life. Irrespective of where you live these four things are common everywhere as these deal with the social, biological, intellectual and spiritual side of every human being. Our thought process revolves around these four goals. Depending on the person some maybe inclined more towards one or more goals but ultimately each of the four goals will play a part in our lives.
The first goal is of ‘Artha’ meaning wealth and prosperity. Wealth is directly related to our livelihood and our responsibility as a provider of food and shelter. It also means not to be dependent on others for our requirements which can be obtained through wealth. Every person should strive to create his own source of livelihood, wealth and bring prosperity to one’s own life. When each person is prosperous then the whole society becomes so. It is not only about creating more wealth but how to be content with what one is having. It is also about creating wealth in the right way without resorting to wrong doings. One very famous mystic said that if you want to enter the world of spirituality then first earn money so that while pursuing spirituality you are not dependent on charity for your requirements. Here there is no restriction on the amount of wealth and prosperity you can create and is completely dependent on the inclination and ability of that person.
The second goal is ‘Kama’ meaning fulfilment of desire and pleasure. It has wide ranging meaning from physical pleasure to enjoying art and music and other creative pursuits in life. It can be anything that makes us delightful and happy. Other than wealth many other things also give pleasure in life and it is all about our pursuit of those pleasures. The word Kama is now a day’s mostly related to sexual pleasure as interpreted by the West. The book ‘Kamasutra’ has been treated as a book of sex, but it is more than that. It is more about the art of enjoying sexual pleasure leading to the feeling of joy ecstasy and fulfilment. Sexual desire is one of the vital desires of humans and with age it is natural to all. In ancient India it was not a taboo topic and here there are ancient temples which have rock sculptures depicting the sexual acts. It was treated as a normal human requirement and its suppression by the general mass was not expected except for the spiritually inclined. Similarly a person passionate about painting, singing, music, sports etc derives pleasure from its pursuit and also comes within the purview of Kama.
The next is ‘dharma’ meaning imbibing right purpose, balance, ethics, duty, work, law in life which gives a true purpose to life. These are some of the universal qualities which are the basic structure of existence in an organized society. Dharma is what keeps an organized society from falling into chaos. Big cultures and civilizations have collapsed when they left the righteous path. It is all about what serves you and the greater society the best. In organization it is your dharma to do the job you are meant to do. If you hate your job then you are not doing justice to yourself as well as the organization therefore you should look for a change. Our every decision and action should qualify the definition of dharma, are my actions doing good to me as well as the whole society.
The last goal is ‘Moksha’ meaning freedom and liberation. It can be interpreted in various ways as per one’s inclination and temperament. For most of us it means spending time remembering god, for some it means making efforts to exit the cycle of rebirth and for some it means a pursuit for self realization. Though the end result may be the same but the ways to reach that can be different. This goal comes at the end when someone has been through the previous goals and may feel like missing the meaning of life in those goals. It is not something otherworldly but it can be as simple as practicing detachment from worldly attachments even when living in between those attachments. It is just a state of mind. Freedom and liberation from attachments which are ultimately transient in nature but bind us with its ‘Maya’. Once you have enjoyed wealth and prosperity, desire and pleasure, lived a balanced and righteous life then you understand the value of moksha which transcends all your previous achievements.
A person is supposed to fulfil these four goals in life so that when the end comes he feels satisfied and is free from any craving left inside. He has experienced and enjoyed what life had to offer.
( You may read my another article 'The four stages of life' ) https://read.cash/@aniruddhasen/the-four-stages-of-life-2348041f
Life without the mystery of future.
The biggest concern in our life is what our future holds. The only future I am not concerned about is my death which is inevitable though the time and the way of death are not known. But I am least concerned about that. What concerns us more is the intermediate stage that is from now till death. A lot of our time and effort is devoted in trying to shape our future the way we want. A whole lot of pseudo science is dedicated to the ways of knowing the future in all parts of the world. In India it is mainly palmistry and astrology.
Is our life pre destined? Views and opinions differ on this. Some will say it is pre destined and some will say it is not. Some say that our karma our previous birth decides what we will be in this birth. Some say that through karma we can change the destiny. Some say we have free will to decide our destiny. Our general thought process is such that – if both our thoughts and what is happening to us are running in the same direction then we call it free will, but if our thoughts and the things happening with us are moving in the opposite direction then we prefer calling it destiny. So there are two aspect of it, one is our thoughts and second is what is happening with us. Which one is easier to control? I think it is easier to control what we are thinking albeit what is happening with us. What is happening to us is present continuous future. Suppose we are passing through a bad phase of life but our thoughts want a better present and future ignoring how to manage the bad phase then both are moving in opposite direction. If we are able to do something to change the bad phase of our life then well and good but if we cannot do so in spite of our best efforts then life seems to be pre destined. If we can align our thoughts with the bad phase with acceptance, clarity of mind and effort to change it in that case we are able to exercise our free will irrespective of the outcome. That leads to another question- can a person’s destiny be influenced by another person’s free will?
And what if we know our future? That would be a clear cut case of pre defined destiny, right? In that case no efforts would be required by us as destiny will steer us towards our future. Would we like to know our future before hand? Would we like to know beforehand what work we will do when we grow up, whom will we marry, how many children will we have, when our parents will die, how much money will we make, when we will be ill, where all we will go on vacation and even when we will die. How much I may want to know my future but still I will personally not like to know it. Life would become such a boring thing pursuit. In fact life would be such reckless with everyone knowing what will happen in future. Will I cross the road without looking left and right if I knew I will not die of a road accident? Or would my crossing the road recklessly is tied up with the destiny of the driver who would die in a rod accident because of me.
A person who is in abject poverty if he knows that he will remain the same way till his death then the first thing he will have is lose faith in God. Then God has not value to him because our primary relation with God is based on our uncertain future and our prayers for its betterment. What use is of god, if I know he will do nothing for me? A very rich person if he knows that he will die that way, what will he do?
Then there is a hybrid stage, one that of cosmic will and human will. Here it is said that the major incidents of life are pre destined and the minor ones are depending on free will and effort. For example, a person is destined to be a businessman or doctor or engineer or whatever it may be but how well and when he will achieve it depends on his efforts. A person may become a doctor due to cosmic will but he may become such a bad doctor that it will be difficult for him to make a living as a doctor. A person may be destined to become a criminal but maybe he will be caught after the first crime and then spend the rest of his life in jail.
Whatever may be the case but the uncertainty of future is what is driving us in life with hope and expectation. The unfolding of that mystery is what keeps us on our toes and gives a purpose to our lives.
For the love of money.
In an article a few days back I wrote about how our mind is programmed to hate the rich who have more money, how factory schools create a typical mindset among us that we are meant to live a life of subsistence, that money is something evil. But money is the best thing that can happen in life provided we know how to make money our ally.
Everything in life requires money. Even our birth at a hospital costs money, our cremation after death costs money. Once we wake up the toothpaste we use costs money, the breakfast costs money, the electricity we use costs money, the vehicle and the gas we use to go to office or shopping costs money, the work we do is to earn money, the wine and food we have in restaurant costs money, a boyfriend/ girlfriend costs money, wife needs money, children need money, the vacation costs money. A day at the hospital costs money. Even the one who has completely detached himself from the material world needs money. To fulfill our dream we need money, our worst nightmare costs money. In a nutshell we need money for every step of our life. Still we abhor those with excessive money.
You may be thinking that I am money minded but I am merely thinking practically. We value relations more than money and rightly so but every relation needs money otherwise it will collapse or cause mental pain. The relation between a husband and wife is considered to be the epitome of love but if I am not able to make her life better materially then it will always pinch me. Poverty and love is not a good combination. If I am not able to give a better life to my children it is a bad situation. If I am standing by the bedside of my mother who is seriously ill and I am not able to give her the best of medical care then it will hurt me.
Money cannot buy happiness is the most common thing we hear. But if you are not able to take care of your own dreams, your wife’s desires, your children’s education, your parents treatment will you he happy. I guess not. It is true that all of happiness doesn’t come from money but surely a good portion of it comes from it. If in any sort of true relation, excessive money will not harm that relation but less money will not make life happier and easier. Our mind is also programmed crave for material happiness, that’s the way world is now and there is nothing wrong in it as it makes life easier. Money attracts gold digger but only a dumb person will not be able to distinguish between a gold digger and a genuine relation, and trust me those with money are not dumb people.
Another thing which we usually hear is that money will not save you from death. Money can buy the best medical treatment but rich people also die. I think this comparison if wrong as death is inevitable for everyone, rich or poor but dying with the best treatment possible and dying with not being able to get a proper treatment is completely different thing. The family members of a rich who is dying with the best medical care will be satisfied at least that they did their best. But the feeling of not being able to arrange for a good medical care due to lack of money will be a cause of lot of pain and frustration.
It is people with a lot of money and having businesses and factories we should be grateful to as they are giving employment and a dream of decent living. In my part of the world government jobs are craved for the most but governments cannot create so many jobs so as to cater for all the educated youth landing every year in the job market. It is the private sector which is helping the educated youth to earn decent bread and butter.
Flaunting and show off of money based on ego of being rich and famous is obviously wrong. Those who have earned money and become rich generally avoid it because they understand the value of money. It is found more among those in show biz. Generally the first generation rich are down to earth and more matured. It is only people like me from the middle class that we look at them wearing the tinted glass of envy and try to be opinioned.
Money is not evil; money has no attributes in itself it and is an inert thing. It depends on how we use that money. Money used as charity for the betterment of poor is good use of money; money used for destructive weapons is bad use of money. The middle class just doesn't know how to use money, most of the times they get into debt and go broke just to look rich. All the rich millionaires and billionaires pursue their dreams with full dedication- money is only the byproduct for them. It depends on the person behind the money and not money itself. Even love and other good emotions used in a wrong way can be dangerous.
( Link to the article I mentioned in first paragraph) https://read.cash/@aniruddhasen/the-low-and-middle-class-mindset-programming-e2a3b39a
Regrets
Suppose you were in a party where you meet the 3 people; one in the teens, one in the twenties and one in the thirties. You are now fifty plus and those three people are the younger version of yourself. They all tell you about some dilemma they are in and ask for your advice to take a decision. As they are your younger self so you know what decision you took and they will take and later regret it. We all wish if we had an opportunity to correct our decisions which turned out to be wrong.
Regret is something which we all feel in various degrees. As we get older our coffer of regrets increase. Most of our regrets are from these three age groups as these are the formative years our life and the decision we take in those years affect our financial and personal future situations. When we are at a cross road and it is time to decide a course of action we are more concerned about its immediate ramifications rather than the long term ramifications.
When I sit with my school friends over a drink sometimes I think about how they are so better off than me financially and also leading a happy family life. Where as though I have a happy family life but I am not as financially sound as them. Then I think that when in my teens my parents used to say to study hard, I neglected it. And now I think if I had heeded them I would have been better off now. Regret is a strong emotion and can lead to self hatred and self loathing and can lead to depression.
Most of our regrets either relate to career and financial decisions or relating to relationship and have emotional baggage.
Some regrets have a short term effect and some have a long term, we get over some easily and some we find it difficult to get over. Some regrets are our own doing and some are forced on us by circumstances. Whatever be the cause the effect is always felt by us. One theory suggests that our actions which led to regret later on have a short term effect, and our inactions which led to regret have a long term effect on us. It seems quite logical. When we need to take a decision and we take one and it turns out to be wrong then we find solace in the fact that at least we took a decision based on the circumstances but it turned out to be wrong. No one intentionally takes a wrong decision. When we fail to take decision our inaction causes greater regret as we think that we had the opportunity to take a decision but it was our weakness or fault to not able to take a decision.
In our life decisions are our constant companion on a daily basis and most of the routine ones are taken quite unconsciously. But we also have those times when we require taking decisions which will be a major turning point of our life. These times comes within the first 30 to 35 years of our life mostly. Due to the effect of the young age we often underestimate the ramifications of our decision or indecisions. Due to our young age we sometimes become whimsical in taking decisions or we think that we will be able to correct it in future. But life often doesn’t give the opportunity to correct it again.
It is not always easy to get over regrets which had a decisive effect in our lives and its hangover can be pretty severe. It is not easy to just ignore them but what is required is to come in terms with them with an acceptance that whatever I did or did not was my doing which I thought best at that moment and I will have to live with it. Accepting it, forgiving oneself, not to blame others about it seems to be the only way out of it. Seldom does life give a second chance.
The four stages of life.
Ancient Indian culture has ideally divided the lifecycle of a common human in four stages. Through these four stages a person can fulfill his duties as per the age and societal norms. This was part of ‘dharma’ in Hindu culture. Dharma or dhamma as said by the Buddhist is loosely translated as religion by the west but it actually means a concept of moral rightness in all actions of life. Over here religion is not the religion which we have made it now but it was a way of how an ideal life should be lived. These four stages have been mentioned in ancient manuscripts dating back to pre Christ era.
The first stage is called ‘brahmacharya’ which is the stage of student life living in celibacy. This stage started around 5-8 years of age and continued till 20-25 years of age and it was for both boys and girls. It was like a hostel life where students left home to stay with a ‘guru’/ teacher who imparted traditional as well as spiritual education which would prepare them for the subsequent stages of life. It was also a vocational training period which taught them about the profession they would pursue in later stage of life. This was mostly dependent on the family profession. In this stage students abstained from romantic and sexual inclination.
The second stage is called ‘grihastha’ meaning leading a family life. In Hindu system, marriage is a sacred bond which had to be fulfilled by both the parties. The man was expected to take up the responsibility of earning a living and supporting the family and the woman was expected to look after the household affairs. This stage was meant to fulfill the desires of materialism and sexual pleasure needs so that both men and women feel contended. It was a stage where everyone was expected to be a productive member of the society and also contribute towards the society by helping the poor, participating and following on social norms lead a highly moral life. This stage continued till the age of around 50 when the hair started graying and wrinkles started showing.
The third stage is called the ‘vanaprastha’ meaning gradually reducing the attachment from material things and family life and focusing more towards the spiritual aspects. After a fulfilling grihastha life when children have grown up, now they slowly loved to forests to live a secluded life devoting time to spiritual practices and be with the seekers of true knowledge, peace and freedom. Now a person a can take his wife with him but not as a sexual partner but more of a companion. This stage is from 50 to 70 years. This stage was however not mandatory for all as some decided to continue the grihastha life till the end. But those who followed the third stage would again look for a guru who would guide them to the last stage.
The last stage is the ‘sanyasa’ meaning the life of a wandering recluse renouncing all worldly attachments. This stage was devoted towards a spiritual journey which would get them out of the cycle of birth death and rebirth through attainment of self realization/liberation. It can be said to be the hermit stage. A person can directly enter this stage after the first stage that is brahmacharya if he shows sufficient inclination towards pursuing a spiritual journey without any attachment towards material and physical pleasure. This stage was from 70 years till death.
In present times also we follow the first two stages. The third stage is also coming back but in a modified way. Now many follow the financially independent and retire early principle where they devote time towards volunteering and social causes. These people now want to give back to the society something they have earned and become expert in. The last stage is now also a reclusive stage for us as the children and well settled and working mostly somewhere else and parents are mostly staying alone.
Lessons from collapse of civilizations
Many of us have seen the Mad Max series of movies which depicts life after collapse of civilization where small pockets of people are holding on separately and fighting with each other for scarce resources, both natural and human. It is just a movie but it can also be a possibility. Every civilization on this earth has collapsed for various reasons into anarchy until it rises again as a separate entity. The earlier civilizations were geographically limited but now we have a global civilization as a broader picture but still fragmented into smaller ones, still fighting with each other. The only difference is previously it was more of a physical war and now it is more an economic war. Knowledgeable people say that more often civilizations commit suicide rather than being murdered.
The collapse of civilizations can be quite quick irrespective of its size. The mighty Roman Empire is an example of it. A study of civilizations from 3000 BC to 300 AD found that the average life span of a civilization was about 335 years. Civilizations can collapse for various reasons some manmade and some natural. Some civilizations transform and adapt to new circumstances and some get obliterated. Compared to western civilizations, the eastern civilizations of China and India had a longer life. Societies are complex things with strict social and political hierarchy, economy, military, art and literature and science and the hold of priests and religion. Our current technological advancement doesn’t make us immune from collapse.
Climate change has been attributed to the collapse of civilizations like the Mayan and the Harappa. The climate change induced crop failure, droughts, desertification and even change in courses of major rivers. Degradation of environment has been another reason which led to soil infertility, water pollution, deforestation and ecological imbalance. Social distress due to unequal distribution of wealth among the ruler and ruled class leads to social disintegration. Suppression of people through taxes, military and imposed social rules also causes social strain. With increasing population and decreasing jobs, labor becomes cheap which leads to poverty and anarchy. All these factors contribute to lack of social solidarity which leads to breakdown. Societies tend to become complex with time and collapse under its own weight. A top heavy controlling ruler and bureaucracy interfering in all aspects of life through increased rules and regulations and with minimum welfare makes society a complex structure and can collapse under its own weight. The earlier civilizations were not fully able to absorb natural disaster, famines and epidemics which led to strain in resources and weakened the civilizations.
Now we live in an interconnected and interdependent world. It is not that the earlier reasons are not applicable now but in addition to it other reasons can also contribute to a collapse of civilization now. Previous collapses were limited in area but now a collapse will have larger ramification. Now economic, political and military might is in a global scale with deep factions and strategic weapons- not the sword and bow and arrow. Now a lot more is at stake than it was previously. Technological advancement has put a strain on the natural resources which are finite and therefore a good reason for aggression. It was easier for the earlier people of pre industrial revolution era to go back to farming and hunter gathering during turbulent times but now the generation is mostly cutoff from this ability. In case of a collapse the current generations are less likely to be capable of adapting to the situation. We are mostly a consumer generation now.
The present trend suggests what I wrote earlier that we may be committing a suicide due to our mistakes than killed by another civilization. We may be moving towards a human driven global effort to ruin the environment and planet in the name of resources for technological and political advancement, which will result ultimately a global war. Or we may be moving towards a global war in our race for supremacy. Either way, if we ruin the world and then fight or fight and ruin the world, in both cases it is a perfect recipe for a collapse of civilization at a global level.
But we have the ability to learn from our past and mend our ways. Collapse of the world civilization is not inevitable if we are ready to change ourselves. But as it is said human nature never changes, only the ways and means change with time.
The waves of life
Life has a set drill. Childhood – teens- working age- retirement and old age –death (except for the unfortunate ones who die early).
The first 12 years comprising the early years are the best time. Then the teens, which is basically an age of transformation from childhood to maturity and job. A major part of our life is the working age which can be generalized as from 21 to 60. This is the most productive age and we become what we want to become. In between comes marriage and children. Retirement and old age is to enjoy the balance portion of our lives with the money we have made. Lastly it’s time to square off our position. This is applicable for most of us.
This comes in waves. One generation is born and then another and then another like waves in an ocean. All these waves are rushing towards the coast which is death. When in child hood and teens we are have our grandparents who leave us during our working age. Now we are the senior most among our family. The earlier generation is gone and the next generation has already come. Now we are closest to the coast but it’s still far. By the time we retire our children are married and are having children in childhood or teens. Now we are the old age grandparents waiting for our time to crash onto the shores. And likewise generations after generations of waves are rising and ending.
All these generations are tied by a thread of love and attachment that weakens with time. Grandparents and grandchildren have a very close relationship but when the grandparents are dead for a long time and we are busy in our working age then the memories fade and we hardly remember them. We get busy with our lives and commitments so much that now those relations start losing meaning to us. This teaches a valuable lesson – even the closest relations are not permanent and will fade with time. This will again be repeated when we are grandparents.
When our children will be in their working age and with a family then their focus will also shift. Though the bonding will be still strong but we would like to give then space to enjoy their life rather than disturbing them in the name of our relation. This is because we want them to succeed and flourish in their endeavor and we should not be an obstacle in it. It may be so that we will be meeting once or even twice a year but the love will be strong from a distance also. We would not like to a burden on them.
Our old age will be basically as an old husband and wife enjoying each other’s company until one reaches the shore. Then it is more of loneliness. The body may be so weathered that we may not be able to do our chores properly. Incidentally I have told my wife that in old age I would like her to go first as I don’t want her to suffer alone in this world. We never know how much our children will be able to look after us if we reach a stage where we have to depend on assisted living.
I see in India that there is a mushrooming of retirement homes. Old age couples sell their property and shift there where all basic amenities of old age are provided including medical care. All are of similar age group and therefore of similar mindset. All had a very good job in their working years and have amassed equally good money. All have children who are either in a foreign country or in another city pursuing their work mostly in corporate sector with an extremely busy life. In most cases both their children and spouse are working. These old age parents either doesn’t want be burden on them or may be the relation is strained or they don’t want to be away from their root place. The children visit them from time to time. The only problem is when one leaves leaving the other behind. I would not like my wife to be alone in old age, left alone to fend in this harsh world completely dependent on others.
These waves will continue unendingly with successive generations being forgotten in time as if we never existed. Personally I don’t have problem if no one remembers me even in my lifetime but this is not the case with many. I want the love and attachment to be the strength and not the weakness. If my utility is over I would not like to force myself even on my child. I would rather like him to be the bird soaring the sky without any strings attached. I would be happy seeing him from far with all my blessings. If that bird comes back to me from time to time it will be just a bonus.
Evolutionary defects in human body
Our human body which looks so perfect all dressed up is actually not that perfect after all. All those trips to beauticians and gym may make us look pretty and muscular on the outside but on the inside there are quite a few things which make us fragile. We have to remember that we were apes not so long back in evolution terms and as we progressed from apes to humans evolution tweaked a few things which can make our life painful in no time.
The first thing that we notice is the eyes because we use it the most. Our eyesight gets week in an early age and as our diets have changed and excessive viewing of screens now a day’s, wearing glasses from elementary schools is quite common. Just think of our early ancestors with weak eyesight’s, their chances of survival would reduce a lot as they could not hunt properly and would be easy prey for animals.
Our sinus is a constant source of irritation to us. When air enters the nasal cavity it passes through mucous membranes to filter dust from the air and those sensitive to it have bouts of sneezes and runny nose and headaches due to it.
In the inside of the throat and chest the air we breathe and the food we eat passes through the same pipe. The only thing that controls the movement of air to lungs and the food to stomach is the epiglottis. It is again a thin layer which gives direction to the air and food. When it is open we breathe and when it is closed then we a can eat and drink. A slight mistiming can cause choking and even death. This miss timing can happen easily because the voice box is also quite high on the throat just below the epiglottis, so when we both eat and breathe and talk we are very prone to choking.
When we were apes then we used the four limbs to walk and run but as evolution made us walk on two, it did not make all the parts strong enough. There are some weak links which can make us unfit to walk easily. The ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) is not a very strong ligament which holds the knee joints in place when we turn suddenly. As there is no other support for it, it can get torn easily. Same is with the Achilles tendon which takes all the weight when we walk. If this tendon gets damaged in any way then we will not be able to walk. For our early ancestors this would mean death.
Our fore arm has a palmaris longus muscle which was required by apes to climb trees but now we do not need it. Now 15 percent of the population do not have this muscle, so if you do not have it then you have made a sort of evolutionary leap. Our spine is also not the best of the design and puts pressure on the lower back due to its opposite curvature on the upper side and lower side.
With evolution the appendix has become a useless part of the body but if it somehow bursts then it becomes a life threatening situation requiring immediate surgery. Our tail bone is also a remnant of our evolution process but if we somehow hurt it then it also becomes a very painful thing. Our diet is also a weak link of our body. For all major nutrients we are dependent on external source as our body cannot produce most of them. Many animals have the capability to make many of the vitamins minerals and amino acids. About half a dozen proteins are depended on vitamin C, and we are dependent on external source for it. Same is the case with other essential nutrients. There are 20 amino acids which we require but our bodies make only eleven of them, for the rest we have to look outside. Even our digestive system is not as strong as animals.
Our heart has two unconnected arteries. If our arteries get blocked then it can cause death but if these two arteries were connected to the heart then blood would continue to flow into the heart and we would survive. Even our new born babies are the weakest of all and require care the longest time to survive on their own. Also as the head of an unborn baby is quite large and there may face problem coming out of the pelvic muscle, needing C section for a safe delivery.
No animal is perfect. If we had the best attributes from all the animals then we would have a perfect human body but we would look quite different. Evolution is not about making body perfect but to make it good enough to survive and adapt. After that is dependent on other factors whether it will survive or perish. That again depends on certain factors which we can control and not control. Dinosaurs were predominant but they perished because they could not handle the meteor strike, there are hundreds of species which we humans were responsible for extinction.
The only thing we are better off is our brain function and we have used it to offset some of our physical weaknesses. It is however likely that our future generations thousands of years from now may not look the same as we do now as our body will slowly adopt to the changing environment.
The low and middle class mindset programming
Why does it seem so difficult to get rich or at least climb the social financial ladder for most of us? Are we incapable of it? Especially those whole are coming from middle class or a lower middle class financial background it seems that they are stuck in the vicious circle of always finding it difficult to have enough. For generations these people do jobs which are making other people rich but they themselves are in this mental block that they are meant to do a job which they hardly like, get a pay which hardly meets their expenses and then live a life of perennial scarcity. There are only handfuls that can break this cycle of scarcity and climb the ladder of making money.
In every part of the world this is happening but the problem gets acute in the poor economies and the growing economies. There are some causes which I could think of for this.
When the industrial revolution started and the economies started to move from manual mode to automated mode there was a need for an increased man power to work in the factories and businesses. But these new people were needed to follow orders and work and be happy with it. Schooling was reserved for the rich and elites. But now in the changing world they needed man power with some basic literacy and understanding to run the machines and processes of the factories. They needed manpower to go oversees and work for these businesses in colonies all around the world. They needed loyal people with the least of aspirations and complete obedience.
This led to the factory schools. Factory schools were not what it literarily meant as schools running in factories or factories running in schools. There was a requirement of schools which would inculcate a middle class sense among the children who would be programmed to be workers when adults, and be obedient and loyal workers. These schools worked on social and moral values of being sober, punctual and docile in behavior, to respect the properties rights of others, be honest and follow orders and not question others. These combinations were required to have good workers, a social conditioning that was required for having a large and manageable labor force.
This was a part of the state sponsored school system and is prevalent till today. This originated in Europe whose countries were the main colonizers of the world and later it was adopted by America also. Such education system was required to get people who would silently work from Monday to Friday and curtail the free thinking and critical thinking ability. They were never told about how to manage finances and grow intellectually. This system then further was introduced in the colonies which meant practically the whole of the world. This system of education has been incredibly successful in creating generations of born- work- die people.
This affected the belief system of majority of the population that they are meant to lead a frugal life with whatever money they got as salary. As these people lived in large communities so they always saw poverty around them and often they believed that they are destined to such a life. Children saw and believed in poverty, money hard to come by or money is something evil or only meant for the rich. Even now this belief is too prevalent that money is not very important in life, we need money to live a comfortable life and not to rich, money is over rated. Even in movies and books it is shown as the rich to be the evil villain and the hero to be poor. People started to romanticize poverty. People thought that the rich are rich because they either cheated, or did something wrong to get rich- just opposite to the social conditioning of the factory schools.
Capitalism is not bad as it has created a lot of wealth per se but it has contributed to a large class of people staying financially not well off. Big companies have used all techniques to sway the people in buying costly things and services which are you may not require and prevent you from saving and investing. These techniques used of these big companies range from psychological indoctrination, advertisement, cognitive bias, creating inferiority complex. The banks are ever ready to finance your dream item with low interest and EMI so that you will not feel the pinch of repaying. The people on the lower income levels don't know how to utilize debt, they are more inclined to buy liability with debt and thereby get stuck in the cycle of poverty and scarcity. Capitalism ensures lower salaries so that you may need multiple jobs to live a comfortable life and indulge in the material pleasures. All these things are meant to keep you away from the rational thinking person who can take right decisions.
Thankfully things are changing slowly now as people are getting aware of things with better and increased opportunity to break this cycle. If only the parents can now guide their children away from the factory school mindset and belief system towards an open and exploring and independent mindset, then we may see a new phase of capitalism with lesser inequality.
Mind control through mass psychosis.
If you go through Wikipedia on mass hysteria you will find a lot of examples of cases of mass hysteria affecting a handful to hundreds. Sometimes it is related to some unknown contagious disease or a sort of mass behavior change. Though this is temporary in nature but it can be quite disturbing and may lead to mental illness.
In most cases it is harmless to others and subsides in time. It could be collective symptoms of fits and seizures to cases of mass dancing and showing a collectively similar medical condition like flu, sneezing etc. But it can also take a serious turn when it affects a part of the population which targets a group of person with intent to harm. Such behavior has been found in cases of witch hunting in Europe and America where people killed mostly women who were thought to be a witch. It was in such a large scale that it can be said that a part of the society had actually been deluded so much that they killed females whom they considered to be witch. It is not that these females committed any crimes but they were victimized for the wrong belief of the larger part of the society.
As a mad person doesn’t know that he is mad so a large part of society afflicted with mass psychosis also fail to notice their own condition. At an individual level it can be caused by a difficult childhood, mental trauma or drug induced. Such cases can be found in cases where we hear cases of serial murderers and rapists with a deep feeling of taking revenge against a subconscious crime. It may also be that a cause of fear may bring in a panic attack leading to some sort of aggressive behavior. Now a day’s such cases have been found in mass shooting.
When this fear and panic overcomes a large population then a large part of the population can also show such behavior driven by imagined threats. But behind this mass psychosis is a person or group of people who manipulate the minds of the weak people by this fabricated threats or coercion or brain wash and propaganda. It is also not required to control the whole population by this but if a sufficiently large population is manipulated then a large part of the rest of the population will follow in order to protect themselves and not to get targeted. Such behavior has also been found in religious cults leading to even mass suicide.
In our modern society also we have seen such cases of mass psychosis in cases of dictatorship like Idi Amin and North Korean regime, political ideology like communism by Mao, Lenin and Hitler. The aim is to create a totalitarian regime where the mass is controlled through power. The ruled class is deluded and transformed into submission and obedience. The ruler or ruler class is also deluded that they have the authority and power to rule over the subjects with an iron hand. The ruler class believes that it is they only who can bring a change in society the way they want.
This change in the society is brought by sowing the seed of thought of a better future, but by sowing the seed of fear about the current system. This fear and dream is constantly hammered in the mind of the people. This fear is often engineered by the ruling class itself to justify the need for change and submission to an ideology. Each phase of fear is followed by a period of calm. This cycle of fear and calm is run many times and with each phase of this cycle the fear factor is increased followed by the calmness. Therefore each phase of increasing fear creates a sense of insecurity and weakness among the population. The subsequent calm phase creates a feeling of relief which is attributed to the new system they want to implement.
This ‘softens’ the mind of the people and with continuous bombardment of propaganda, false news and false hope, a stage comes when the population starts believing in the totalitarian regime to bring a better future than what they are experiencing now. The sane and questioning intelligentsia is either killed or jailed. The more people are confused the more they are incapable of taking the right decision. The present day social media is such that we voluntarily expose ourselves to the propaganda that is being spammed around us by governments. On one hand the mind is repeatedly exposed to a particular stimulus coupled with bouts of terror pushes the mind to a state of irrational thoughts and behavior. In this final stage of brainwash the totalitarian regime projects themselves as the only savior and the people accept it even at the cost of individual freedom and control. Now the masses are the obedient lot ready to accept what is fed to them without understanding how they have been brought to subjugation.
This type of strategy in a modified way is thrust upon us during the time of elections of government. The opposing party is continuously bombarding our minds with information how the current govt has made our life miserable and they want to give a better future. The ruling party does the opposite- how they gave us a better life and how the opposite party will make life bad for us if elected. The ruling party has a better chance to use propaganda during their ruling tenure of 4 or 5 years even by controlling the media.
Religion for me is also a case of mass psychosis where people lose their sense of logic and reasoning in creating disparity among people by highlighting the good and bad about each others religion.
Progressive thinking and understanding is limited by what our mind is exposed to. Such mass psychosis is happening now also and will also happen in future as long as our mind does not reach the next level of thinking.
Jack of all, master of all.
Many months back I wrote an article about cognitive bias. It was more about how outside influences are used to influence our decisions. But there is something in us which makes us think we understand things better than we actually understand. And it is a true fact that we have a habit of overestimating our ability most of the times.
When we sit around dinner table with our family or relatives or friends we discuss a wide ranging variety of topics on which we have some pretty serious discussions as well as differences of opinion. We have the habit of justifying our view and even trying to imposing them on others. It is as if we have knowledge about everything and also carry a strong opinion about them. The topics may range from astronomy to biology to politics to literature to climate change – we have the belief that we know about it better that we actually know about them.
Now a days with internet and social media we find that every other person claiming to be an expert of something or the other. They project themselves as if they have all the knowledge on a variety of topics are competent enough to give guidance to others. We find politicians and bureaucrats talking about a variety of topics as an expert on news channel and social media, and sometimes we laugh at what they are saying. We find such people in our known circle also who display such behavior. A version of this effect can be found here also as many of us write articles thinking we have sufficient knowledge about it but it is not actually the case- that includes me in the first place. Another very common example related to our crypto field is doing technical analysis of crypto charts by you tubers. There are hundreds of you tubers doing this claiming themselves as an expert but having dubious credentials. Even unknowingly we also suffer from this effect to some extent.
This effect is called the **Dunning Kruger effect**. They are two psychologists named David Dunning and Justin Kruger who researched on this behavior and developed it through various social experiments.
They found that in any organization the low performers are most likely to underestimate to skill and knowledge of high performers and thereby rating themselves as if they are above average or better performers than the other group. Another common misconception is that we all are above average drivers. Only 50 percent can be above average technically but if we survey a group of people we will find that more than 50 percent will say that they are above average drivers. It was also found that the top 25 percent people of an organization will underestimate their skill and knowledge and the bottom 25 percent will overestimate their knowledge. May be it is due to the sense of inferiority or lack of confidence which they want to compensate by thinking that they are better than actually what they are. It can be also that they fail to recognize or don’t want to recognize real talent and skill.
This effect is so common that if we keep our eyes open to it then we can easily identify it in our daily life. Whatever be the case interacting with such people may lead to serious differences of opinion and if stretched further it can lead to strained relations. It is better to ignore engaging with them when it becomes obvious that he is having this effect and steer the discussion to some other direction. As it is, as we grow old our opinions tends to become more rigid, and our acceptance ability decreases.
To overcome the effect we need to first an understanding at where we actually stand and then increase our knowledge and skill and practice and thereafter get an unbiased feedback from whom we trust. It is important to take corrective measures as it affects of decision taking ability from the mundane to important ones.
The spirit of crypto
Crypto currency since the first Bitcoin minted has been a silent revolution which is increasing in crescendo as years go by. It heralded a world where the financial freedom of masses could be free from the control and manipulation of governments. Man dreamt of a life of a free man living a free life without the bondage of any mental and physical border at least financially.
From a few followers in the beginning, now millions of like minded people are making the crypto journey together all around the world. Crypto has been successful in striking at the base of the traditional financial system and root out the evils of that system. Now people can dream of being financially well off without depending on the traditional system, that is, rise the financial ladder and dream of something bigger than what the traditional financial system could ever give him. Also it gives a potential to never use fiat, if there is wider adoption.
It would be foolish to accept that the governments around the world would sit and look but do nothing about it. Governments don’t stand on the pillars of democracy. Without fiat money no governments will survive. So as expected, the governments retaliated with imposing regulations and threats in the name of customer protection and to the extent of banning also. The easiest way to control has been to choke the ‘on ramps’ and ‘off ramps’. The centralized exchanges have been targeted with KYC. KYC is just opposite of what crypto is all about, and added to that is providing of data to government regulators by these exchanges as a means to prevent money laundering. As of today every centralized exchange is adopting it. What was supposed to be anonymous is now not so any more. Banks and credit cards companies have done their part in trying to control the free flow of funds from fiat to crypto.
Now the middle path has been adopted where governments can tax the crypto gains, limit its use case as a method of peer to peer or peer to business transactions for goods and services but not to the extent of a blanket ban. The governments are coming up with their own ‘so called crypto’ in the form of CBDC, though we know that CBDC would be just opposite of crypto. In the world that is run on fiat, we can say that even if the government bans crypto but it cannot take away my crypto as the blockchain cannot be regulated and I hold the private key to it.
But in the worst case scenario of the government closing all exchanges and stopping any payment of goods and services through crypto then what would be the fate of crypto. At present the crypto is as valuable as its fiat valuation but when that door is closed then what would happen to the value of crypto we hold. Now we cannot convert it to fiat nor use it to buy and sell things. The only thing we would be able to do is sending it from one person to another without any intrinsic fiat value of it. Though some back door systems would develop to overcome this but that would be termed as illegal. I think with no financial peg, its price would plummet and the use and benefit of holding crypto will cease. This could very well mark the end of crypto.
Can the governments do this- yes, will they do it- not likely. As long as the crypto adoption is low there is no sufficient threat to the government to take extreme steps. The time when every shopkeeper, every business, every hospital will be accepting crypto is still a distant dream. The day when a person will not need to convert crypto to fiat to pay for expenses is quite far. The day every government will accept crypto as a means of payment between them is not likely to happen anytime soon. I think till that time crypto is safe.
Can this borderless permission less spirit of crypto be used a unifying the world as one world where people will not have to face any barrier to go from one country to another, work in any other country without any bottleneck, a singular currency all around the world – a one world in its true meaning and as an unified human race. Can we rise above our fractions and frictions to create something bigger and better? Can be imbibe the true spirit of crypto within us? Only time will tell.
The darker side
History has proved numerous times that humans are not always a benevolent race and has the capability of inflicting unspeakable pain to others. It is applicable both to a single person all also as a collective action. Such thoughts and feelings are inbuilt in all of us and sometimes we even think of doing it but luckily most of us do not act on it. Such persuasive feeling can come out of a goal or just for the pleasure of it and can be influenced by evolutionary instinct or national patriotism or religious belief. Whatever be the reason we know that it is inbuilt within all of us and is just waiting for the right trigger. An arsonist, a murderer, a molester, a criminal and all other such personalities are hiding within us- it is difficult to accept this fact under normal condition but our dark side is actually inside us. Only a few of cross that line to act on it and it gets induced mostly by a difficult childhood or a psychological disorder. We who have lived a normal life till know still don’t know how we will react when someone would harm the wife or child.
A simple search of internet will come up with hundreds of news and videos of how man had devised innovative torture and killing devices. But the worst of such device has been the human mind.
An easily understandable example can be found when we watch movies. All around the world the most popular movies are based on the themes of action movies which comprises of a story made up of a sequence of action scenes. I think this is because of an underlying sub conscious aspect within us that likes to see violence. There is nothing good or bad in it if it is kept to the silver screen only and does not spill over real life. May be this inclination towards violence is hardwired within us as a means to hunt for food and protect us from predators. The worst form is those that are committed for no rhyme and reason and just for the sake of it or pleasure of it.
The worst of it comes out in collective actions of mankind and this has been in the name of expansion of empire, nationalism and religious dogma. There is no end to unchecked human aspiration and kings have gone to war with vengeance for expansion of their kingdom. When we say Alexander the great, I fail to understand what was great in expanding his kingdom so much at the cost of his ambition and ego and also the lives of so many people. A different version of it can be found in Hitler, Napoleon and many others like them. We can name an example from every part of the world. Again a different version of it can be found in the European colonial expansion with the primary purpose of making money by exploiting resources of other countries. Yet another version of it can be found in the subjugation of aboriginals around the world in the name of racial superiority. I will not go into the details and figures as all of know about it. The aspirations of few had overpowered the masses to motivate them to do things which otherwise they would not do it.
The next thing which has been collectively exploited is the nationalistic jingoism. It has been easy to rally citizens to kill and get killed in the name of nationalism. Not only killing but all type of atrocities that we can think of and cannot think of - all in the name of hypothetical country. For some can justify why America entered Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and then there are many who don’t find any logic of it. It all depends on the perspective that was projected to dissecting that perspective to understand the root cause of such actions.
Another aspect of collective exploitation of the dark side has been religion. This too is all known to us and is currently the cause of most concern all around the world. It baffles me how people can turn to zombies. Conflicts due to nationalism and religious bias is an effect of cognitive bias where one thing is hammered continuously till be believe in that alternate reality. How much motivation do you think is required to strap a bomb around my body and blow myself up in a crowded place when I am continuously bombarded with indoctrination that my religion is in threat and I will have a one way ticket to heaven by killing others? This is also used in advertising by companies to good effect. The common men who have actually done these acts have been pawns in the hand of the powerful or influenced by nationalism or religious fervor. But the dark side has been always inside them waiting for an opportunistic outlet.
Whatever be the reason we know that the darker side in us is lurking just under the surface of our personality, only the catalyst to trigger it is lacking till now.
The red tomato
Reality is real. Reality is something which our senses can perceive and say that it is real, what we touch, hear, smell, see etc. Again reality is what we think is real like air, the colors of light, darkness etc. This question of what is reality, like what is nothing has been a topic of discussion among philosophers and scientists for long. As science is progressing we hear more and more supposedly bizarre definitions of reality. And then reality becomes what majority of the people think as real, like there was a time when earth was thought to be flat by what we see, then it was proved that earth is not flat but still be have believers of flat earth theory. But as it has been proved that earth is not flat and majority of the people believe it, so earth is not flat.
When a new born child is born whatever he sees is completely new to him. He has no idea how it smells, tastes feels to touch and see. He relies on his sense perception but he doesn’t have a name for each of the sense perception. Suppose he sees a red tomato and holds it in his hand, he will see the color but he doesn’t know it is red, he will feel it as soft but doesn’t know what soft is. Then at an appropriate age he will be told all these things and it will stay in his brain forever. Now a color blind child may see it as a blue tomato and when it is told to him as a red tomato then he will consider red color as blue color. When he will see a red car he will say it as a blue car. What is happening is the reality of the tomato is explained to the child to fit within the parameters of our senses and understanding. The reality is the red tomato without any strings attached but it is reconstructed in the mind of the child as a red tomato with its attributes. If we had a vision of infrared only then the red tomato would have looked of a different color.
Now if after growing up he meets a physicist, then he will explain that the red tomato is just a mixture of a certain number of atoms of certain quantity and composition and that most of it is empty. Now that is very difficult to digest for a person as though he knows what the physicist is saying is correct but his senses cannot perceive the atoms. For him the tomato in full is a reality but its atoms are not. Now the physicist may say that it is not only atoms but even sub particles of atoms and their sub particles which is again described by math through numbers and equations. So are we actually seeing, tasting, feeling mathematical numbers and equations. I know it sounds very bizarre.
Then again another theory is that we are living in a simulation world where nothing is real but a computer program of an alien civilization just like the Matrix movie. It could be real and we haven’t proved that to be unreal. If the red tomato is the creation of software then we are actually seeing tasting and feeling a bunch of zeroes and ones.
In all the above three cases we find that the reality of the red tomato is what is being re-constructed to us as we perceive and not the red tomato per se. The tomato can be what we understand through our senses, or as a mathematical formula, or as a software program. When our eyes which is basically just a high megapixel camera seeing a red tomato, it takes a picture of it and sends it to the brain through neurons and the information of that tomato is processed by a cocktail of chemicals and proteins which stays in our mind and consciousness.
Through the progress of technology we will reach a stage where the virtual reality will be as vivid as the real world as we see now. Though the current development is limited to the visual aspect but slowly but surely it will be able to recreate the other senses. Then we will be able to see, taste, smell and feel the virtual red tomato as good as in the real world and may be able to fill our stomach with it also. In that case when we are able to duplicate everything what would constitute a real red tomato and a virtual red tomato?
It's all about nothing.
Today let me touch upon a simple yet complex topic of nothing. It is quite a commonly used word which we use regularly mostly as a synonym of empty. We use sentences like – the box has nothing inside – the box is empty, and we mean the same thing. But the word nothing has so many things attached to it.
We are so much surrounded by matter that it is difficult to grasp the concept of nothing. An empty glass or cup may look as having nothing inside it but it has air in it and a cubic centimeter of air has 3 followed by 19 zeros of molecules that are 30 quintillion molecules. But what about vacuum? Well the most vacuum we have been able to create at surface level is having 100 molecules in a cubic centimeter.
Scientifically as we go higher up in the atmosphere we know that the air gets thin which means the air pressure goes on reducing and we are proceeding towards 'more' nothing. But there is a limit humans can go without any back up oxygen supply. That limit is called the ‘Armstrong limit’ (and it has nothing to do with Neil Armstrong). It is the limit where the boiling point of water is same as the body temperature which is 37 degree centigrade (and not 100 degree centigrade which is the boiling point of water at sea level). This limit is about 60 thousand feet from earth and this height the blood in the body will start to boil. As we go to the space it becomes 10 particles in a cubic centimeter and when we go to outer space that is beyond the solar system it becomes 1 molecule per cubic centimeter. Going even further if we reach the inter-galactic region it can be as nothing as 1 or 2 particles per one cubic meter. Quantum mechanics says there cannot be absolute nothing. Even if there are no particles but electromagnetic fields and gravitational fields which have no matter still will be present in that space.
Physicists are not on the same page about nothing. Some say that lack of matter is nothing, some say if laws of Physics can be applied then it cannot be said nothing. Some said if it is beyond matter, the laws of physics as well as beyond space-time also then it can be said as nothing. At present we consider this stage to be before the big bang as time- space -matter and the laws of physics started only after the big bang. At present our idea of nothing is limited to the fact that at the time of big bang something came out of nothing, but again can something really come out of nothing?
Spiritually also nothing or nothingness is treated as the culmination of all knowledge and thereafter nothing can be known or nothing is there to be known. It is the height of spiritual enlightenment. All forms of meditation is an attempt the stop all thought process that is to create a void in the mind. This way we can reach the supremely conscious state which is akin to nothing where the mind is so still that it merges with the nothing. When someone is able to reach that stage then only he is said to be spiritually enlightened and if you ask that person who am I and what is this world- he will answer it is nothing and that it is all ‘Maya’ ( creation of our mind and senses). And that nothing state is supposed to be the god.
Same way sometimes we feel an emptiness in life, mostly when someone near and dear dies or goes away to some other place, or even when in the pinnacle of career we sometimes feel an emptiness as if something is missing even when we have everything- a loving family and everything money can buy. It is difficult to describe that state of mind but it does happen. This emptiness has nothing to do with science or spirituality and this feeling passes way mostly with time as we again get engrossed in our routine life.
For generations the topic of nothingness has deluded philosophers and later scientists and still it is a matter of debate. We may never reach a consensus as to what is nothing or even if we came to realize what is nothing then what would we learn out of it- nothing or everything.
Choice and destiny
First a story.
It’s about two friends say Jack and John. In their teens they went to Denmark on a trip together and fell in love with that country, they somehow liked that country so much that both of them decided that when they grow up they would settle there and do some business. But slowly with time their plan took a backseat as they progress towards college and job. Jack started to work in an auditing firm and was getting a good salary but when the company was acquired by another one he lost his job but got a good severance pay. So now nothing holding him back he decided to follow his teen dream and move to Denmark. He decided to start an organic agriculture based business and started planning about it. He told John about his plan and invited him to join. John asked for a week to decide. John pursued research and was a professor in a reputed college with very good pay and grants.
John thought about the offer and was confused as to what to do. He talked to his father and friends who advised differently and none of it sounded wrong. But he was not able to decide what to do. On one hand he had a good job and on the other the opportunity to go to his dream place and start something new with a potentially higher income. As days past he was not able to decide and one day he was sitting on a bench by the riverfront when an old man came and sat beside him. He asked John why he was looking disturbed. John told him about his delusion and that he was not able to decide for himself. The old man said in that case let me decide for you. John somehow agreed as he wanted to get over it. The old man said you go.
John took his words, thanked him and left. He told Jack that he will go and so after a month Jack and John went to Denmark. For five years the business was going well but then due to regulatory issues they had to stop the business. Then John bought a small farm and started farming. The income was low but he somehow managed though it was putting a strain on his finances and stress. After some years he decided to go home to meet his father. There again he wandered around the riverfront and sat on the same bench. Again an old man came and sat on the bench. The old man asked why he looked depressed. He told the whole story and that he was not able to decide whether he should stay back or go back to Denmark. The old man said that let me decide for you and said that you should stay.
John agreed and asked what made him chose to stay. The old man just said that you will find it out yourself. So he again joined a college and life was going smoothly. After a few years this friend Jack came to meet him and they talked about old says. Jack told how looked after his farm and slowly scaled up the business again and that how satisfied he was in contributing towards the local economy. John again started thinking whether not returning back was a good idea or not and how he let another person decide what to do. That evening he went for a walk by the riverfront and sat on the same bench. Again an old man came and asked him why he looked disoriented. He narrated his whole life story and said he is not able to decide what to do now. The old man said if you are not able to decide then let me do it for you. But this time John said that this time I will decide for myself.
The old man asked but you are not able to make a choice. John said yes but I think there is nothing as a right choice or wrong choice. All these time I feared about making the wrong choice and let another person choose for me but I chose what he chose for me, so it was ultimately my choice. Now whatever I chose I know that on all paths there will be something to dread and something to be happy about. Now I will pick one and move on though it won’t be left to chance or it won’t lead to a certainty but something in between, still it will be the right choice for me to live by it.
THE END
So where in this story destiny or choice played its role. If we are a believer of destiny then it may seem that choice has no place in it. And if choice is what defines us then destiny has no role to play. Or is destiny a shifting goal post which is an outcome of the choices we make in life. Destiny has the added advantage of blaming something or someone else for our failure or giving credit to someone or something else for our success. Or does destiny offer us the choices to decide and tricks us to make the ‘right’ choice. Is there no right or wrong choice in life or it is just a matter of choice. Do we really have control over our choices and actions?
Rambling of a confused person
When I started to think of it and then thought of writing on it I myself got really confused so I might lose the way while writing this.
We are all living this life with a purpose we have chosen ourselves. If you ask a millennial about his purpose of life then he might say money and some might add fame to it. It is absolutely a justified answer as for them life seems to rotate around those two ideas –how to be rich and famous. And then there are us the post millennial age group who try to find something else from life.
What would be a happy life and what would be a meaningful life? Are the interconnected? Happy as per dictionary is broadly defined as giving/showing/causing/feeling pleasure. Happiness is quite easy to experience as it is too common a feeling. We feel happy when we buy a thing which we wanted, when we see our children doing well in studies or job or business, when we get a promotion at work and a pay raise, when we a tasty food or drink, when we travel for leisure and so on and so forth. Happiness comes easily and therefore goes easily also if the opposite things happen with us.
A meaningful life is a little more complicated. It has to do with reciprocity, a coexistence with a common purpose. When we raise our children we say that it is our duty to raise our children properly – though our children a source of our happiness but it also gives meaning to life as a duty to raise him properly. If it was not so then we would have been happy to have sex and a baby and then leave it to grow up without our intervention. Meaning comes from the feeling of interconnectedness and knowing that we are interdependent in this journey of life through thick and thin.
The opposite is also true as a life of recluse can cause a feeling of meaninglessness in life, at least outwardly. And so is the feeling if there is no defined purpose in life which goes beyond being rich and famous. People who are working for causes greater than self have a feeling of a meaningful life. People working on climate change, forestation, poverty alleviation and other forms of activity tend to feel that they are doing a meaningful thing which is beyond happiness. We generally think that doctors’, nurses, teachers or someone volunteering for doing something good are in a noble profession because they are doing something good for the society. The more connected we are with others the more we feel meaningful.
But the crux is that in this digital world human connectedness is important to have a meaningful life. A tiktok or instagram user with millions of followers may be happy but it is not meaningful. Happiness may came from both living things and non leaving things but a meaningful life will always consist of people whom we trust understand and care for with a reciprocal feeling.
Now there is no harm if someone chooses to live a happy life, in fact most of us fall under this category. Our meaningfulness is limited to only a small circle and without any higher purpose. That is ok as this also gives the satisfaction we need. A meaningful life always includes a happy life but a happy life may not also consist of a meaningful life - not a universal law bit a generalized one because it overlaps each other somewhere.
Though I have not done anything which constitutes to be a higher purpose but in my limited sense I have lived a meaningful life within my limited circle. What about you?
The ‘don’t’ mind
If your child of 3 years is running downhill on a road the first thing you will tell him is –stop or you will fall down and hurt yourself. You will seldom say slow down or control your speed. We will say the first thing because it is so much programmed in our brain, because the same thing was said to us also when we were a kid. In Australia a widespread study was done and it was found that a child till 16 years of age is told on an average 23 times a day something starting with ‘don’t ‘– don’t do this or don’t do that. This phenomenon is common all around the world.
A child is born with only 3 instinctive thought processes- how to find food, fight to save itself or run away from the threat and procreate. An unpolluted child brain will only think on these lines. For him the act of falling down while running downhill and learning to control the speed will automatically come from experience. Even without the external source of ‘don’ts’ he will ultimately get to know what to do and what not to do.
What happens when we bombard an unpolluted brain with ‘don’ts’, day in and day out. The brain software then codes these and embeds it and it becomes a sort of operating system for the brain as to what to do and most importantly what not to do. Now the primary reason for our so many don’ts for the child is to protect it from hurt or accident or drill in a particular habit in them. But this often impedes its natural instinct to act and react. Now once the brain is coded in a particular way and when the situation arises the brain will present one of the previously coded reactions to a situation. If a new type of situation arises then the brain software won’t be able to come up with a coherent solution. It is as if the natural instinct has been fenced and its ability to go beyond gets diminished.
Our natural ability to think judge act and react is now restricted. Though in later stage in life we may think that we are thinking independently but in many cases we are actually following the instructions of the same code unknowingly. It is just like our beliefs which we think as right but we cannot justify always why it is right.
I think a common example of this particularly pertinent in third world countries like mine is the lifeline- birth, study, job, marriage, children, retire, death. From the childhood this is so much indoctrinated in our brain that very few get out of this cycle and do something different. Even I am doing the same. The initial coding done by our parents is to avoid getting hurt but it gets coded as don’t take risk. So when we are grown up we are seldom ready to take risk and follow the well trodden path.
So a major part or at least a certain part of what we think and who decides what we think is actually not us but the coding that has been written in our childhood and growing age. As parents we can change our way of writing the code in the child’s brain. Now days some schools have started to encourage children to think independently with more focus on self reliance rather than hand holding but they are very few and mostly for the elites. But I believe a lot can be done by parents if they want to inculcate a spirit of free thinking in their children.
For a world which is in the cusp of taking the next major leap it is necessary that the children of next generation are better prepared than what we were.
The story of WhatsApp
In 2009 the world was slowly moving towards smart phones and Apple phones where launched shortly before that. Mobile apps were also getting popular with smart phones. Brian Acton applied for a job at Face book but was rejected. So he along with his friend Jan Koum wanted to get into the market of social media and came up with WhatsApp. Originally it was meant to just update the status of people using it more or less like face book.
But then they introduced private message service and this made the WhatsApp popular as we see it now. Now people need not use the SMS services and could connect with anyone around the world in a better way without paying anything. The founders of the company started WhatsApp with funding from some investors of Yahoo where they worked before starting WhatsApp. But as it was a free service so it was not making money but surviving on the initial funding.
These free services can make money in three ways- in app purchases for certain additional services, advertising on the platform and selling the data of users. The founders were against these three things. But as it became more popular with more user base it needed bigger servers and technical manpower to keep up with the growth. In 2010 they introduced a fee of 1 dollar to use WhatsApp though it was not strictly enforced around the world. 1 dollar being a small amount so this strategy worked well and many voluntarily paid it, which sustained the company for some time though it did not make much profit for them.
So they needed investors again. But now WhatsApp with ever increasing popularity, investors came on their own and accepted the clause that they will not interfere in the model of running the business. This was 2011. So their plan was make it the best app which will get more user base and hence more investors. They expected that this cycle would continue. The relied on the network effect where people were using a great service without seeing any unnecessary ads or making any purchases therefore spreading the news about benefit of this app and getting more users.
Then in 2014, face book bought WhatsApp, a company not making any meaningful profit, for 19 billion dollars. At that time no one understood why face book was paying such an unheard of amount to buy WhatsApp. To understand this we know that before WhatsApp face book bought Instagram for 1 billion dollars only. Now face book is notorious for selling data, privacy invasion and targeted ads which the founders of WhatsApp were dead against – but the amount was too much to let go. Also face book did not want any rival company to buy WhatsApp. This was they became the world’s biggest and most connected business around the world with no other company even nearby. ( Moral of the deal- money can overshadow principles)
In 2016 WhatsApp removed the 1 dollar fee which was otherwise not strictly enforced also. So now basically they did not have any external source of income. Face book now had the data of almost about a billion people which helped face book to get a clearer picture of who you are, what is your habit and personal preferences and liking disliking. These data helped face book to better focus on your targeted ads. Trust me; face book knows a lot about you than what you think.
In 2017 Brian Acton left WhatsApp because of what WhatsApp was doing under Face book. Now he made the Signal app as a rival to WhatsApp but it is difficult to make inroads into the market considering the outreach WhatsApp has gained.
In 2021 WhatsApp updated their policy which everyone had to accept to use the service but it had serious privacy issues. After a lot of hue and cry face book decided to postpone the new policy update. Though it is not that face book would be stopping gathering your data but they just stated what data they access – name, IP address, your location, mobile company, status, contact list etc.
Now WhatsApp is so prevalent that people are ready to compromise their privacy to have access to social media and contacts. A normal person is not much bothered about his privacy and by surrendering some privacy he is getting access to the world of social media at his finger tips. A surrender of privacy for getting something free.
I noticed that the 'hot'. 'first post', 'new' tabs are not updated now and shows old articles only. The 'recommended' tab also doesn't show my articles though previously it used to, I think only selected articles are shown now. The random rewarder is as random it use to be previously, my article on 'belief' is being ignored by him even after 24 hours.
@aniruddhasen