Times are weird. Reality reads like a horror movie show. Someone had rightly said that truth was stranger than fiction.
Hear me out....
Natural disasters and climate change have made normal living a luxury. The poorer part of the world is paying for the greed and over-consumption of the rich.
Then there's war and terrorism perpetually looming on the horizon. People don't have money to buy rations, but military budgets of countries have reached record highs.
Poverty and ignorance haven't loosened their vice grip on more than half of the world's population.
The state, the administration, the mafia masquerading as religious leaders, big businesses, AI and social media are slowly reducing us bit by bit every day.
Social media controls narratives, popular perception, reputations, and identities. More often than not, it bares its claws to rip apart those with some amount of truth left in them.
AI is merrily devouring jobs and livelihoods. Even creative pursuits like music, writing, painting, and the finer arts look cheaper when the robots do them, so out with the whimsical humans.
Markets crash without warning, eating up our savings in a blink. Our painfully built up earnings kept in the bank are gone one fine day - looted by some high ranking "financial offender" who promptly scoots from the country. (And can't be traced or pinned down).
Cities are bursting at the seams, infrastructure unable to bear the constant influx of migrants. We have crammed every inch of urban areas, eaten up all water bodies, green spaces, playing areas.
Forest fires ravage and destroy whatever is left of the green cover, and tsunamis, cyclones and hurricanes are routine events. Every year, in Asia and Africa, entire settlements are wiped out in floods, landslides and droughts.
Lifestyle diseases are stuck to us like glue. There's hardly anyone not suffering from hypertension or depression, or high sugar, or kidney or heart diseases. If nothing else, cancer catches up with you.
We have forgotten simple pleasures that calmed our senses - thinking, observing, reading, listening. Entertainment means getting over-stimulated on high-on-thrills video games, web series, racy shows, binge watch fare.
Overwhelming? Heck, yes!
So many things are beyond our control, yet drastically change our existence. We are realizing how utterly insignificant we are with each passing day. Do we have any agency at all?
Take these scenarios.....
I go out walking - a newbie driver on the wheels of a shiny sedan crush my limbs. Or some bomb stuck somewhere blows me up.
Some fracas takes place, I take a random bullet to my chest. Or get trampled in a stampede. Or blown up in the air. Or mangled in a train accident.
I must survive with minimal water, polluted air, contaminated food, constant noise, constant mental anguish.
I want to earn a living - there are abysmally little jobs, no scope for using my qualifications or experience.
I want to get into a relationship - first I must tick all the boxes. There too, the state will intervene, moral police will dictate, society will lay down conditions. Once hitched, my relationship or companionship will be under constant scrutiny, judgement and pressure. If I plan to remain alone, there's no support system for my bad days.
I can't disagree with popular opinion in public, for fear of being jailed or persecuted for treachery or worse, sedition.
Where is my agency? Where can I get to have a say? How do I cope?
If you happen to know, do tell me too......
#weirdtimes #greed #meltdowns #apocalypse
Very well written about today's scenarios taking place around the world to not just to our fellow humans but to other species too. I read somewhere "The meeting to tackle increased temperature and climate change is conducted in an airconditioned room." Quite ironical right?
ReplyDeleteTrue that truth is stranger than fiction because we are not ready to accept the truth, be it bitter or sweet.
If we had accepted the truth that everyone are equal and have right to live their life, we would have not increased the budget on mordernizing our weapons instead used it to mordernize standard of living for those who suffer from poverty or not looted the resource-rich countries of their resources using our modern technology and leaving them poor that paved way to one form of terrorism or we would have not invaded other countries or territories.
Accepting the truth that AI is to assist us and not replace us by learning on how to use it to improve our productivity will help us to improve our craft. Any AI cannot sing, writer, or paint like a human who has mastered their art. Example, a photograph of a natural landscape or a sculpture is quite pocket friendly than a painting, but an artist who captures the minute details in his strokes still sells and a sculptor who sculpts a sculpture that speaks to the onlookers still finds its place in this ignorant world.
Accepting the truth that there is no easy money is the secret to not get trapped in market crash or our hard earned money being looted by some fancy schemes.
Accepting the truth that conserving and preserving our natural ecosystem is inevitable for our existence and their extinction is our extinction will pave way to minimalism.
Accepting the truth that having a good lifestyle is the secret to good health will make us think of healthier options rather than luxurious options.
Accepting the truth that any movies, shows, news or fancy reels on social media is not the reality and the reality is what is happening with us and around us and that someone is making money out of my time will help us use any entertainment or social media less and not believe what we see is true.
Accepting the truth that there is nothing called as a successful life and that the progress we make in our life is itself a success will make us not to compare our life with others’ life. This will help us come out of jealousy and not slip into depression or get into rat race.
So for every problem that exists in this world acceptance of the truth is the solution.
We are our own agency to take control of whatever is under our control.
We can say it to our fellows, some will definitely ignore and some will follow, but that is good - tiny drops create mighty ocean.
We can cope up by accepting the TRUTH.