Modern Life: An Introspection

Modern Life Smackdown, part 2 of 4

I do not log onto the Internet first thing in the morning; I fetch the newspaper that the paperboy drops on our doorstep. Plugging into the Internet does not occur in two shakes of a lamb's tail right up in the morning. But if it has to, it happens as an afterthought, one that is clearly at odds in an era of likes and tweets.

It took many years of working my fingers to the bone and slow wavering realization before I could perceive what “start afresh” or “start again” dictum, commonplace though they are in usage, would mean.

Admittedly, to make a fresh start or get a chance to begin anew (howsoever major or minor a task), perhaps in a better or in a different way at least, offers no elevator to success. But success is individual-specific and perspective-driven, not an absolute if we think it is. Success is quite simply an uncomplicated feeling. There is no fooling around.

At the outset, I must specify that in this essay - a touch polemic as you will find - I tried to share my point of view that the modern world knows no Plan B. It cannot have. Assuming we want a sustainable future for wildlife, the planet, and ourselves, then it is time we talked specifics, the details, the small print, and not speak in sweeping generalities. The future is now and not in some distant future.

Along these lines, I attempt to portray the modern age in its naked silliness and condescending best, and unlike what some people have started telling, we are NOT all in this together. Rich cannot avoid being rich, the poor will be poor, and definitely, the twain won't ever meet! I provoke strong opinions. Still, Specifics (of our issues such as laws & legislation, education, learning/unlearning) and not vague Generalities will decide our existence on the planet besieged as it is with the damaging effects of one ecological disaster after another.

So, how is modern life treating you?

Do I look as if I care? But if you do, however, you may please note the following. I have wholeheartedly embraced facial hair - a pious obscurant beard at best - just like anybody (I mean male) so that it lets me feel quite empowered to soften punches that this Pandemic Life is prone to spring at me. A beard, a classy medium stubble as far as I am concerned, has its protective qualities, never mind its jaw-dropping tingles that sometimes really get my goat! My killer haircut? Well, these days, my hair manages to look as if someone overturned a bowl of Maggi noodles on my head or look like a scraggly crow’s nest (whichever comes first to your mind!). And I, on the whole, look nothing short of the furry men you see in the Fantastic Beats or the Game of Thrones fantasy flicks! Just desserts, I suppose!

Congratulations! Your modern life is about to stop being relevant.

Though I have enough things to feel happy about, I still tend to overthink, get nostalgic at the drop of a hat. Although this plight that I often find myself into can scramble Motivational Speakers or Agony Aunts, Akkas, Uncles to proffer expert advice, so I tend to demure feeling hesitant. (One should not get our Gurus, exalted their tribe ever be, worried without meaning to). I imagine we all might be feeling similarly, especially during these times of zoonosis (alleged) - the China-originated covid-19 pandemic disease that at one point seemed like the end of the world scenario, amounting to an E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event). Is this quarantine narcissism? Well, not really, not yet.

Pandemic or no pandemic, the experience of having to deal with a dead-ending, bamboozling “start from scratch” situation was insufferably agonizing in these extraordinary times. Thank God, I realized through anxious personal observation that implied that there could be no other way but to brave the current situation head-on and see what happens next. That was the only recourse available to position your things back into the boxing ring of life and comply with whatever it entailed. Perseverance pays to survive, day after day, this virulent moment that came from out of the blue to haunt the human race... to extinction? I tell you, modern life is a paradox wrapped in a riddle; you get pummelled one moment or get feted the next. By and large, we are all so fickle-minded, aren’t we?

Luckily, during these pandemic times, I did not stop feeling progressive, if not foolishly optimistic, about the way we are tackling this dreaded disease. Only that I began to look at my problems, most of my own making though, from a sort of different perspective, and once in a while, though, I could just shut them out by doing something that I liked and loved: staying close to people I’ve loved forever, calling up friends, and keeping in touch by phone, reading, writing, reminiscing, apart from praying to God. I found that it worked without being unnecessarily anxious the way things have come to exist amidst this highly infectious virulent feverishness. Therefore, nowadays, I am more than happy to blush that every day is a holiday - most of us are working remotely and all, telecommuting is the word for it - and every meal is a banquet: one of the great, shall I say, perks of modern life. And why not. Latest studies show that companies in the U.S. are saving more than $30 billion per day by permitting their employees to work from home (or telecommute) - no doubt, it is an economic benefit for both employer and employee. A win-win situation.

Sure Modern life has its inherent advantages, I accept. Understandably, in this horrifying contagion-like situation, and with a traditional setting, human life would have been unimaginably difficult. Whereas in the 21st-century modern life, and with prompt availability of new vaccines, immunizations, and critical medicines, people have an assurance that they have, after all, a chance to live. Remarkably, amid the pandemic, succumbing to the Covid (SARS-CoV-2) virus is to a great extent preventable. But, tragically, this pandemic bedlam has exposed the affected families to potentially ruinous medical debt, setting them back financially by several decades’ worth of their hard-earned incomes and clearing out their long-term investments. Post-hospitalization, life has changed forever, and thanks to mindless medical looting, the Covid tormented patients and their immediate families stare at a financially unsound or bankrupt future for life.

As the bloody Covid-19 ran riot, I've often struggled not to feel consumed by rage at what was happening around the world. We are still not safe yet; we haven't gone back to normal. I have no illusions on that score whether we will anytime soon.

Although modern life is not all that ding dong but in so many ways, thanks to the virtue of its experience and a better understanding of time and age, it trumps traditional life (and vice versa?). Needless to reiterate, traditional life has its supreme time-tested insight that modern life cannot mock at for all its techno-science know-how.

Fortunately, this much I knew: It’s my life; it is up to me how or what I make of it, and therefore, in that sense, living life as it comes is a better option in comparison to being uselessly pedantic or stressing about which one is worthier - modern life or traditional. Moreover, one cannot live life traditionally, whatever its advantages, anymore; it is simply not possible to do so as it will be too discomfiting to go on living unmindfully.

Privacy is falsehood

Whatever be the case, I try not to get pointlessly high-sounding or feel misguided with what I can or cannot expect from the modern-day world. Yet, I cannot help it. I mean, you either die trying hard or do not bother about it; you go on living. If Lady Luck is attendant on you, then you probably could get Googled out for the express purpose of someone’s leisurely distraction or some such thing.

What has happened now is that your happy digital tech-utopian life of convenience and entertainment just got commodified. To the online milieu of “surveillance capitalism," Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science, targeted advertising, Internet of Things (IoT), Automation, we are all delivered. These new ‘movers and shakers’ of technology have birthed a whole ecosystem of exploitative commerce, enabling global tech companies to amass wealth at our expense. So if you (in your fast-perishing human flesh) think that you are leading a democratic human life, perish the thought. Do you think you live free? Not exactly. Not anymore. Let’s see if you can handle this: The ultra-rich tech companies have found a way to accumulate and profit from your data hugely, without your knowing it. Your data is not yours anymore; somebody else is making tonnes of money from it. No wonder then, we have now ended up existing as a market-driven blink-and-you-miss free plain-vanilla, plain-Jane byte/pixel dataset on the digital pages of the World Wide Network. In a new surveillance-based economic order, your privacy is no longer private for you, and your data is not a scrap; it is worth millions for those who exploit it with impunity. Kiss your freedom goodbye. Modern life as an empowering and emancipatory force, eh? Nice try!

Either this reality or nothing at all and mind you, everything is deemed official. Nothing remains personal or private anymore. There are obvious privacy implications with this, but who is listening. Privacy is a myth, falsehood; didn’t you know? Every walking, talking, moving thing exists between these two probabilities. The scale tilts more on the official part than personal because privacy no longer seems what it is. How much ever you try making yourself non-existent (even without purpose?). Or stand on the sidelines. Or try to stay put as an afterthought/post-script and watch the world cruise by you will always exist as an empirical evidence subject enslaved forever to someone’s controlled economic and psychological experimentation. Whether we are aware of it or not, we’ll always get treated as a guinea pig remote-controlled on the petri dish of some overarching and overreaching technological and military superpower! No kidding.

The world is in trauma. The geopolitical punditry involving bizarre terms like post-9/11, post-Iraq, post-financial crisis, and now post-truth has eroded people’s inalienable appetite for living a good (and safe) life. People simultaneously live in shock and sorrow even as the python gip of existential issues like open-market consumerism, “for us or against us” type of hideous bipartisan politics, humanity’s mistreatment of the planet leading to a sort of climate crisis bedlam, forever wars, eroded rights, frequent bouts of joblessness, racial and religious bigotry, peak inflation cum economic downturn, terrorist attacks, and multiplied hatreds, continue to dominate the narrative of our already weary lives every passing day. And so much else.

In a fast-changing world, our life has certainly moved forward, but only so much. Trade and market openness in free-market capitalism have spurred economic growth for the nations that have opened up their economies to global markets, ushering in the era of robust globalization. It was about time that they did. The free-market economy has indeed brought a lot of jobs and opportunities, benefitting job seekers where the economy has considerably grown. However, liberalized trade and market openness as such has led to not only a creation of a whole new generation of prosperous middle-class but has also created poverty among the masses, not to speak of environmental degradation. All nations should put their foot down to achieve a coordinated global action, or it might be past the point of no return. There will be no world left to avert the future catastrophes of global climate change, and that can only mean we have a bleak chance for survival. Humankind needs a fundamental mind shift and quick.

A cruel irony

Global human population explosion growth means that more and more people start looking to earn their living, which essentially means a damaging impact on the environment and exploitation of our planet’s finite resources to feed that burgeoning population. While this is not to spoil the new globalization party happening the world over, we need to get down to effectively save the Earth from the devastation of its natural flora and fauna. We were 7.9 billion in 2020. Every year 83 million souls get added to that massive horde.

Fuelled by climate change, every year a continuing spell of draught, greenhouse gases, heat waves, extreme weather conditions, glacial retreat, plastics, lightning-sparked wildfires and blazes, hotter and drier climate (global warming), ocean acidification from the burning of coal, oil, and gas (non-renewable fossil fuels) destroying our homes, health, and buildings. We are the culprits, the ultimate guilty party. We brought a crisis of this magnitude upon ourselves and are grinning shamelessly to take selfies on our smartphones. Will we ever be able to handle this human-caused crisis arising out of climate change? God only knows. From what we are up to now, forget the future looking bleak humankind will cease to have any. The signs of the climate crisis are everywhere. What with Mr. Bill Gates possessing a 66,000-square-foot property named Xanadu 2.0 and Mr. Al Gore owning an 11,070-square-foot mansion plus his carbon-emitting private luxury plane using which he campaigns around the world, hectoring everyone about carbon emissions and the environmental impact it's going to cause! Heights of hypocrisy. Is it already too late for us to reverse the "inconvenient truth" of global warming? Is this a bold prediction? Or is it being alarmist or something? Or a deliberate hoax? None of this. The climate crisis is for real, and it hurts us all badly. Please wake up, world. Or it would not be there anymore. Let us plant trees and more trees and still some more. At least, that is something we would all be good at doing, other than loving our pan pizzas, mountainous burgers, cavernous rolls, and burnt to a crisp fried chicken! Enough said.

A lack of political will or governmental action to put the planet first is the main problem in doing something immediate and tangible to help reverse severe climatic effects. If it does not get going, then we are all doomed to die. There is no turning back from this point on.

To use a cliché: Rich have become richer but the poor ever so poorer. Only a privileged handful are doing much better than the deprived others; a clear case of income inequality wherein the powers that be reward not work but wealth, rich, well-connected pompous asses, and superiority. There is no such thing as a free lunch, and it shows. Modern life, eh.

Mostly, the poor or badly off people do not wish to be rich or yearn for lots of money (that they can anyway never dare to dream about). All they want is a just income, a sufficient sum to go on in their lives day after day, month after month, with their basic needs met, and in return contribute to the economy. However, we see that in the game of rich and poor, it is always the poor, perennially weak, and powerless that get short-changed, whereas the rich and powerful get away with it.

Big companies have a cunning propensity towards putting profit before the public good. In a recent scandal involving the world’s rich and powerful people, including rock stars, celebrities, business leaders, tycoons, government ministers, political leaders, and even military generals, have offshore trusts and shell companies created to hold secret deals, assets in bank accounts, and expensive property deals stashed in tax havens such as Cayman Islands, Dubai, Panama, and that ever so popular, probably the world's leading tax haven, Switzerland. Leaked data from the Panama Papers (2016), Paradise Papers (2017), and now from the cache of Pandora Papers (2021) stand testimony to the great derangement ordinary people face. What do we call this kind of people? Call them what you will, but they are a blot on humanity. Quite frankly, it’s all hypocritical, dangerous, and disgraceful.

Tax evasion (by exploiting loopholes in the tax structures), systemic corruption, and the penchant for amassing unaccounted (untaxed) wealth are serious financial crimes that have cost governments billions in lost revenues. Are we ever going to see an end to it? It is hard to think whether it will. The rich pay little or less tax or evade it all, whereas the government keeps raising taxes on ordinary workers! It is deeply unfair.

The impact of the financial and income disparities continues to beleaguer their lives. No wonder India ranks 103rd on the Global Hunger Index, and its richest 1 percent holds 73% of our country’s wealth! Is it any wonder then why the poor continue to get poorer and the rich richer? Money attracts more money, whereas penury attracts more penury. Meanwhile, the billionaires are launching themselves into space. While half the world is on fire, running out of fresh water, rivers changing course, hunger, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) wiping out 50,00,000 lakhs (as of Oct. 2021) of human species from the face of the planet, and the clear and present danger of global warming, these filthy-rich VIPs love to spend their billions in the fond hope of shaking hands with aliens from other planets! Their power mantra? Eject out to outer intergalactic space, leave Earth to fend for itself. Meanwhile, the woes of ordinary denizens continue. All this tamasha begs for a question: Can we consider ourselves a human being superior to animals? Not all of us do! (Oh, I hope no one shows this to Trump...!).

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an 18th-century French philosopher, once articulated: “When the people shall have no more to eat, they will eat the rich!” So it is evident that the rich (millionaires and billionaires) cannot do away with the poor or the perennially cash-strapped, for if they do, the poor will eat the rich! Eventually, however, the world will come to an unsexy end, with only the sexy rich remaining until they too will implode sexily! Our economic system seems to offer a petty little other than insecurity and crisis. So much for modern life!

It is a cruel irony that we keep getting back to square one, no matter humanity’s claims of supremacy over anything and everything that concerns us in this so-called modern world. The world is going to die with rich people, only rich people. You - SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic - can launch yourself to space, but no way can you colonize Mars or Jupiter or some other planet. Nope, not going to happen. (Narcissism of this kind repulses me. Their belief that human beings can conquer other planets is akin to having an inflated opinion of themselves. Indulging their flights of fancy, ultra-rich tycoons not knowing what to do with their cartloads of money can, I suppose, afford themselves to experience such delusions of grandeur, and fail). No matter what they tell or do, it’s all flashy trickery that comes aided with their relational position and reputation in the public sphere. That's about what it is. Humankind is a ‘single-planet species.' How can we be ‘multi-planet' when we scarcely know anything about other planets? Billionaire snobs tend to fashionably make-believe, as is their wont. (Consider it some amateur armchair thick-skinned psychoanalysis if you like.)

The world never really misses you. There is no love in modern life. There are routines, networking, and relationships based upon convenience. Even, there are no guarantees in life by the same token. Everybody a green blip on the world’s radar screen, that is all.

(To be continued…)

By Arindam Moulick

End of part 2 of 4

Post Script: The above essay is a satirical take on modern life or the modern-day world, so no hard feelings about its subject matter. A personal freewheeling thought experiment; that sort of thing.

Word count: 3,315

Click here to read Part 1