Fortunately - and miraculously! - despite whatever is going on in the world, not to mention our vital preoccupation with the COVID-19 pandemic right now, a new kind of worry-free living that is slowly regaining a sense of freedom and flexibility by coming out of the circumstances of social disintegration and collapse accompanied by dread and anxiety.
In the face of worldwide public health crises, humanitarian crises, climate change crises, even spiritual crises, and so forth, and all those lost years of unnecessary human annihilation we suddenly found ourselves in, are silently taking shape into familiar conformities in the current year also. Will the pandemic ever go away? No one can say. The humanitarian crisis continues as the deadly C-virus ravages our Earth bringing down ‘you reap what you sow’ retribution on us. Justly so.
(It only gets worse from here. Or in a warming world, it has already gotten worse.)
Yet all is not lost, but will we prevail?
Thank heavens, a sense of simplifying complexity is lingering around in my risk-averse mind. I hope that the COVID ramifications we all are tackling now in our day-to-day life will cease. Probably that is what people mean when they say survival of the fittest of the fastest to come into the world! Signs that people are beginning to feel secure about the survivability of the still so proud, very mod-looking, hip, and happening, global human species!
Conversely, it's pointless to display such weak egotism because humankind is rapidly changing in appearance, both physically and intellectually. Ha ha ha… The entrapments of modern life are altering the contour of our skulls. Not only that, but scientists claim that our elbows are shrinking, our bones are weakening: becoming more fragile, and so on. I shudder thinking that who knows what the COVID-19 virus has wrought in the human genome.
We are becoming lonely, stressed, anxious, and mentally ill too. Thanks to chasing the ever-shrinking availability of jobs and opportunities, relocation from one economic zone to another, individualism, capitalism, neoliberalism, not to forget the compendium of constantly changing technology, and proliferation of social media, websites, and apps. Some of these are good to have, but ...
All of these issues, and others, will become (or have already become) not Epidemic but Pandemic-scale challenges. (What are we going to consider, if not these?). To put it simply, if you're worried sick about your ‘cyber-cute’ photos that you keep posting on your numerous online social media profiles, then it’s a sign of depression. Or partake in your dalliances with various social media feeds a dozen times during the day, you are setting yourself up for an increased risk of physical and mental health ailments that will push you down in the dumps for good. Some people even enjoy making their friends (and others) envious of their lives by uploading glossy photos of their expensive possessions, vacations in exotic foreign locales, great parties, soirees, and doing this and doing that frequently. I don't like holding my mobile phone in the air to record the proceedings or taking umpteen photos from different angles (with the attendant lure of the phone's flash mechanism) when attending a music or a fun gathering, or a marriage function where you most certainly will catch sight of drone cameras hovering over your head filming the wedding scenes. Every person is entitled to their tastes and preferences. In other words, different strokes for different folks. It happens all the time; nothing new about it.
Probably I’d put some of these ideas in my writings: stuff that gets into the long-winding write-ups on my blog site (https://arindammoulick.blogspot.com/) and, speaking in this context, and that is as far as I am willing to go, characterize me by the place I live in, by the family I love, and by the friends I'd like to keep. Having ‘agendas’ that sum up to zero, I am essentially an agenda-free person. If anything, love and happiness (and reading books) are the only two agendas at the top of my priority list. (If I’m not reading, I’m buying books. And if I’m reading, well, I’m reading the books I bought). It’s not complicated. All other things boil down to narcissistic bourgeois money-grubbing middle-class mumbo jumbo. Isn’t the imagined past much better than the hegemonic narrative of the present society? I certainly do think so.
My standard response to all unsolicited offers of bank loans on low-interest rates or plots of land available to buy, or scads of social media invites to ‘upvote’ or ‘like,’ ‘share’ or ‘subscribe to’ is a curt: “Not Interested.” Conversely, I am not in the habit of “fitting in.” It’s like literally stepping into a cesspool of instinctual gratification, which I keep a healthy distance from, and why would a person in the right frame of mind yield to those worthless temptations? (All the carnage these people create on social media, my God!). Being a self-sufficing human, I can get away with so much when I am polite and respectful. Being in the habit of keeping a healthy distance away from uncharitable elements of our society does help too. That is also why I favour justifying realities, not the apparent troubling ones that kick below the belt. Social media can muddle up your mind if you’re not attentively careful. Haha. Laugh out loud, please. Let’s believe, for a moment, that social media is just about okay to be used, then use it only once in a blue moon, just for the sake of it and as little as possible. Stay low-key, and leave the rest to the imagination. More than half of your problems get solved. It’s disarming.
Furthermore, if it needs emphasizing ad infinitum, here it is: Any praises you receive on social media are, most often than not, pointless untruths, damned lies. If there are any exceptions, they are minuscule.
Finding a balance
If you have high levels of social dissatisfaction and unhappiness, life will become problematic to get adjusted. While not all screen time is all that bad, where the line gets drawn to keep all possible delinquencies in check is open to debate? Striking a balance between online and offline, as it were, will be a deciding factor in living a decent modern/social life in the future.
In order to live a respectable modern/social life, it will be necessary to strike a balance between online and offline, as it were.
Sure the modern world is lovely in many ways, even a liberating and beautiful idea to a large extent. But it’s the individual (not individualism) to decide if modernity has psychologically and physically disturbing effects on you and what you do to set it right from time to time. The world as we know it still requires a robust cultural dosage of EQUALITY amongst all citizens of the modern world. That’s a troubling reality. Be that as it may, never set yourself unrealistic expectations. So, say cheese and smile, and do not use a smartphone camera to capture it! Smile, a big happy smile, for yourself. Yeeees, that’s more like it.
Mind, you can’t help being risk-averse enough in the day and age of cyber-cute absurdity today. So slam on regardless, as it doesn’t matter how modern or not so modern you are or what others expect you to be. What matters more is, on the contrary, how much shit you can take in life and still survive the kind of life you usher. First off, don’t give a hoot for rewards and recognition or any unmet expectation from the deceptively modern world. Given all the personal and professional hazards involved, they don't do anything for you other than inflate your ego, making you feel overly self-important. Such an attitude will do a world of good to you; if you can beat back your sensitivity to any perceived inequality, slight, or grievance of your habitual existence amongst your fellow human beings. Second off, be back with your family and friends, and you will be fine for a new day, every day. Time passes amiably by for those who get encompassed by love and consideration for others. So, Hakuna Matata! No worries.
Tailpiece: Thankfully, I am progressively becoming more at ease now, gradually coming to grips with my feelings despite whatever is happening around our damaged world. It’s because I strive to be a man of no hurt.
Why am I constantly on the lookout for messages from friends and family on my WhatsApp these days, first thing in the morning! Perhaps, modern life is doing that to me. Sigh! Sigh!
I could continue rambling, but that’s pretty much the gist of my, I assure you, fast receding pet aversions.
By Arindam Moulick
Written November ’21 & March 2022