issuesbeyondborders

Sometimes we all seem to be trapped in Kafka’s world of alienation and fear of persecution. Psychologists, psychiatrists have been sifting through layers of human mind and intellect to find answers to the various illness of the mind. Mind, unlike body, is a fairly unknown terrain and hence diagnosis and treatment becomes a matter of debate.

The reason to delve into depth of human psyche here is manifold. Thanks to communication technology world indeed seems to be global village but yet each day while we try to build these bridges across the globe through social networking we seem to be losing out on our natural instinct to bond with other people and specially children. The suicide rates are forever going up. The family, basic mental support system of a child, is more fragile than ever. This lonely child grows up to become a frustrated and sadist individual with no compassion and passion for creative pursuits but a fury to kill and destroy. Loneliness, alienation and fear of persecution can be treated better with compassion and better innovative ways rather than with modern medicines which tend to calm the nerves by putting them to sleep. 

Sadly, the outer world is grappling with new self created demons and devils itself. Terrorism, materialistic world and inflation are only adding to the woes of the mind. Killings are desensitizing human mind, materialistic pursuit cannot feed the human soul and inflation woes never allow the mind to be free to think beyond next meal. There is no time for poetry, imaginary, dreams or any fairy tales. Death of human imagination is visible in all the unresolved problems discussed in all the posts below. Be it gross violation of human and child rights, terrorism, war on terrorism, state of women and children in third world, misinformation (be it AIDS or simple clinical depression) in the era of information technology and modern media, there are enough pointers to how desensitized and compassionless materialistic world has become. We are staring at an abyss and there is no turning back.

In this modern trendy world there is no time to think about this vital healing power of human imagination and compassion. Modern day Van Gogh or Kafka has no support system of family or friends to help battle personal demons and treasure the masterpieces for future. They have to move into asylums, where their art maybe displayed and auctioned by some NGOs. Their works often die on the walls of elite homes. On the other hand the fury of poor alienated children and youth have become potential arsenal for militant groups.  Child soldiers of Congo and child recruits by militant groups are a reality.

Unfortunately there is increased alienation with greater fear of prosecution and absolutely no freedom from the agonies of the soul. Distances between two human minds have increased in proportion to the so called shrinking of globe. Trust is rare. As we stand guarding our supreme privacy and building tall firewalls we are losing the glimpse of imprisoned and dying lonely soul.  Beauty and the beast residing in every human soul may have vital keys to correct some aberrations of the modern world. Corrections should start from inside out.

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We all live in a world which is in so many ways defined by boundaries, borders, measurements, limitations and attributed (arbitrary) values.  That these various metrics are themselves only really tools with which to understand the world was long ago obscured by a culture and society that has become enamoured of it’s own image, projected upon the world, and mistaken for the essential reality underlying that world.  That the boundaries, borders and many measurements we make of the world, that we impose upon the world, are not themselves the actual world they refer to appears to be illustrative a of deep error in our existential calculus.  The old Zen proverb about the finger that points to the moon not itself being the moon is a salient reminder of the limitations of language, of number and of measurement or differentiation.

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