Posts Tagged ‘freedom’
Nesting Blues
One of the uniqueness of Life on Earth probably is the ability of all life forms to procreate and another is evolution of species. Human beings stand at the end of evolution chain, tall above all, armed with consciousness, intellect yet having the same natural instincts and needs like rest of the species of life on Earth. Apart from Natural laws human beings have added whole set of new laws to bring an order in human society.
Human beings (for reasons best known to different law-makers of the land who have reigned for thousands of years) seem have added more checks and balances and put institutions in place just to protect procreation of species. Human nests (family and home) have extra legal, religious and societal laws as walls of protection. Yet human world is fraught with all kinds ‘Nesting blues’. Is it wrong to associate nesting and procreation as far as human life is concerned? How long classical concept of ‘family’ (mother, father and children) will survive as a basic building block in a modern and more than ever complex human world?
What is more intriguing is that human beings seem to have lost choices and freedom as authorities (religious, legal, political) keep amending laws just to protect human nests. These artificial walls become almost like prisons from which there is no escape. Do they really protect the child and create favorable conditions for procreation? There are marriage laws, there are laws against adultery, there are laws for breaking the nest and divorcing the partner, laws which protect the child – there are all kinds of legal protection for saving the family and further procreation of human species and holding familial lineage and wealth. But yet the very need of so many legal enforcements raises doubts whether the concept of a ‘family’ being basic building block of human society is itself flawed.
Any rigid framework gives birth to rebels. Rebels against classical family and marriage institution have given again birth to parallel institutions and alternate community living models. There are people asserting with live-in relationships or same sex relationships or even living alone. Procreation does not seem to be main agenda of human life anymore. Yet authorities never give up efforts to save the family, every other day a new law or a clause is added to save the dying institution of marriage. Even live-in relationships have legalities now – once again to protect the child and the inheritance of wealth. But same sex relationships are held in contempt and even declared illegal. Is it because they don’t procreate?
Searching for Bliss
Let us not spoil the Christmas and New Year party. These are hard times – recession and terror attacks have only made them worse. But this is the time of the year to count our blessings for being alive and for being able to think about small, big moments of happiness.
There are always reasons to celebrate. Those who have lost their jobs should be happy to have had one in the first place and for being spirited enough to look for new openings. Those who have lost their lives under various circumstances be it suicide or terror attack or accident or disease are already beyond pain. And many who are mourning loss of dear ones have no other choice but to put the chin up, find reasons to carry on and count their blessings for being alive.
Amnesia + Ignorance = Bliss, is the new formula for the happiness. The more you forget all pains, the better you are. The less you know, the less you think and better you float in happiness. Not convinced? Suppose it’s a splurge fun party, is there any reason to think about how many hungry people that money can feed? No need remember all those UN statistics about hungry and homeless. Forget it. Also what is the point of knowing all this state of the poor in the world? Awareness is not going to feed people and help planet survive. So it is best to be ignorant.
Alienation and Fear of Persecution
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.
