Change of Perspectives

We perceive the importance of things based on our culture, social structures and our upbringing. Our choices to respond to present things and what we might consider an appropriate action for the future are also informed by collective wisdom and our memories. 

One of the discourses in the ‘Western’ world (or ‘Advanced’ world) is regarding slowing down the pace of life and adhering to “less” or being minimal in approach. The same world also talks about observing the little things we do in life – concentrating on the food we eat or taste  - i.e. being very mindful of whatever we are doing right now or doing just one thing at a time. This “advice” from them is coming at a tremendous cost that they have endured for long – wherein so much of technology has overtaken their lives. I see some fundamental problems that inflict them:

a.       Being overwhelmed by information explosion and multitasking: Multi tasking (or handling quantum) is leading to irritation, anxiety, stress, short memory and attention deficit syndrome. This will entail writing a separate article, but summarily I feel it constitutes severe fragmentation of character and a feeling of placelessness. THUS, they look for attaining one point focus (therefore meditation or one task at a time or mindfulness etc.) and they try to immerse in any activity which will generate a feeling of connectedness (opposite of fragmentation). Connectedness ironically will only happen, if one restricts constant bombardment of fragmentary information and one learns from the surrounding “local” environment itself. Groundedness is not only a physical restriction in movement of people in space, but it also represents a feeling of wholesomeness or completeness having ingredients of logic, intuition, feelings, culture, environment and philosophy. From this definition, the “tribals” are the most grounded people on earth (and may also display a depth of knowledge not found even in renowned universities of the world). Thus, we are referring to a difference between mere overload of information v/s wisdom. Wisdom develops with time – one can’t rush at it. Wisdom is all about constraints and the potentials achieved within the constraints. Contrary to American attitude of craze towards freedom, wisdom acknowledges a fundamental position of constraints in developing character, strength and values. And contrary to Western perception of Individualism, wisdom is concerned with developing empathy. Methods to generate these values focus on doing essential things and being minimal. By being minimal, one is forced to think of process, action, impact to all things present in the environment (of which we are a part of) and by doing so, we become grounded or feel “complete”.

b.      Not that everything is dandy in this state of being minimal. If minimal is so important, then why do we (Indians) act as if minimal = poverty = dirty = gone case..? This reaction again comes from  the way in which the idea of “poor” is perceived here and the kind of exploitation befalls those who have limited access to services such as law and education and job. Harsh conditions or limited resources have made life miserable for millions of Indians and they therefore tend to equate money with power or status or access. Thus anything that smells of money (which includes the perception of West also) will be aped in no time. Hence the rush for technological advancement, digitization, and all ideas or lifestyle images which originate in popular Western culture.

Thus, there is no one way of looking at things. How we perceive the idea of minimal for example, as described above, is related with many other cultural and social factors.