Information Explosion and Feelings

 

Why do I write? I write so I can continue to be critical, so I can see connections of mind with external events, so I can see how am I imagining things, so I can see what change is, so I can understand the Force, we call ‘mind’.  In all this introspection, I display tendencies of doubts, fears, insecurities, hope, connectedness and many other shades of feelings. This ‘I’ means not ‘me’, but the impression of the Force that is present in this body. And this Force which originates before we are born and even after we die, wherever there is consciousness. This Force that means imagination, the compulsion of urge and desire and analysis and therefore the inherent tendency of perceiving and conceiving the existence.

It took me round 40 years to realize that the compulsion of my mind is to be seen as a tendency of Force and whatever I choose to think, will create an impression on this Space-Force fabric and generate a momentum of action and further imprints. And the result of all this: is the creation of memory, which may be cosmic, collective or individual or micro scale. It may also include past lives and future visions. The Force is the only thing that can connect us to any other dimension of existence to any other time period, to any other event (of any physical scale) and to any other life form. Everything is interconnected whole. As our nature of force changes in scale and life, we perceive things differently. Hence, Force produces perception and with perception, we infer and act. These impressions we create for ourselves either take us to a level of separateness and negative feelings or of cosmic connection and blissful state. Choice is ours.

In all the depth of events (in history) that have happened so far, the point to be understood is the urge that has created those events – fundamental tendencies or concerns. Religion, colour, age, gender, race, class, are all ways to describe the urge that expresses in different periods of time in different places. Urge may also mean World View. Depending on what one considers one’s position of existence, one is bound to act in those peculiar ways.

This brings me to an observation about Information Explosion – and the tendencies it generates in our minds and subsequently our World View about people and Nature.

The phenomenon of Information Explosion has its seed in ideas of individualism and competitiveness and with that efficiency, productivity, aggression, multitasking and so on.

My take on this, is that the idea of collective doesn’t seem to hold much ground now. Whatever that defines the idea of collective – from collective memory, culture, history, environment, ecology and so on – has lost steam to motivate or galvanize people. Why has this happened? It is because we are becoming more and more fragmented internally and we see ourselves responding to ever diverse sources of information without trying to relate the different bits of pieces. I am saying these things in a general way – I can keep digging and explaining at a level of perception and try to illustrate how an event can either be seen as a holistic representation of cosmic reality OR can be seen only as a fragmented piece of activity. The event was the same, however the connection (and the feeling) it generated in my mind can be different based on how I reacted to it! I am not sure if people are even interested to understand this intricate/delicate and subtle connection that we inadvertently create deep down in our own minds.

Information Explosion, AI, faster pace of existence is not going to give any fruitful long term answers for fundamental issues of feelings, delight, expressions and ethical ideas. To slow down is becoming more challenging, since creating  mental space in our routine doesn’t guarantee reduced pace of thinking and by reducing pace I mean – NOT being judgmental, not being impulsive, not feeling the urge to act, not being overly critical, not being harsh on anyone, not thinking in terms of competition and survival etc etc. The greatest beauty of life (which we may lose out on, if we forget) is to just BE and observe the ‘feel’ of existence without labeling anything and without the urge to act hastily. In such a state, we may experience an uncritical dimension of thought or may even suspend the chain of thoughts for a while and get in touch with consciousness. This feel is important to have, as this is what the stuff of Universe is made of.

Anyway, I am digressing from the topic but I felt that the effects of Information Explosion need to be told as it is a matter of serious concern. I am sure this has been voiced before by many people in other continents wherever a similar urban situation has befallen on society. Sociologists know better. What is being said, means that the concerns are not unique but they arise when situations appear in a certain manner.

The kids of today are going to grow in an environment of fierce competition, loneliness, aggression and total disconnect from the comprehensiveness of phenomena, if we let the expression of education be the way it is and if we let the definition of aspirations the way it is. I am not sure if kids might even get a chance to discover themselves and touch their deep feelings of introspection. I can see signs of mental annoyance by kids. I think, the current scenario is suppressing a natural tendency of the kid to be as he/she likes to express and in its place, we are creating an illusionary world of confirming to some notion of excellence and perfection, which they might not even give a damn about it. The entire purpose of existence seems to be, to race ahead at whatever costs. Are we even hearing their voices or are we even letting them hear their own voices, so they can sort their own things? Or do we want them to confirm to what we expect (which is also based on confirming to some vague ideas of confirmation formed by God knows who). My feeling is that the more you keep the mind engaged by information overload, the more its other tendencies will get suppressed. The more we plan to discipline our own contours of the mind, the more agonizing we will feel about ourselves. Mind is organic (like any other phenomena). We should make room for everything it conveys – everything. And by seeing what it conveys, we may choose or not to choose to act. Mind is organic, it is interconnected, it has no start and end point, it transforms and changes and it can empathize or fragment itself. This is what we are and we should allow all creations to be.

First, relax. It doesn’t matter that one may feel something different and one wants to do something else. The definition of self worth and self expression is not under scrutiny here – it cannot be. Secondly (and even more important), the idea of self worth is not based on time or space or existence. It is not based on laws of causation. I will do something, therefore my self worth should increase or I have done something, therefore my self worth should be revised – this cannot be a way to live, since this idea is not tenable. In fact, self means consciousness, which already is there and it has all the seeds of creative force. I am sure that such doubts persist in our minds everyday. I am not denying the fact about the impact of our thoughts and compulsions to keep acting based on them. I am not denying anything. It is a phenomenon of its own – just like any other unstoppable phenomenon of Universe. We should realize this fact. That is all that is needed for our own betterment.