It’s, to use a Dickensian phrase, the best of times, and the worst of times. And, as we navigate in our society where instinct is given a free ticket, we are paradoxically not willing to grow up. We are growing up, all right, in a way, but only as ‘half-adults.’ Besides, we are running after our illusions, as also deceptions.
There’s no need to explore the horizons why such dilemmas are worse compounded by confusion. We are not able to get closer to ourselves; we also find ourselves overwhelmed by our own design. What’s more, we’ve crowds everywhere and we’re primarily lost to ourselves, thanks to our frenzied existence. Blame it on the vagaries of our highly inflationary, chaotic world, and we now have a parody. Most of us seem to look alike. You look like somebody else with the same elements of stresses and tensions; and, ‘that’ somebody looks so much like you.
While our kids, also youth, are growing up on TV, or electronic, diet — their ‘surrogate’ muse — we ‘grown-ups’ are leading a lateral life, catching things with our eyes, not minds. We keep ourselves glued to the latest news updates, or watch IPL, just for the heck of it, because our friends, colleagues and others are also hooked to it. So much so, just about everybody who’s somebody, is a raving, if not a roving, ‘expert’ on any subject.
And, why not? This is, after all, the ‘happening’ age, where things happen quickly, as if by ‘birth-write.’ So, when you drop your guard, or scanty clothing, on social media, you’re the ‘feast’ of every eye [Else, you’d, perchance, ‘rewrite’ history and attract a good following]. Well, it’s not that we don’t see what’s emerging through our rear-view mirror. We call such fleeting pictures familiarity, not proximity. And, when we see people like ourselves, all over the world, our minds get riveted to the accustomed — indiscipline and inconsistency. Not distinction, or convergence.
It’s equally true that we are all driven by hope. Hope has always been the much-needed element of community life. This is how our modern society has progressed — a culture with its vast army of rival siblings. Well, in today’s world, the word sibling is illustrative of a family; it isn’t a simile. Yet, the expression holds good on its own, bringing into play our common tendencies and heartaches. The outcome is simple. Grown-up adults are increasingly retreating towards adolescence, just as more and more adults prefer not to become adults. Worse still, most of us [‘grown‑up’ adults], are willing to ‘buy’ anything coming from misconstrued religion — not tradition, scriptures, spirituality, or values.
Yet, the point is we all agree with our expanded idea of new sibling attributes. This is the premise of this column — one that dwells on the fact that we are progressively moving in one direction, even when some of us don’t openly fancy such a course. The fact of the matter is that we have all arrived, though the irony is: you just can’t speak to someone who’s not your age. They won’t listen to you. They will think that you’re not worth heeding to, more so if you are not within their ‘age-bracket.’ This means just one thing — we cannot stop our slide into primitive thought, also existence.
To paraphrase thinker and author Robert Bly, “Drastic change has produced this social primitivism — a new identity that’s found in embracing a mass movement. This mass movement absorbs and assimilates the individual who is reduced to an infantile state, for this is what a ‘new’ birth really means — to become ‘like a child.’ Well, kids are primitive beings — they are credulous, follow the leader and/or readily become members of the pack. Lastly, primitivism follows when people seek a new identity by plunging into continuous action and hustling. Remember, it takes leisure to mature. Most people in a hurry can neither grow nor decay; they are preserved in a state of perpetual inanity.”
This is our new reality today, because our society of half-adults has ‘advanced’ far too much in several climes, more so in affluent nations, or states, built on technology and gross prosperity. The trend is catching up rapidly elsewhere. You may be a part of such a ‘reawakening’ already. Well, if you aren’t yet, or vacillating, it’s time you joined the [r]evolution.
So, what are you waiting for? Just go for it, as it were, and you will look like everyone else around you — with their clichéd fixations — without growing up.
— First published in India First
