This is the typical story of a middle-class kid. They are born and brought up in an eco-system with certain comforts and a lot of expectations. It is like a relay race, where the parents have completed one circle and have passed on the baton to the kids. Kids are expected to run faster and take a lead from the other competitors in the race. They keep running fast race after race. Race to be first in the class, bear the competitive examination, get a good university, get a good job, have many zeros in the account, buy many properties, have intelligent and impressive kids, look young and smart, be powerful, and so on. They keep running race after the race and probably the only time they get an opportunity to look back is when they get admitted to the ICU in a hospital and find themselves completely alone yet unwilling to have lived a meaningless life.
I often wonder why the futility of race is not recognized by the kids during their lifetime. I have visited Europe many times for official tours and have had opportunities to interact with the delegates from different countries of Europe and found a very subtle difference between the mindsets. I feel that there is a lot of insecurity in the minds of the typical Indian middle-class kids. There are probably two biggest reasons for these insecurities: systemic vulnerabilities and societal conspiracy.
There is widespread inequality in society and systems are quite imperfect. The life of a middle-class parent is quite painful. They are never sure whether their kids will be able to get a job sufficient to take care of their families. There is huge pressure on resources due to the huge population and opportunities are limited. Almost all parents have faced these challenges the whole of their lives and these insecurities get passed on to their kids. Almost whole of the society, including the parents, keeps communicating to the kids that they need to win the race in order to survive. Kids have a natural inclination to explore the world. They have different interests. However, the fight for survival takes over and the interests take the back seat.
So far so good. In a developing country, it is quite natural for the people to run the race for their survival. However, there is a huge rise in the expectations of people. I feel that there is a social conspiracy to keep everybody engaged in the race. It suits everybody's purpose. If few kids start asking questions like Socrates or Galelio, the foundations of the entire society will be shaken. That is why it is in the interest of all the members of the society that everybody in the society is busy running the races one after the other. It suits the purpose of the industrialists because they get more and more profit by selling their dreams to the middle class. It serves the purpose of society in general because the frightened people will not challenge its orthodox and meaningless rules. It serves the purpose of religion because anxious and fearful people will cling to the religious rituals without challenging them.
There is a lot of advertisement and brainwashing going on in the society. First of all, different products, comforts, and dreams are being sold by the media, newspapers, social media, and people in social gatherings. Since there is a widespread advertisement of the lies, most of the people end up believing the same. Even if they try to maintain a distance from these lies, they end up joining some spiritual organization that is full of greater lies. In this world, where there is hardly any sane space, there is every chance of believing in one or the other lie and live life running after one or the other mirage.
Probably, the only way out is to be aware and observe. Observation reveals the truth behind the propaganda. We re-assess our needs and realize that if we keep our needs limited, we get a lot of space to live life. Living life is not winning the race. Living life is being in the moment. It's not easy to get rid of the habit of winning. Desire to win the race is deep-rooted: consciously and unconsciously even in relationships, there is always a race to win the heart of the other person, in organizations, there is a race to win the credit. We wish to win the arguments and prove our point all the time. We are so conditioned by the fear that we somehow do not dare to connect to the truth due to fear of losing the debate. We do not dare to tell the truth to our partner due to the fear of losing the relationship. One needs to take some time off from the race and look inside. Re-establishing that internal connection does something wonderful. It helps us observe the examine the reality behind the social propaganda. We dare to put me first. We wish to live life. The me that always comes last due to the fear of losing a race gets some space to grow.
Comments