A species evolved: unbecomingly resolved?

  

 “In addition to being a profoundly bewildered man, I am an incorrigible introvert. I am awkward, soft-spoken, ineloquent, and intensely shy. I do not enjoy speaking in public, posing for photographs, or asking other people for money. I dream of privacy, I revere silence, and I loathe any action that involves drawing attention to myself,” extremely eloquent words by Greg Mortenson the author of Stones into Schools and Three cups of tea.

The sentiments reflected in these very succinct, yet persuasive words, in more ways than one, reflect the personalities of several people who go through life being grossly misunderstood for they do not fall into the slots that have so divisively and deliberately become a part of human psyche and populist society, pushing to the borders and brinks people every now and then. Some survive to become stable contributors to society, some succumb way too soon: groveling for the rest of their lives in the darkness of despair or merely trying to fit in!

In another very pertinent comparison of a similar kind, Malcolm Gladwell, in his book David and Goliath, quotes from the Bible, “But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

Further on in the metaphor drawn upon from the biblical account of David and Goliath, Gladwell, lays bare the legendary epic. The catch, however, is not in how Goliath was overpowered, it is about the why. Goliath fell to the tiny ordinary, non-descript shepherd, David, not because the shepherd was stronger, but because Goliath was too blinded by his own strength and fell to a slingshot from David! This, when no fighter worth his salt, was able to take up the challenge to fight the giant, there was a huge collective deficit in the understanding of the situation, as all were hung up on combatting him with the strength they knew of, no alternatives were generated in their linear thought process. One act of thinking out of the box, apparently turned out to be victorious for David.    

Our folk lore and mythology too is rife with several examples of a similar kind, be it in the tongue in cheek and immensely amusing anecdotes of Akbar and Birbal, or stories of Karan and Arjun, Ram and Ravana or even the intriguing abilities of Mulla Naseruddin, believed to have hailed from modern day Turkey.

                   Coming back to modern day society, the questions that come to mind are manifold: Are we accepting of differences in and around us? Do we tolerate non-conformity? Is being different a crime? Are aberrations considered threats, for they are reminders of what populism is not all about? Is there space for allowing one to be?

     Sadly, the answer reeks of negativity. Everything around one, from the moment a Homo sapien comes into being, in fact much before, is in some way or the other about fitting in. Whether it is from the ubiquitous pink and blue gender divide: and ever so often we see how that hurts tremendously in adulthood, to crazy masochistic norms like boys don’t cry or more appropriately shouldn’t cry and girls shouldn’t therefore be too unemotional!

Situations at schools do not get any better, with lip service being constantly made to the fact that differences are respected, the truth is far from it on the ground. Uniformity has become a malaise, though it was introduced to dissolve differences, economic, social or psychological, it is now back firing in not being able to achieve creativity at the end of the journey nor tap and respect individual identity within a uniform system. This is ironically achieved to a large degree in the defense forces in our country and elsewhere, wherein a certain amount of both manage to surface to mutually benefit the other eventually. Though it is a model that again if replicated on the entire society would obviously not work, as the purpose or collective purpose will not be served.

The ineptitude, that therefore seeps in at a very young age carries on into the work place, affecting not only efficacy and output, but also drastically upsetting inter-personal dynamics.  This constant pressure to fit in for reasons that some think makes the world go round is creating havoc every single day, in daily lives from the way one looks to the way one conducts oneself in society to how thin or thick one is (pun intended).

Man may have evolved to a certain level anthropologically speaking, in form and function, but socially he is yet to even touch the acme of success or be counted as one among those who are heading toward the completion of goal; so flawed has been his journey pivoted as it is on being judgmental at every step, hounding a person who does not fit into their understanding of the world and/or their sensibilities.

This has been the norm for a very long time, negating ever so often the wisdom that actually came from the fringes as it were, in the form of all those who changed the world. Not one of them sought to fit in, how so ever heavy a price they paid for the same. The annals of history provide ample examples of the same across the universe and it is clear to see, yet we learn not from it, condemned therefore to repeat the atrocities on our brethren with renewed insensitivity every time round, every single day.  

© Copyright Suverchala Kashyap

                   P.S. Sequel to previous write-up in pipeline...