Our responsibility – we are animals of contradiction
We like taking more // We live in a highly sensory-driven life in a world that is happy to reward that behavior. The unspoken common language is transactions. Our senses are owned by the sheer marketing potential of the entities trying to get our attention. They try to support our needs of consumption. To listen beyond, to observe beyond, to sense beyond all that requires time, patience and strict practice. There is no interest in companies to be responsible, market responsibly, create responsibly. It is a free market and they are playing by those rules. How can one make a choice driven by their true need and awareness? A dog knows what he should and shouldn’t eat just by sniffing it. Our senses of inner wisdom are dulled while our senses of hedonism are heightened. The responsibility lies on the individual to sharpen that sense. First one must accept and see his place in the larger network of transactions, what he takes and who takes from him and how that is perpetuated over time.
We like giving back // Our senses also can see and hear the reality of what happens around us. We wish to help, we want to help, we try to help. We have channels to do so in the way we know how. Through transactions. We do not have the time to investigate why such a reality exists and how we could play a part in perpetuating it. We do not have time for profound exploration or have developed the faculties needed to go beyond guilt and blame to see the reality of what simply is. So we have easier methods where we give a little and call it a day. The larger systems that keep the reality so is never questioned because no one wants to rock their own boat. Whenever we feel the need to help, we do it again. It is often a reaction to an emotional tug. Similar to how we react to a sensory impulse to consume something, we also react to a sensory impulse to do something, to give something back because we feel bad for taking too much. In the same vein we fear someone is going to take it away from us.
We like our social bonds // Our social structure where we create and evolve lasting bonds happen within the education environment, work environment, family gatherings and focused events such as conferences. Almost every person who participates in these environments have a defined set of social rules they operate by that they gained from going first through the educational, then through the larger economic and political systems. While there may be difference of opinions on how things can or should be done, almost all the basic steps of how the society functions is set in stone – we need schools, hospitals, lawyers, politicians, an annoying next door neighbor, the local bar, a good porn site, a cause one is passionate about, and opinion on the weather. We identify with who we are by all that we socially accumulated. Are we only to be a prisoner to our own need to bond? Also, I wonder if we feel comfortable taking more because that is the current way to further our social bonds.
We like to feel special // We work towards exclusivity. We look to graduate to more and more exclusive experiences with our social circles. We have special days, like mothers day. We work for the weekend and there is plethora of activities, night life, vacation spots, limousines for rent whose sole existence is to make one feel or a group of people feel special. It is a currency that people accumulate and share within their exclusive circle. It is a moment that people outside the group crave for – box seats, photos with celebrities, attending an exclusive conference. We complain about people who have more than us not being inclusive while we want exclusive access to clearly demarcate and show to oneself and others that we have graduated to the “next” circle in our lives. Hence giving becomes a top down activity. The ones deciding to trickle down to the ones who are essentially not included in their circles. Be it at any tier. How can we talk about including instead of giving?
