Cobwebs

About: the randomness of interactions between human beings and groups. And how they affect individuals as well as society.

Earth carries a wealth of animate and inanimate objects. Those in our immediate environment look quite predictable and stable. On a larger scale things are predictable even to the extent of looking uniform, for example the seasons, the migration patterns of birds and animals, nations and the rules by which they interact with each other, the rules by which their citizens live by, yes there’s seems to be a sort of predictability and stability at play.

Brush the surface and one will realise that on an individual scale, the randomness is the dominant force in play. It forms a bigger part of forces that affects the course of everything on earth. When we talk about humans, no human is black or white or completely good or bad. Everyone lies somewhere in the centre or off centre and rarely at either ends of the spectrum. One can call them grey, not white nor black. Even this greyness is not the same everyday. Somedays it might have more of white and somedays more of black. Sometimes the shade keeps on changing throughout the day.

When these colour shifting individuals interact individually or in groups the chaos increases. When groups interact then chaos increases exponentially. There are rules to follow in any civilisation/nation. But they cannot compensate for the individual emotional states at any given moment and that individuals prevalent belief systems. Almost every individual yearns for predictability and uniformity, all their lives. An assurance of continuity and predictability always calms them and soothes their nerves. At the same time giving them an illusion of peace. This is kind of paradoxical. Individuals react and interact randomly with each other, with the surroundings and to any other external stimuli, but will always prefer uniformity and stability from others and nature. This is an inherent human paradox. But this paradox always leads to increasing chaos in collecting information, processing it, arriving at conclusions and expressing them. Further adding to the randomness of human interactions.

This has consequences. Consequences that can lead an afflicted individual, on to a variety of paths. Some may find solace in God. An higher power to which everything that’s happening can be attributed to. Though the logic and reasoning behind it is fuzzy, religions provides a plausible explanation to the chaos. Also, religion and its ritualistic repetitive processes, add that much wanted layer of predictability over the overall randomness of life. And that predictability is what every human being craves for.

On the other extreme the individual may succumb to addictions like drugs and alcohol or may exhibit antisocial behaviour, self harm, etc,.

Between the two, lies a conflicted individual i.e. an individual who has lost his ability to react. Who knows the futility of religion but accepts it, as they have been conditioned since childhood to have faith without any questions. They suppress their questions, kill their inherent curiosity and destroy their sense of awe and wonder. These individuals then accept whatever the universe offers to them obediently. Without any dissent. Some may just become inert and robotic in their day to day affairs while most find solace in excessive consumption(over and above what is normally required). Be it food, clothing, electronics, newer models of everything, technology, vehicles etc., They may also go down the path of accumulating possessions and money. This is a broken individual. A dead soul. Living on, till death ends their sufferings. Worst part of it is that they never realise it, even till the end. This is a tragedy of massive proportions.

All this might be acceptable on an individual level but on larger scale religion and ideologies, along with their fanatical followers, have always leads to schisms, frictions and even wars between different population groups within nations and also between different nations. Ambitious leaders see opportunity in this. Utilising it for their own benefit, to progress to the top spot of the pyramid. But that’s all it is. Just a spot or a position at the top. And at times in the course of history there can be many ambitious individuals rising at the same time in different places of the world. In their battle for glory they slow down the speed of evolution and in some instances even reversing it.

The question is, Who will dust the cobwebs, covering the eyes and ears of humanity? For humans at an individual or societal level, are incapable to do that, on their own.

©️ShashikantDudhgaonkar