SAHAJTA: SPONTANEITY

We are aware of the dangers of a repressive state. We are more aware nowadays about the dangers of a controlling society. But are we aware of the dangers of a free society? 

Karl Popper in his essay, "The Open Society and its enemies" mentions three thinkers, Plato, Hegel and Marx as the three enemies of the free society. As if, the contributions of these three thinkers have in role of every oppression that happened in history, every form of evil that existed, every curbing of freedom that ever happened in the course of Human history. 

In the coming times, this essay was more and more narrativized by the US right wing intelligentsia and some give up mindset leftists like Francis Fukuyama in his "The end of History" more and more such that nowadays, our world is cursed with a weird anomaly of a system. It is not free market, and it is of course not welfare state. It is somewhere in the absurd middle. This so called Madhyam Marg of the world economic system does not inherit good genes from its parent 20th century ideologies, rather it has taken the dwarf genes of both the system and merge them into what we call today "Neo-Liberal Thought". A thought where individual rights are curbed in name of identity politics and Market forces infiltrate the minds of the people and make their Mindspace a sort of a commodity warehouse. How can we understand the basis of oppression today in this advertised liberal and free society that we live in? What is the vantage point from which if we begin our analysis, we can be sure of that we understand in what keyways the state apparatus, the market, the social Hegemons, Oppress us?

I claim that this central point of argument is "Sahajta or Spontaneity". The Neo-liberal socio-economic system kills your spontaneity. It does not force you to repress. It incentivizes you to express hence rendering the expression transactional and mute. It does not let you express yourself freely by incentivizing you to express only what it wants you to express and gives you gifts in return. What do I mean? let me expand. 

Let us take an example of Memory. Memories and how they are formed we will not go in the scientific aspect of it. But, they are formed naturally in our minds and are a source of bitter-sweet pleasure. Bitter pleasure as in, nostalgia, a feeling of incompleteness in the present and inability to relive the past. Sweet pleasure as in a remembrance of something sweet, Like it tastes like a rasgullah in your mouth imagining the last time you had a rasgullah. But with the advent of the Digital Content Economic system, Everyone is incentivized in terms of likes, shares and followers to post a certain kind of picture, a certain kind of post, a certain kind of feed. Don't you find a pattern in the way people write captions to their pictures when they go for a vacation? It is all, "Khusiyon ke pal", "Yaaron ki baatein..." etc. 

This cheap commodification of your memories and your sentiments is an accepted norm today. You do not rebel. Everyone is in a peer pressure of validation. "I must post a picture otherwise going to a place will not be worth it".

What is more interesting is that People willingly sell their memories to the algorithm. It is in a way giving a share in your Mindspace to your algorithm. The mental health harms of this can be unprecedented. We are not even counting that. Most of the critiques of the social media and using excessive content driven smart phones is a conservative one. Eye issues, Low attention span, honey trapping, vulnerable youth being distracted, etc. But, I think these are still very individual centric and simplistic problems that do not have a very wide scale impact. I am concerned with a very rigorous study that must happen how our relationship to screens, be it mobile phones, Laptops, social media, content etc. shapes the way we think as a society, the way it shapes our common sense, our relationship with our immediate world. 

When Globalization came and Countries opened their borders for everyone. two things were seen. One, rise in global tourism and second, a Hugh level of national insecurity and xenophobia amongst the citizens of every country. Then, Every country needed to launch their version of "Atithi devo Bhava" campaigns and ads to stop this mistreatment with tourists. These new changes took time to settle and now the world has adjusted to the new economic sector of tourism and a new psychological category became available to every citizen to be able to see a foreigner while living within his own country. Otherwise you needed to go to France to see Frenchmen. 

Similarly, in this context, if we look at the Digital content globalization and the economic system that comes with it, We need to admit that As Globalization was the world being a village, Digitalization is the world becoming one person, rather the world being forced to become one person. It is like in those cartoons where the character eats too much food and then becomes unstable in his form, It is as if the whole world is being forced down the throat of every single individual and Individual's Mindspace has been completely distorted, he has forgotten the difference between world visible to eyes and world visible to his eyes through the screen. Screens did not remains windows to the outside world, they have become the screens of imagination, they come attached to the humans as if. The Mobile phone seems to be inside every human being. The boundary between mind and phone has completely demolished. The phone is the mind and the mind is the phone. 

In this, Mental health cases happen like the malfunctioning of a phone. Burnouts happen like you have scrolled through all the feeds of your Instagram and nothing remained left to be seen. Depression happens because the Human dopamine levels are at all time high and as usual not satisfied and the world did not remain a wonder for his mind to be explored. Everything became available to his eye-palate at a tap, with a finger tap. So, we see all time high in the entertainment industry and all time high dopamine levels. The dangers of high dopamine levels, we do not have a very clear researched data on how it impacts the individual and the society at large. 

In all of this, one central thing remains Sahajta or Spontaneous behavior. This is the central thing at attack nowadays. I am not talking about being haphazard or being non-routinely. I am talking about the genuine by chance, coincidental life events that just used to happen without our need of attention and still amazed us. In fact, they were amazing, even if they hurt, because of the surprise element of those events. A good "Hi, Hello" with a stranger, and he belongs to the same village as you, Where did this joy go? A sudden memory comes up in your mind about something old that happened to you, and a faint smile that comes to your face, knowing that you do not own any photos of the incident and yet it is beautiful. In fact, it is beautiful just because the only source of its occurrence is in your head. Not stored in any database, any cloud storage, any feed. It is extraordinary because it is not for sale and exhibition for the social media. It is there as a dream. 

Past was a dream and was beautiful until Cameras came and ruined everything. 

What was your last decision, last spontaneous decision that you let yourself flow into? It can be a mistake as well. May be a foolish decision, but still your own and spontaneous and hence duly important. You will find this category as invisible. People do not live authentically; they do not live spontaneously nowadays. And that is because of a self-Panorama is always visible to them through the mobile phone. They Live in a perpetual Sartre's Hell, Where Hell are other people but now Other people have penetrated even intruded the Mindspace of the individual to the deepest core, through the mobile phone. 

"Other" was always a dreaded category in Psychoanalysis and Psychology. It is a general acceptance in Psychoanalytic literature that Other is always a source of Nausea and Anxiety to the self. However friendly you think someone is to you, beyond a point, your presence bothers him. That is why, "Respecting each other's boundaries" is more than just an ethical phrase, it is a psychological phrase. 

But with the advent of Smart Phones, the Other has hijacked the self. The Self is the most insecure creature that is there in this world nowadays. Wherever I see today, I see inferiority complex, I see a sense of insecurity of oneself and a sense of seeking validation. People are most insecure in this century. The Word, "God Complex" is coined for someone who thinks big of himself. But I think the coinage of this term itself and its popularity in current times show that people have started to take pride in thinking low about themselves. Inferiority complex is rebranded as "Self-awareness". And People who wish to do better things for society at large are questioned, "Who do you think you are? Why such a God complex?" I believe having a certain God complex is required for existence. A happy man, for me, are two kinds of people, one who thinks he is God, or second, one who aspires to be God. Other than them, all other men live bare lives of self-inflicted Metaphoric casteism, Where you yourself start to think that you need help, you are helpless, you are Dalit, you are victim, you are not capable of greatness, you are an untouchable so to say, metaphorically. This feeling of lowliness is so prevalent today. 

And the core reason of all these bunch of symptoms, inexhaustive they are definitely, is loss of spontaneity in lives of people. People will have to be more spontaneous towards life. This is not a life lesson. This is just an observation. I do not know how will they do it. I can tell you how I ensure it. I do not try to be anything. I have no ambitions left to fit in a certain societal way. For instance, I am aspiring for civil services, So, beyond a point, I am a believer of the fact that knowledge and skills are earned through hard work but personality, and the way I am, cannot be changed for an exam and should not be changed for an exam or for a job. One should not fetch a manual of how a Civil servant behaves and looks and speaks and then fit yourself in the shoe of a stereotype Bureaucrat. Rather, I come from a school of thought of Picasso, a strong confidence on individuality such that, Picasso declares, "My Mom prayed for me that I become the best painter in the world and in turn, I became Picasso, the painter who is an inspiration for the best painters of the world." 

Your individuality should not be compromised. By individuality, I do not mean the pop culture meaning, that is, a narcissistic, self-interest to be fulfilled. I mean, a certain trait, a certain way you speak, a certain way you express, a certain way you like or dislike things. Spontaneity lies in hanging to one's innermost core, a core which demands perpetual stability and at ease feeling with oneself. Being spontaneous helps you to be at ease with yourself. 

Most of the people I know, I mean, not most, I have seen, all of them, all of them are not at ease with themselves. They are young people, but even old people, still trying to fit into a mold. They spent a lifetime acting something that they are not. A father was once a guy, but he is method acting for 40 years now he has no personality left than being a father. A professional civil servant, and I know a few, they forced their selves so much to fit into the character traits of a civil servant that they are now what Marcuse calls, "The One-Dimensional Man". 

Aspirants who have only aspired for job have become so job and economy obsessed that they chase Marks and cut offs like they chase money. A Civil services aspirant is such a beautiful place to be. You learn so much about the world and your own country. Only if you have the attention to let yourself flow into this. Only if you not drive yourself crazy all the time, stressing about how much marks did you score in a particular mock. But, then I found them in vain. Like, I used to think, how is it that a man reads so much of humanities and does not have his individuality shaped around it? A man of humanities should talk history and walk Economics. But, alas, he talks begging for job and walks on anxiety of security of life. 

सोशलमीडिया खा गई मेरे दोस्तों के शौक़, 

कविता, कहानी और फलसफ़ों के शौक़ |

Sahajta, is this such a big thing to ask? You are constantly forced to assume some or the other digital identity which can be commodified. Your genuine self is not sellable and hence unwanted by the Digital market. Let me end with a final example. The ambitions of this insecure society is at all time high. At the same time, we see such a high hedonism with a sense of Nihilism or lack of meaning prevalent. I ask you, What is this combination of ideologies that the society is considering ideal today? Nihilism filled being a hedonist ambition that forces you to run blindly for the pursuit of an ambition and then after achievement, into blind consumption. And if the person of ambition is a poor person, he is glorified in the name of being a Marginalized. Everyone wants today to highlight how underprivileged their lives have been. Everyone wants to be the Slumdog Millionaire. The Slumdog's story is a content today. "Gareeb ka baccha bana IAS", is a headline. In general, an IAS top ranker is a highlight for no reason. It is just a job. Why so hype? Kunal Kamra, the famous standup artist, said once, "The place from where the actual contradiction of life begins, the story of our ambition driven cinema stops there. A film like "12th Fail" stops when he becomes an IPS. The whole film is not focused on a meaningful purpose for which he wants to be an IAS. Just because he is poor, he strives to be an IAS. Ambition for the sake of Self-interest. That is why people are depressed. Their ambition lacks the gravitas. Self-interest is a shallow source of ambition. Man is not meant to think only for himself. He is bigger than that. But you are forcing your individuality into what you are not. You were never just a selfish prick. But today you are. 

 Is this what you feel proud on? You call me a communist, but you are a Self-hating consumption driven digital subject blinded by Hedonist ambitions without a meaningful purpose. That suits you, doesn't it? Be introspective and tell me. 

My words hurt because they are meant to hurt. You are not at ease with yourself with constantly forcing yourself to be one or the other thing. The whole digital content economy is forcing down your throat a personality stereotype according to your ambition and you have stopped putting a flavor of yourself in your personal life and your professional life. Your life was your canvas, it meant to have your own colors. But you chose colors that were popular on social media and that made your life painting dull, a boring replica of thousands of mediocre lives lived before, a cheap newspaper which becomes old and boring within 24 hours. 

प्रतिमाओं में पूजा उलझी, विधियों में उलझा भक्ति योग, 

सच्चे मन से षड्यंत्र रचे, झूठे मन से सच के प्रयोग! 

जो प्रश्नों से ढह जाए वो किरदार बनाकर क्या पाया? 

जो शिलालेख बनता उसको अख़बार बनाकर क्या पाया? 

~ कुमार विश्वास