Space. It’s a wonderful feeling to own a lot of space. And I am talking about the personal space here, the space to do more things, the space to do things at leisure, and more ‘deliberately’ without the ‘heave’ from all sides. Across the last few days, I could see a difference in the way things had spaced out for me. And I seriously believed it was a lot about the perspective, macro versus the micro.
Both are important, but on different occasions one needs to shift the mode from one to the other. The micro perspective helps focus on details, in avoiding small but critical mistakes, while at the same time too much focus on the micro perspective can also lead to missing the big picture. The macro perspective on the other hand ensures one always has the big picture in mind and that was a big help in setting my “ought to do” priorities. All the same, the flaw of having the macro perspective as a constant companion is that one might end up missing the finer points.
And there is a new problem I was facing now. While I gained immense space by wearing the macro hat, at the same time I thought the hat was too wide, may be a tad too big for my head. Even so, it was fun wearing it, at least for the time being. The problem was that instead of blocking my vision, my new hat actually seemed to have opened up my eyes to the world around.
When I looked around in one of the world’s most moneyed cities Dubai, life wasn’t a tranquil experience for every one. There were those here who could spend a thousand dirhams for a glass of fine French wine without even batting an eyelid, while some others out there on the streets were ready to bow their head, join their hands and slog not less than sixteen hours a day to earn a trifling sum of four hundred dirhams a month, all to support a family of eight back in their home countries.
So what really lied beneath all these different faces? Did they have different philosophies to life? Or did they think alike? After all, at the end of the day, they were all human flesh and blood. I suppose both the premises were true, but only partly. The real question was which one of them was more exact than the other. I believed it to be the former. Most people allow their thoughts to be governed by their circumstances. When I meet some one new in a job, all they want to focus on is do well in their career, have fun and that’s that. You spin towards the disadvantaged strata, and they would be mulling over ways of pulling together enough of the indispensable resources. A look at the relatively successful and well-heeled, and you would find them drawn towards the most up-to-the-minute fads. Finally, the erudites amongst us would have the taste for the uncharted.
The social inequity, of thoughts and means isn’t just a failing of today’s society but has in fact always existed. The amazement however is that the famed modernism in the last century or so hasn’t done much to cerebralize the exploits of the vast majority. Consider Einstein’s quest to unify his general theory of relativity with the new laws of quantum physics seventy years or so ago. As in the world of “Alvin Tofler’s Future Shock” that’s perhaps equivalent of twenty five thousand years of human progress before that. Compare that quest now with the grapple for existence of the masses of today. That no doubt is not a grand sign of modernism and true progress.
So, what is true modernism? How far off is that from where the humanity stands today? Are we on the right track to the betterment of the world at large? I believe not yet but we do have the right ammunition. Be it the technology or the human resources, the world has everything that it takes. Except just one thing, the will to do it. Some one, some where has to demonstrate boundless benevolence, ingenious game plan and gritty execution to achieve true progress. Well, I know that would sound akin to a repetitive phrase from a regular Hollywood flick, but remember, we are genuinely talking about changing the world here. And therefore, that’s easier said than done. There are many impediments that hover all around in the form of thorny questions. Some of these include issues like what exactly needs to be focused on, who will do it and how. The scale of the riddle itself is mind boggling.
Both are important, but on different occasions one needs to shift the mode from one to the other. The micro perspective helps focus on details, in avoiding small but critical mistakes, while at the same time too much focus on the micro perspective can also lead to missing the big picture. The macro perspective on the other hand ensures one always has the big picture in mind and that was a big help in setting my “ought to do” priorities. All the same, the flaw of having the macro perspective as a constant companion is that one might end up missing the finer points.
And there is a new problem I was facing now. While I gained immense space by wearing the macro hat, at the same time I thought the hat was too wide, may be a tad too big for my head. Even so, it was fun wearing it, at least for the time being. The problem was that instead of blocking my vision, my new hat actually seemed to have opened up my eyes to the world around.
When I looked around in one of the world’s most moneyed cities Dubai, life wasn’t a tranquil experience for every one. There were those here who could spend a thousand dirhams for a glass of fine French wine without even batting an eyelid, while some others out there on the streets were ready to bow their head, join their hands and slog not less than sixteen hours a day to earn a trifling sum of four hundred dirhams a month, all to support a family of eight back in their home countries.
So what really lied beneath all these different faces? Did they have different philosophies to life? Or did they think alike? After all, at the end of the day, they were all human flesh and blood. I suppose both the premises were true, but only partly. The real question was which one of them was more exact than the other. I believed it to be the former. Most people allow their thoughts to be governed by their circumstances. When I meet some one new in a job, all they want to focus on is do well in their career, have fun and that’s that. You spin towards the disadvantaged strata, and they would be mulling over ways of pulling together enough of the indispensable resources. A look at the relatively successful and well-heeled, and you would find them drawn towards the most up-to-the-minute fads. Finally, the erudites amongst us would have the taste for the uncharted.
The social inequity, of thoughts and means isn’t just a failing of today’s society but has in fact always existed. The amazement however is that the famed modernism in the last century or so hasn’t done much to cerebralize the exploits of the vast majority. Consider Einstein’s quest to unify his general theory of relativity with the new laws of quantum physics seventy years or so ago. As in the world of “Alvin Tofler’s Future Shock” that’s perhaps equivalent of twenty five thousand years of human progress before that. Compare that quest now with the grapple for existence of the masses of today. That no doubt is not a grand sign of modernism and true progress.
So, what is true modernism? How far off is that from where the humanity stands today? Are we on the right track to the betterment of the world at large? I believe not yet but we do have the right ammunition. Be it the technology or the human resources, the world has everything that it takes. Except just one thing, the will to do it. Some one, some where has to demonstrate boundless benevolence, ingenious game plan and gritty execution to achieve true progress. Well, I know that would sound akin to a repetitive phrase from a regular Hollywood flick, but remember, we are genuinely talking about changing the world here. And therefore, that’s easier said than done. There are many impediments that hover all around in the form of thorny questions. Some of these include issues like what exactly needs to be focused on, who will do it and how. The scale of the riddle itself is mind boggling.
Assuming it’s doable, let’s for a moment toy with the idea of arriving at the what, who and how.
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