History is always incomplete and biased

History is important. It is important to know about past mistakes and learn from them to avoid repeating them. However, history is rarely used for this purpose. Mostly, history is used to boast about the past, instill feelings of unreasonable pride, fuel perpetual hate among communities by using some tragic and unpleasant incidents from the past, or glorify certain characters to create a cult. There are several examples to demonstrate that we refuse to learn lessons from history and purposely repeat the same mistakes to inflict the same wounds. For example, communities who suffered genocide or societal hate don't hesitate to do the same to other communities when they get power; communities whose religious structure was demolished to build another religious structure don't hesitate to do the same when they get power in their hands. History as well as our present is full of examples like this. 

The reason why I am saying history is incomplete and biased is because not even a tiny fraction of what actually happened is recorded in written history. What we read is only recorded and preserved by winners and subsequent rulers. Also, what was recorded were the views and perspectives of people who could be interviewed, were willing to talk, and by people who had the privilege to speak and write. This all made history an important but very biased and incomplete account. Basing our present views and opinions only based on historical accounts completely ignoring the present situation is what makes us repeat that history again and again. The danger of seeking revenge for historical conflicts only results in creating more conflicts for future revenge, this cycle is endless unless one of the sides decides to take a higher moral stand and settle the issue amicably through peaceful negotiations. Most historical accounts don't say anything about the masses, they completely ignore nuances of human suffering and resilience.  

Does this mean we should not study history? No, we should study history. We must critically study history and interpret it with context. History without context is just a list of events and dates, nothing more. The context needs to be broad enough to make historical events relevant for everyone affected by those events in the past as well as the present. If we do this, even incomplete and biased historical accounts may help us to resolve complicated conflicts that have been going on for decades or centuries. Without such reasonable use of history, it will remain another tool that had the potential to benefit humanity but like nuclear power, we converted it into a deadly weapon and are only using as a deadly weapon against each other. We are not perfect, and neither is history, we can make use of imperfect history to make our present and future perfect. If not, we will be busy creating more imperfect and divisive history, the same way as our ancestors did. The choice is ours. 

Thank you for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

© Vinay Thakur, All rights reserved, Vinay can be reached at thevinay2022@gmail.com 

Don't trade self-respect for respect from others

Validation from others is one of the basic requirements for humans. We don't live in groups that we call society for only physical safety, but also because it is emotionally not easy for humans to survive alone. Humans are social animals, and with social life comes interaction with others, with that interaction comes different types of personal and social exchanges. Humans crave validation and respect from others. If our views, behavior, and personality are respected by others, we feel validated and our thinking about self-worth improves. Very few of us can ignore this need to get validation from others, people go to great lengths to receive such validation. Social media has exacerbated this need. Now, people crave continuous validation, their life depends on the number of likes and views of whatever they post on social media. This need has become so desperate that people are willing to trade self-respect to fit in and get that craved validation from others. That is, they are willing to trade their self-respect in return for respect from others.

Social media has provided a free and easily accessible avenue to become a famous and likable personality for everyone with internet access. This accessibility has its own pros and cons. Easy internet access has given us access to a vast amount of information, at the same time, it has given people a platform to broadcast themselves 24/7. When everyone is broadcasting who will watch? So, there is intense competition to capture and retain the audience whose attention span is reducing day by day. People are willing to post whatever it takes to get the attention of the online audience. Remember, when the new channels became available 24/7, they lost their unique ability to deliver news without much sensationalization and became entertainment channels. The same thing is happening with all social media users. In the race to capture the likes and views of online audiences, people are becoming objects of entertainment broadcasting their curated lives rather than sharing genuine human emotions. Qualities like compassion, support, love, and kindness could also be shared online, but we hardly see discussion about these things. Feelings like hate and dislike get a disproportionate amount of attention, and the display of unreasonable wealth and comfort also gets more eyeballs. People try to fit in by fulfilling these demands. Therefore, if exuberance, display of wealth and comfort, hate, dislike, political polarization, and divisive agenda are in high demand, they try to cater to this demand. As people's lives are overburdened with the expectation of being popular and relevant all the time, many try to mold themselves to fit into the current popular trends. This is why you see an endless supply of content that people watch without any emotional involvement. Online surfing has become like any other addictive behavior, people do it compulsively even at the cost of personal detriment as they just can't stop it even if they want to. I feel that people need to take a pause and self-reflect. They need to evaluate what they are doing and why. They should start with why first, it is always good to ask why are we doing something and then move on to the rest of the questions. Our self-respect is one of the most valuable treasures we possess, please don't trade it for respect from others. Remember, if you don't respect yourself, others for sure won't. So, start by respecting yourself and then build your surroundings with people who do not want you to trade your self-respect to get respect from them. 

Thank you for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

© Vinay Thakur, All rights reserved, Vinay can be reached at thevinay2022@gmail.com

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my readers and well-wishers! We all added another year of valuable experiences to our lives. Our experiences and learnings from those experiences make us who we are and how we behave with others. Every new year brings a lot of hope and enthusiasm to us, it gives us an opportunity to restart if we are feeling stuck for some reason. Not everyone needs the occasion of a new year to restart, but for anyone who is looking for such an opportunity, a new year is a good occasion to consider such a restart. Celebrations and occasions to have some social time could help us with our mental hygiene. So, take this opportunity to pause and ponder. Readjust and restart if necessary. Most important, take care of yourself and spread compassion and love.

Once again, happy New Year.