The effect of negative politics

Politics has been always a part of our lives. Whether we vote or not, support any political party or not, engage in political discussions or not, politics touches different realms of our lives, especially when it starts polarizing society to such an extent that there is no middle ground. You are assumed to be either with or against them. You will be assigned a side, even if you don't choose any. Actually, choosing a side is not bad, we must take a stand on issues. Neutrality doesn't solve any problems, it makes it worse. However, bracketing someone as a friend or enemy based on their stand is the problem. Extreme polarization is a direct effect of negative politics. This is a type of politics where a leader or a political party establishes their identity entirely based on their political opponent. The political opponent is no longer just a political rival but is categorized as an enemy of the state, and the same label is given to all its supporters. This is the type of politics where the party we support entirely evades any scrutiny as they want our attention only focused on our opponents. Each and every move of the opponent is highlighted as an antinational activity. No wonder such politics divides a country more than any enemy propaganda can. People start treating their political rivals as anti-nationals, each election is like a war against the enemy of the state rather than an election between ideologies. 

Now you may ask, what's new in all this? Political parties and their leaders were always attacking each other, political rivalries and heated arguments have been part of our culture for centuries, and political polarization existed before. And you are right. However, we were not as siloed as we are now. I was amazed to see how soloed people are. Nowadays, people read only a particular newspaper or watch only a particular news channel, and follow a particular movie star, not because they feel that's the best or most informative, but just because it supports their political ideology. People surround themselves with people who think and behave the same. How pathetic it is for the development of our society. We are hesitant to engage with people different than us and without any engagement we have very strong opinions about them. In an era where information is easily accessible to a large population, we chose to live in echo chambers. In an era where we know most about gender equality, different sexualities, and different facets of human life, many of us chose to close our eyes and ears and think that the regressive society of 100 years back was a better place than today's society. 

Does all this make me angry, frustrated, sad, or all three? Well, sometimes. But mostly I feel pity. I feel pity for all who only define themselves based on their perceived political enemies without having their own identity. I feel pity for all those who refuse to accept the feelings and choices of their fellow humans and resent or hate them just for who they are. I feel pity, not because I feel I am more intelligent or better informed than them, but because they have access to the same information that I used to refine and update my views but they refuse to do it. I had very dated views about many social and political issues as came from an underprivileged background and access to information was not easy. But when that access became available I used it to check each and every value and opinion that I held on to so dearly. Many of them couldn't stand that scrutiny, the choice I had was to stick to my old beliefs and refuse to change or accept that many things that I learned from my culture were regressive and I should change. I am glad that I chose to change. This is why I can now recognize the negative politics and stay away from it. I am optimistic that people will come out of their siloed chambers and recognize and appreciate the diversity of our world. Imagine having the same color, same pattern, same leader, same song, same ideology, and same gender, and the same everything around. How unreal and unnatural that world will look. The negative politics wants us to desire just that, a society without any diversity, be aware, and act accordingly. 

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 allow someone else to define the meaning of happiness for you

We all live under various psychological pressures. We have pressure from our family to perform certain duties and fulfill their expectations. We have pressure from society and from our peers to confirm their expectations, there is also pressure from social media, the pressure created by different advertisements, and different products marketed which seem to be necessary if we want to be happy, and so on. The point is, that someone is continuously telling us what to do to look beautiful, they want to explain to us what it means to be a cool person or a happy family. These things are explained in a very vivid and glossy way. Advertisements tell us how one should enjoy life, many vacation package-offering companies insist on why we need to go on vacations to strike a balance between work and life. These messages are very tempting and often irresistible, not easy to ignore as a lot of effort and research goes into making these advertisements. Many such things are going around us in the real world as well as the virtual world which try to define happiness for us. If you believe in all these things, then you have to have the latest phone to be cool, you should look a certain way and wear fashionable clothes to look beautiful, you need to have a certain type of body or complexion, you need to go on vacation to fancy places, buy a home, get a new car as your old one is junk, and the list can go on depending on your need to fit in. The question is do we really need others to define what it means to be happy for us?

Maybe many of us do need some advice about how to be happy as we may not know what we really want. In that case, these advertisements can be of help as they can help you to find something which you like. But, there is a catch, these advertisements are made by very talented professionals using the information from the research and data based on human behavior. This is why they are so compelling that you end up liking what advertisement makers want you to like, not what you really like. This whole process is very confusing because it is very difficult to figure out whether what we really want is a product of our own needs and desires, or a result of influence from all these external factors. Many people, including me fall for these tricks. We all are bombarded on social media with such messages, and our online search is continuously tracked, whether we are watching a movie or a TV we are continuously exposed to such messages that want us to do something or buy something. 

These messages are very useful if we use them to our advantage, but they are very problematic if we get consumed by them. When we start chasing the dreams designed by others for us, we may not get that feeling of fulfillment even after living that dream. It is better to spend time looking for our own needs and dreams rather than trying to be successful in society's eyes or in the eyes of people around us. At the same time, let me acknowledge that it is not easy to resist the pressure to fit in. It is not easy to walk a different path when most people around us try to follow the path paved by these consultants of happiness. I have learned to evaluate most of my needs and desires objectively to see if I really need them or if they are the product of pressure created by all the messages which my brain knowingly or unknowingly receives from my surroundings. Many times, I reject these things as I can't justify their presence in my life, and many times, I chase these ideas and try to fulfill those desires. Technically, I am not a minimalist. I don't own only what I need, but I do try to limit as much as possible as per my own wish. If the pressure to be a minimalist is created by some undue external guilt, then it is as bad as the pressure to buy something or to spend on something that you may not need but are buying just because everyone else has it. 

The pursuit of happiness was comparatively easy for our previous generation, for us it is more complex and it is going to be even more complex for our future generation. This is why we all need to come up with our individual plans to pursue our own happiness. Humans are complex organisms, and our happiness is even more complex (because our brain is a very complicated organ). It is not necessary that we all must enjoy or dislike the same things, our choices can vary a lot, and there is nothing wrong with it. Try to define your own happiness, don't let these external pressures dictate terms to you. Don't go on vacation unless you really want to go, there is nothing wrong with enjoying your work so much that you don't need a vacation. There is nothing wrong in loving your own body the way it is, or working out hard to change its shape, provided you are doing these things as per your own wish, and to make yourself happy. Don't allow your surroundings to define happiness and force you to work for it. Define your own style, your own happiness, needs, and desires yourself, and then take the help of people and resources around you to fulfill them. 

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]