Survival in 21st Century

I believe there is no alternative to 21st century survival for the younger generation unless we are all intelligently and honestly team-nurtured in families, offices, communities to become more collaborative, cooperative and coordinated among ourselves. This must begin from individual better change approaches.

An awakened Emotional Intelligence- involving self management and management of others- is needed to sustain life in this mad VUCA World of ours. Education and therefore our behavior is a manifestation of that perfection in Man- which Nature has bestowed more wholesomely on the fairer sex perhaps. But like Purusha and Prakriti are all in each individual- male or female! In fact, whereas the emphasis today among younger generation is seen to be to build physical courage, the need to show moral courage is emerging with the advent of the lack of alternatives. The fact is we are possibly but definitely heading toward chaos- a demographic disaster of unimaginable proportions! 

Why and how?- well, unemployment is growing by leaps and bounds, despite the soft musical notes from the powers that be regarding creating this industry and that....just observe the last five years and assess the staggering unemployment among the so-called 'demographic dividend' India boasts of. In France and many European country like Austria, Greece- the youth is protesting against lack of jobs. In Germany, Japan, USA (and surely our Industrial Leaders in India shall emulate), robotics is taking over production and productivity. Any solutions?

So our youth is now expected to indulge in Start Ups and Entrepreneurship by millions under these circumstances!  

“This world, this life of ours with our experiences and feelings are all a dream of fantastic catastrophe” -Shilabhadra, Chancellor of Nalanda University, 600 B.C.-India

“If a person rises to a level of authority that exceeds his virtue, all around him will suffer”

 -Guanzi, a predecessor of Confucius, 490 B.C. - China

Very, very few of us, unfortunately, evolve into a state of conscious competence level by the time we are in youth and become mature individuals. Very, very few like Stephen Hawkins, Einstein and other scientists who have contributed & are contributing to find more & more about life and living, scale a level early in life, where they view the world from their balanced perspectives, as birds in the sky. Their third eyes are opened. But generally speaking, with general public what I mean to say is that there is a big schism between most individuals' chronological and psychological ages. And this creates the problems of volatility, uncertainty, complexity & ambiguity in human relations. 

Technology absolutely ignores these issues, brushing them under the carpet of what we are increasingly getting used to as 'digital management'- or identification of us individuals as mere numbers in this funny game-precisely manipulated with cunning & digital expertise by those who have access to power and effective control of armaments and media. These same righteous persons who, in our various states of conscious and unconscious incompetence, we elect 'democratically' to provide us the basic democratic amenities to build our careers and consolidate our families. 

Naturally, our environment- with the sustenance of poverty and slow filtering of digital goodies especially those goodies that trigger more our sensuous and less our sensitive natures, influences our economic and social behaviors drastically. 

And then, if we recall the contents of "Animal Farm"- then naturally we must agree the media becomes the message, massage and Mass Age of our lives. Crowd management is not a new phenomena- it began way back in the pre-WWII years. And American Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Coolidge, Eisenhower are stated to have utilized the benefits of Freud's smart nephew Edward Barney- to create the ambiance we live in today.   

The media is giving us only sensuous matter. Our TV serials are inverted toward the illogical- stimulating sensuous and erratic behavior in real lives of our children. They are more tuned in toward 'wants' than 'needs'. Our movies have for decades emphasized mainly on one issue - "love"- not love for the nation but love between two individuals of opposite sex. It is a fixation among youth born post 1990s, to fall in love with the damsel next door. Research among slum dwellers could reveal wonderful statistics toward such aspirations and more! The proliferation of wine shops is one other indicator. It is reported in localities in Calcutta that kids  11 to 18 years are major consumers of hard drinks today. This is the same in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, NE States and other eastern states- this region which is the most backward of the 4 economic regions in India. 

So how do we deal with this VUCA situation- as parents, political leaders, though leaders like Amartya Sen and others-  just merely writing argumentative books will no longer do! Something more is needed. 

Let us then think on such real issues of arginal returns and not diminishing returns.....