Real Life

Honestly speaking, 'current affairs' has become such a generic term to describe events upon which our world revolves today (even to an implacable extent). It's something so important that young people somehow miss out on it. Ironic? I'll let you know, I used to constitute that notorious segment of youth culture not too long ago; which has indeed been a complicated on-and-off relationship ever since. That being said, I shall not be ashamed to confess of how stupid that habit is, and in it I am still a work-in-progress.

Why do we emphasize on the importance of keeping up with the news? First off (as everyone else will tell you), the web of knowledge found in media (either print or electronic), is indispensable to the nourishment of all individuals as self-sufficient thinking beings. Secondly, when one's colleagues might discuss the pros and cons of the introduction of any parliamentary amendment, one certainly must have a valid and genuine opinion based on the savant called critical thinking. Otherwise, one might just appear to be as good (or frightful) as an airhead. The fragility of the human ego is at stake!

I started reading the papers again - better to be late than never, I assumed. Overwhelmed at the atrocities which continue to plague our societal ecosystem, I (as someone on the verge of voting and hopefully drinking rights) feel the need to bring these topics to light by means of intra-personal communication to understand and know how exactly everything is a work-in-progress.

Take the recent Facebook scandal, for example. I remember an online meme trend a few years ago which likened Zuckerberg to an alien. Now thanks to Frances Haugen, the trillion-worth social-networking company is being condemned to legal crossfire on grounds of infringement of work ethics, privacy, and the promotion of disruptive and hateful content - and they knew everything, didn't they! The whole operation is being compared to something worse than an alien, if you will. Moreover, I have realised something quite uncanny out of all this: the root of most conflicts lie in disinformation to the analytical public.

Conflict also emerges from denial. Allegations of governmental autocracy are covered up in excuses of them being "perceptual inconsistencies". The massacre of farmers during their protest at Lakhimpur Khera raise the question of just how the administrative machinery can be relied on. Think climate change due to air pollution in Kolkata, and how airport construction plans encroach upon hand-to-mouth livelihoods in rural India. Inequality of income to all economic classes might still be a dream, but can the sorrow of homeless mothers in dirty shelters and pregnant women swimming through floods ever be forgotten?

Truth is, I haven't even begun to experience the worst side of the pandemic. Reading newspapers afford me only a glimpse into the struggling functionings of the world in a nutshell. Will only knowing about current affairs help? Yes and no, of course. It depends on how we employ the matter to become more aware to contribute to our collective environment as individuals striving to leave this world a slightly better place. Ignorance isn't really bliss, after all - that is not real life.

We are alive. It's never too late.

As many great thinkers have said: "As long as there's life, there's hope."

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