The art of being Sapiens in the dynamics of Social Change - By Dr Rafi Ramzan.

Views

 The art of being Sapiens in the dynamics of Social Change:

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”. (Martin Luther King Junior).

Homo sapiens are the only living creatures in the entire biological world who have been endowed by 🅽🅰🆃🆄🆁🅴🌿🍃 with the traits of not only feeling and visualizing the change but also thinking and talking about it in order to adjust to it or to overcome it. In fact, every human society witnesses change on daily basis. Any type of change, in its essence, is dual in nature. It can either be positive or negative. If it is positive, it improves the adaptability of people to its changing nature and manifests itself on the faces of societal ingredients (humans) in the form of happiness, growth, development, prosperity and improving socio-economic and infrastructural well-being. 

The Mega Guide

However, if it is negative, its manifestations are evident in the shape of potential retardation of human dignity, confusion, chaos, 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲, lack of social control, degradation of moral values and pathetic socio-economic and infrastructural discourse. But one thing must be bore in mind that whether the social change is positive or negative, human beings have been bestowed with the art of reason which enables them to reduce or accelerate the magnitude and intensity of any and almost every change.

Ours is a plural society not only with the geographical🗺️🌏📗 diversity in our climates and landscapes but also the diversity in our ways of living, customs, traditions, religions, festivals, languages, ethos, stigmas and taboos as well. Such is the complexity of these diversities shrouded in and around our lives that our way of thinking and behavior is governed and immensely impacted by any type of social change.

To acknowledge a change is wonderful. In fact, one must be quite vigilant to whatever is happening on local, national and global level. This is our planet. If we don’t care about it, who will do it on our part? To be cautious on the face of our dwelling place is an obligation of every individual. Otherwise, it will surely reduce the differences between a human and other living creatures who don’t possess the etiquettes of reason.

However, when an individual member of a society or a group overthinks or over reacts to the social change especially in such a diversified and complex society, the consequences of this reaction lead to the dead ends. At times, we get so upset and chaotic in the heart of our hearts that we lack control and coordination from our interior and end up in culminating some heinous and oceanic blunders like theft, robbery, rape, murder, delinquency or suicide. This is evident from our national and local dailies which get flooded every day with the news about road accidents, stampedes, crimes and suicides by farmers, students, youth, women and even big celebrities. After all, are we so irresponsible? How much more time will it take for us to think positively, behave maturely and act rationally?

There is not an iota of doubt in the fact that humans have left no stone unturned in changing the beautiful earth into such a place which is devoid of its physical, moral and ethical beauty. We are the architects of more destruction than construction. We breed more greed for the sake of money, material and power. We have not only attained mastery in rendering other species vulnerable and extinct by our endeavors but also didn’t even spare our own species as well. We are responsible for giving birth to more negative than positive change. Isn’t this enough to shut almost all the doors of hope for the hopeless?

Alas! In this cause and effect game, we lose our own brethren - our fertile and dynamic youth because of our negligent behavior and careless approach towards each other’s worries and problems. We are only busy in enhancing our chances of survival by not only making ourselves better but also thinking in our self-devised comfort zones only. Our vision has gone blurred. We don’t want to look beyond horizon. In fact, we believe in “not-my-job” and “beyond-my-range” philosophy where we propound that to make our society and the entire world a place worth living is neither my job nor my cup of tea.

Such negative feelings concretize us into careless and irresponsible citizens who don’t want to play their positive and substantial roles. Once we lack this interest, the number of sufferers as well as the intensity of their sufferings increase. In the due course, when the human sufferings surpass the saturation limits of the 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲and reason, people lose in the race of life and decide to quit. Alas! It ends up either in committing some oceanic blunder or ending up an invaluable and precious life.

If we take a holistic glimpse into the genesis of such tendencies from a very broader perspective, it is a vicious circle that doesn’t develop all of a sudden in a day or two. It takes longer periods of suffering days and nights, years and even decades altogether to develop such nightmares that too in the minds of rational creatures like humans. But the bitter truth which nobody can deny is that at one or the other point of time, we all are responsible for creating such circumstances.

Let’s introspect in to ourselves first and then look into our families, peer groups, kinships, institutions and our society of which we are but inalienable parts. Let us peep into what went wrong and where and try to rectify our mistakes first. Let us at least give it a try and put some sense into our being. Let us pledge to contribute in making our society and the entire world a beautiful place to live in before it is too late.

𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫 :

Dr Rafi Ramzan Dar (Author is a columnist and can be reached at rafiramzandar@gmail.com)