Shorter.. Faster... Closer....
That’s how we want everything these days.
I always thought that only skirts got shorter but everything seems to – blogs, textbooks, work hours, meetings. Everything is becoming more and more concise. We cannot imagine reading more than 200 pages of a novel. Soap operas are of course an incongruous reality. They seem to be in some sort of a stretching competition.
Instant coffee and noodles are such a rage these days. There seems to be an eternal dearth of staying power to get the results of anything. Finding treasures and killing the enemy in computer games is also much quicker these days. However we still wait in long queues for petrol, movie tickets and restaurants.
We want everything - super markets, theatres and ATMs close to us all the time. We need all these essential services that are so vital to our existence in this material world, at an arm’s length away. A radius of one mile is probably the farthest it can get. The few reasons we would probably take some extra trouble to travel that extra mile would be for life threatening reasons. These reasons could be as grave as the impending dangers of not attending birthday bashes, farewell parties or sulking boyfriends / girlfriends.
This shorter / faster / closer fad has become such an incantation in every aspect of our life. This malady seems to be a universal phenomenon. It is affecting people of all age groups, races, professions, hair colours and skin types.
Why are we becoming such an edgy race? Why do we want instant gratification all the time? Why are we losing the patience to read and write more? Why do have such stunted attention spans? Is this a necessary corollary to urbanization?
I had to think for long hours and only then I could get close to the conclusion. This has nothing to do with global warming or nuclear proliferation. It has something to do with the scenes we are exposed to all the time. The amount of profanity we notice in the world around us simply evaporates all the patience we can store inside us. Everyone wants to re iterate that ‘Been there done that’ attitude. We are constantly playing a dangerous game of out proving our peers all the time. All this simply shows how increasingly insecure we are becoming.
A direct consequence of all this is the modern day palliatives such as material comforts. However, along with shorter Bibles, shorter ways to achieve Nirvana we should also have shorter lines of cars and shorter women at beauty contests. Along with faster ways of getting high, such as tequila shots we should also have faster ways of getting to work such as magic carpets or brooms and instant slimming solutions. Along with closer shopping malls we should have closer relationships with people.
I always thought that only skirts got shorter but everything seems to – blogs, textbooks, work hours, meetings. Everything is becoming more and more concise. We cannot imagine reading more than 200 pages of a novel. Soap operas are of course an incongruous reality. They seem to be in some sort of a stretching competition.
Instant coffee and noodles are such a rage these days. There seems to be an eternal dearth of staying power to get the results of anything. Finding treasures and killing the enemy in computer games is also much quicker these days. However we still wait in long queues for petrol, movie tickets and restaurants.
We want everything - super markets, theatres and ATMs close to us all the time. We need all these essential services that are so vital to our existence in this material world, at an arm’s length away. A radius of one mile is probably the farthest it can get. The few reasons we would probably take some extra trouble to travel that extra mile would be for life threatening reasons. These reasons could be as grave as the impending dangers of not attending birthday bashes, farewell parties or sulking boyfriends / girlfriends.
This shorter / faster / closer fad has become such an incantation in every aspect of our life. This malady seems to be a universal phenomenon. It is affecting people of all age groups, races, professions, hair colours and skin types.
Why are we becoming such an edgy race? Why do we want instant gratification all the time? Why are we losing the patience to read and write more? Why do have such stunted attention spans? Is this a necessary corollary to urbanization?
I had to think for long hours and only then I could get close to the conclusion. This has nothing to do with global warming or nuclear proliferation. It has something to do with the scenes we are exposed to all the time. The amount of profanity we notice in the world around us simply evaporates all the patience we can store inside us. Everyone wants to re iterate that ‘Been there done that’ attitude. We are constantly playing a dangerous game of out proving our peers all the time. All this simply shows how increasingly insecure we are becoming.
A direct consequence of all this is the modern day palliatives such as material comforts. However, along with shorter Bibles, shorter ways to achieve Nirvana we should also have shorter lines of cars and shorter women at beauty contests. Along with faster ways of getting high, such as tequila shots we should also have faster ways of getting to work such as magic carpets or brooms and instant slimming solutions. Along with closer shopping malls we should have closer relationships with people.
posted by Aditi Bhagwat | 6:41 AM
6 Comments:
this is a good one, sweetheart.. lagey raho..
Excellent observations. One wonders if they can escape from the rat-race at all! There is a school of thought saying that competition is unnecessary/ unwanted and we must do the best we can irrespective of what others do.
Well imagine a world without competition.Would the world ever reach this level of innovation and efficiency? The best products and services are nothing but a result of competition. Its the way you look at it. Like everything else in life it is a double edged sword and it is upto us to thrive on it by arriving at the golden mean.
Hypothetical situation: Imagine a world without competition. Also imagine in the same world, that everyone strives to do their best regardless of what everyone else is doing. The motivation factor is slightly different here. Would we still have the same level of efficiency? Ideally, I still believe that we would because we move toward the same goal. It's just that the motivation to do better arises from different sources. My 2c.
You dont have to imagine it. Just remember it. Socialist Russia ? Post independent and pre liberal India ? The products and services only got worse. Imagine living at that time. Of course its an extreme compared to the Dog eat dog world you are referring to. But its survival of the fittest that drives this world today.
I wasn't really referring to whole countries. If we as individuals decide to put aside competition and do our best, the results might be the same. It's just an idea.
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