A dawn of emotional slavery?

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I would like to think that the worst form of captivity is one we are unaware of.

Kukua Anthonyin Annan

The things we do, whether perceived as right or wrong, even including inertia, have consequences. Your action, therefore, begs the question 1. what decision influenced the said perceived action or inaction? 2. was your intent actualized? 3. which set of parameters allowed you to achieve your set goal and/or which set of parameters caused the deviation? You would often find that what often works against your intent is your emotion, which tends to be fleeting. However, these emotions cause you to act in ways that leave a lasting effect either on yourself, the intended receiver or sometimes an onlooker or supposedly unconcerned party minding his or her own business.

To be aware of something, we would have to pause (as cliched as it may sound) and think. Reacting based on our thought processes would, then require even more effort, discipline and elaboration of ‘if‘, ‘when‘ and ‘how‘ to communicate.

Kukua Anthonyin Annan

Take any form of addiction, like media (often, social media) addiction, which dictates what you consume and causes you to spew out what may be considered ‘common sense’ (which most would agree lost its commonality eons ago), when in actual fact, you are probably observing and learning from regurgitated material from a relatively small proportion of humans in the entire world. Without a deliberate effort to regulate your consumption, your fingers typically decide what you see, as TIME impatiently watches in the corner with a concerning stare of disbelief. As we scroll on, we become even less aware of what objectivity and rationality is and simply believe in the world that is presented to us- not the ones WE MAKE. And so when do we pause?

I’ve recently seen people complain about international media outlets reporting news that were not supposed to make the cut because they were not tragic enough (as per their definition). I’ve also witnessed debates about how certain lives matter depending on whether people are classified as rich or poor. We sit comfortably behind our screens with no information about the people we write about, no information about their motives, no information about how hard they’ve built their empire (and I do not mean this in monetary terms necessarily) and how much they may have even contributed positively to society or people around them, nor how much they are deeply loved by their families (and really, shouldn’t it be enough that they are human? what makes us better than them?). To think that this is actually a subject of a debate and people spend time typing and insulting other consumers is baffling.

And so I ask; have we become slaves to our emotions? Have we no time to pause and think about the consequences of what we write and say? When is the loss of any life justified? Do we think about the ‘end user’ of our words? Do we realize how hypocritical we are when we say things out of anger because of what other people have done, while what we say invariably makes others angry with a cascading effect. We seem to be evolving into a society that tears down people slowly and silently, ONE by ONE. If only we could commit to being that person who breaks the chain! What a lovely world this could be.

If we learn from what we see, then people can see the good we emulate. Even if it is just one person, one day at a time. I would love to read your comments on this post as I am always happy to learn your thoughts.

Sincerely,

Kukua.