Blog 27: Fictional Reality

World is going through multiple upheavals, in fact, since humans have started evolving thousands of years back. Recent war in Gaza with Israel- Palestine tussle, Ukraine-Russia conflict, India-Pakistan conflicts, Afghanistan-Taliban takeover, USA-China competition and so on are few examples. These are wars between rich and poor, right-and-wrong (?), and religious encounters.  On the other hand, we have extreme problems related to pollution, deforestation, ozone depletion, water scarcity and plastic overdose. These have led to major natural calamities such as global warming, cyclones and floods. Let us think deeper. How have we managed to drive our planet from a beautiful and colorful place into a pathetic place to live?

Think of humans versus animals/birds/insects/fishes etc. What is the difference? What is the difference between a Chimpanzee and a human? Well, we may say that these are insignificant apes and we, humans, are significant species! But major difference is that we humans are collectively different, because we have imagination capacity much stronger than Chimpanzees or even bees or wolves or tigers, for example. Our capacity to collaborate is very different from the collaborations of animals/insects. For example, bees or ants operate with phenomenal discipline collectively. They will collect food, feed the queen and will operate with amazing cooperation. But what is lacking (?)?? The flexibility in cooperation is lacking. Monkeys will never accept a Pizza in exchange of bananas, for example. Similarly, a tiger will not negotiate a dead wolf with money!

Flexibility in cooperation is a capacity of only the humans! Think of the Egyptian pyramids, beautiful Indian Taj Mahal, Moon mission, industrial factory setups of Ferrari or even generation of a fantastic application software like Amazon services.. they are an outcome of human cooperation which is gained by mutual understanding and imagination. But this cooperation is not always nice. Imagine slaughter houses, concentration camps and prisons. They are also generated out of human cooperation. How do we build such creations? Well, because of our imagination.

Imagination, which is quite unique to humans, enable us to create stories. These are fictional stories. Interestingly, if all humans believe these stories, they slowly become real. Religion is one such example. The story of religion makes humans build temples and mosques. Legal system is also another fictional story which makes human abide to some rules, which are actually not real..!!

It is just a fiction describing some thing as correct and other thing as incorrect. Legal system talks about Human Rights. But what are human rights? There is nothing like that. It is just human fiction. Country and its borders are also an example of fiction. We fight battles for a fiction, which we have made to believe as reality. But it is not. Corporations like McDonalds’, Apple, Google, Mercedes Benz automobiles, Stock exchanges are all stories.. which are made to believe as real! Money is one of most successful fictional story!!

However, the pain is that Humans, who live in objective reality, like trees, plants and animals; also live in fictional reality which comprises of money, country and concentration camps. Mountains, Lakes, Rivers, Trees, Forests, Fishes, Insects, and ants live only in objective reality. Humans have created a layer of fictional reality which is sitting on the top of objective reality. And hence, mountains are covered with arms and guns to protect country boundaries (which are fictional). Industrial waste is thrown in atmosphere and water beds to pollute them. Animal killings are made “legal” in some religion leading to animal cruelty and massacre. One human gets a “right” to kill another in the concentration camps, merely for some fictional story.

Humans live in this dual reality and the Nature on this planet is at the mercy of we all humans. It is a pain to see how fiction controls the Lions, rivers, mountains and wonderful jungles. Can we let go and see beyond this fictional screen which controls our mind and brain? If we do, then and then only the planet can breathe….

Else, as it is commonly said, Planet is non-forgiving. Some day we will have to pay the price.. Recall Uttarakhand’s landslides and uncontrolled floods..???

Note: Literally Inspired from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzj7Wg4DAbs