Every society has a set of collective characteristics - mood, behavior, culture, law. Man's thinking brain is the origin of all his actions which in turn define his character. Likewise behind the actions and reactions of a society there is a complex "collective brain" that is at work. Despite wide contrasts in different sections of society there are things which can be generalized.
Individual thought (IT) and the collective thought are inseparably intertwined in a manner where each has an influence on the other. One interesting thing to note here is that when a person does not have enough of the former on a particular subject it is the latter which helps shape it. This assumes far more importance for the younger generations. As the time progresses the "collective brain" (CB) has much to do with whatever people as individuals do and society as a whole does. Knowledge and thinking capabilities of individuals vary and it is this CB that superimposes and fills in the blanks or has some sort of chemical reaction with the preexisting IT to various degrees.
One has to be foolish to expect or wish CB to be some kind of ideal stuff. Yet as the generations of thinking humans fuel scientific innovations, as nations become democratic, secular and champions of free thought it is apparent that CB is to become more rational and logical. Here hypocrisy creeps in as an item number in a masala movie. It has a beauty of painting a picture of "reason" to anything and everything making you notice only the rosy sections.
Now lets jump from this abstract sounding stuff to real time scenarios.
A few years ago when "Babujee" video was shown on TV, it was embarrassing to watch it when my father was around. Today I see a 10 year kid watching and enjoying a reality dance along with his family where another 10 year kid dances for an obscene item number. We merrily watch nothing less than "soft porn" in our movies. There is no serious revulsion on a mass scale. Don't mistake this to maturity and modernism. How many of us discussed Section 377 (which was in news recently) with our elders with the so called maturity. The point here is while still preaching
voyeurism and perverse attitudes as unhealthy CB accepted its inherent traits into mainstream and makes it seem perfectly alright.
Since few days people are crying for justice for "Ruchika" and praising media for its campaign. While not undermining the gravity of the heinous crime lets also not forget there are hundreds of similar cases which go unnoticed by the same media in this very own country and all this frenzy has not made any serious impact to the root cause. Last few months have also marked 25th anniversaries of 1984 Anti Sikh pogrom and Bhopal Gas tragedy. Both of these incidents easily top the list of worst things that happened to civil society. When there could be a campaign against Rathore, why is it that we dont see media campaigns with same degree of intensity against Anderson and Union Carbide or Sajjan Kumar and Jagdeesh Tytler. Media would not want to pull the leg of people in power or annoy their US investors. Because of this and many more reasons we get to see and tend to discuss more of Aamir Khan's movie than all of these issues put together.
Why did YSR win despite his contradictory poll promises. Why is it totally fine for a political party to promise and distribute TV sets costing thousands of crores while the nation ranks 134th of 182 countries in Human Development Index. Why are farmers OK with loan waivers when the root cause of agrarian crisis and resulting debts never gets addressed. Why is word "monkey" more offensive than "maa-ki". Thinking capability of the society is diminishing and some day might cease to exist. A holistic glance will say CB is anything but rational.
