CHAPTER 6
There is a belief that a certain critical mass is required for anything to take shape. On that basis, it may be accepted that for an idea to take shape, the critical mass is average of nine percent. Therefore, a rumor can take shape, if around nine percent of population starts believing and accepting something as fact, true and right. This critical mass of ‘9%’ is what we may call the proverbial smoke of a certain fire!
However, a fact and realism must have a minimum critical mass of 99%. Truth, fact and realism can be allowed to have maximum of only one percent uncertainty of probability; nothing more…
So, rumor starts at 9% – the ‘smoke’ and for the fire to happen, it needs 99% surety. What the large range is between 9 to 99 percent – the 90% domain, is the humungous playground of probabilities; or what we popularly know as PERCEPTION…
Interestingly, a bottle of pure whisky is also liquor and a glass full; with only 10% whisky and 90% water/soda is also liquor. Somehow, as many accept, ‘soda’ mixing is a must for taste of liquor. Masses love the ‘taste’…!
So, if an idea is believed and accepted with minimum critical mass of 9-10% fact (whisky) and 90% bubbling perception (soda), it is still ‘fact’ (liquor). If 20%, then perception is strong. However, higher the percentage of whisky (fact), the ‘taste’ of ‘liquor’ gets diminished. Therefore mixing ‘soda’ with ‘liquor’ – 90% perception with 10% fact is always brilliant for taste. Masses love it…!
Most of us are geniuses out of this convenience of ‘playing safe’ in the huge playground of ‘probabilities’ or ‘perceptions’. It is because, in this playground, nobody is a referee, supervising the game and therefore, anybody can score any number of imaginary goals and claim to be a hero…
For example – There is a very ‘strong perception’ among many young men that ‘modern women’ are ‘sluts’ and responsible for most of social and familial troubles in relationships and marriages. On social platforms, anyone can check how many young men splurge ‘choices details’ about ‘modern women’, which cannot be written here…! Somehow, for many men, this ‘perception’ is the most ‘tasty liquor’ of contemporary times…
Now, check two things – Definition of ‘modern women’ and Data available about adultery among women. This very idea about ‘modern women’ is like a ‘smoke’, heavily loaded with ‘perceptions’, which have less than 10% fact in it. Secondly, the adultery data of women is also full of ‘smoke’, with facts mixed up with loads of ‘perception’ to create a ‘fire-simulation’.
In USA, where most young men mouth about ‘modern women’ behaving and acting like sluts; only 14% women commit adultery, whereas the same figure for men are 22%. In many developing societies like China, India, etc too many young men are mouthing the same perception about married modern women, even when there is almost no authentic data about such an allegation. As there is sufficient ‘critical mass’ of ‘9%-fact’, it is good enough to label it as ‘liquor’ or ‘sure-fire’.
How this happens. Actually, we all are wired like that. Humans are geniuses in accepting ‘perceptions’ as truths. This is our primary and most calamitous weakness, wired in our consciousness. In USA as well as India, vast majority of both men and women have been surveyed to be believing that ‘adultery’ should not be legally punishable. Now, this is some ‘smoke’ men would mix up with their zeal for seeing ‘fire’.
The trouble with living on the basis of ‘smoke’ (perception) and not bothering to check on the veracity of actual ‘fire’ (fact/truth) is visceral to humans and not only individuals but families, societies and nations are run and managed on the basis of this same stupidity of ‘smoke’ realism. Especially, politics is the smartest ‘perception-management’ skill, which most smart politicians are brilliant at.
As masses, the so-called common men and women are in huge infatuation with ‘smoke-syndrome’ and ‘soda-mixing’, they love such politicians. Anyway, in contemporary societies in infatuation with ‘WhatsApp-World’ of rumor-perception living, almost every smoke is equal to a volcano-fire…! Everyone loves this ‘taste’ of 90%-soda mixed ‘liquor’…!
Check how India’ prime minister runs nation on ‘perceptions’, happily bypassing facts. Just 24 hours after demonetization, the prime minister, who flew to Japan, said that after demonetization, women who had earlier thrown their mother-in-laws out of home to old-homes, were depositing 2.5 lakh rupees ‘black money’ in their accounts. Even in USA, where money and technology is sumptuously huge, social data is retrieved only after few years. Even in USA, real-time social/family data is a mirage. How could then the Indian prime minster cull out ‘real-time’ data about a particular ‘social-behavior’ in just 24 hours. Naturally, the prime minster blew up loads of ‘smoke’ to create the simulation of ‘fire’, in his favor…! There are numerous examples of his ‘perception-living’ wellness and smoke-building fire. Naturally, masses love his ‘smokey’ ways as he is hugely popular.
The realism remains; politics and politicians should never be blamed for such ‘smoke-management-skills’. Perceptions apart, the truth is – a nation’s problems and their solutions are not in the exclusive domain of politics. It is majorly in the domain of family, society and culture. Administrative failure is only a small part of nation’s mismanagement. The major share of trouble lies in individuals, families, societies and cultures. Stupidities and hypocrisies of masses are the prime culprit. The prime culprit is human mechanism of consciousness, which thrives on stupidities and hypocrisies…
It is so easy and satisfying to shift the onus of all troubles on others. This gives us huge joy and our egos get huge boost. We all are deeply infatuated with this hypocrisy of blaming others and some ‘fake-realism’ for our trouble. This artistry of convenience of life-living makes it possible for smart people to hide their own weaknesses.
Politicians however get the majority of blame for this art. They should not as chief culprits are people. If USA people make someone a President, who is master of the craft of ‘perception-intelligence’ – similar situation in India, then who is to be blamed? Naturally, the primary blame is on human body-mind mechanism, which is wired for such behavior…
Check this – The USA is spending around $700billion annually on nation’s security against enemies and terrorist attacks. However, the annual budget for FDA, which supervises overall health of American people is less than $7billion, even as only this innocuous-sounding food poisoning kills ten times more Americans than what terrorist attacks kill every year…!
So, the genius president of USA plays brilliantly on the playground of ‘perceptions’ and devoting all his time and energy on terrorism and against Muslims, as if the number one trouble of America is ‘Islam’, whereas truth and fact is the real trouble of USA is somewhere else.
This is the same scenario in India. Indians are being made to accept that ‘Real Trouble’ is what prime minister is pointing to, as he is the real hero with ‘Hard-Work’ and all those ‘Harvard-Stupids’ are fake and misleading poor Indians. The Indian prime minister had said that his ‘hard work’ on demonetization had proved all the predictions of Harvard-educated economists wrong about his sudden move to pull out all big denomination currencies.
The truth is – One gets, what one seeks and accepts. As masses all over the world are stupid enough to seek and accept ‘smoke’, the attention towards ‘real fire’ is missing and this fire is slowly engulfing we all. This ‘taste’ of 90%-soda liquor is calamitous but our consciousnesses are wired for it. As this fire is raging unattended, loads of more smoke is also coming out. Hypocrisies of seeing and accepting ‘smoke’ makes ‘Hero’ out of those, who are brilliant marketers and brand managers of perceptions.
The real battle is not being fought against true troubles of nations and people but about who wins in installing his perceptions as truth. This is the stupidity and hypocrisy, not exclusive to India, but globally, this is the common singular disease of humanity – not exclusively in political domain but primarily in individual and societal domains.
There are loads of perceptional elements in populist idealisms. That is why, there is this need to check and recheck the utility and worth of what average men and women accept as the ‘Be Yourself’ viscerality. There are loads of stupidity embedded in the populist perceptions about so many ideas and idealisms in contemporary cultures. We need to ‘unlearn’ them to stand as self-actualized rational human being.
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