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Dangers to be a Crowd: In Quest of Sincerity and Authenticity

Every event, every experience, every moment passing in our life is a great teacher. I have witnessed those moments when character of a person is blown away in sentiments of crowd. I have witnessed some extraordinary characters who have passed the muster even if circumstances were too adverse to judge as per normal parameter. Gandhi, Mandela, or Martin Luther King, Jr. doesn't become in one day, but it is in that extraordinary situation the character of such persons comes out and shines like Sun. Friedrich Nietzsche, Soren Kierkegaard, Sartre, they all demonstrated what is lost when individuality is lost amidst clamour and cacophony of crowd. The extraordinary speed of Social Media played a pivotal role in bringing social consciousness and therefore movement like Arab Spring happened in the last decade. But same media is shaping the clay like humans' mind into uniform pattern; which has proved as lethal weapon, killing the uniqueness of thought, feeling, emotions in persons, and shaping their persona like uniform manufactured goods, ready at hand for commercial exploitations in the market. Kierkegaard aptly remarked, "The crowd is untruth....There no one is working, living, and striving for the highest end, but only for this or that earthly end". Every earthly triumph is a great sign of ignorance. Because victory of today is the defeat of tomorrow. Power of today is the weakness of tomorrow. Earthly politics is too insignificant to be admirable. This sense of politics is afraid from unknown and rooted in the knowns. Every stranger shakes the confidence of a proud man. Friedrich Nietzsche beautifully wrote:

"The more the feeling of unity with one's fellow humans gains the upper hand, the more human beings are made uniform, the more they will perceive all difference or diversity as immoral. In this way, the sand of humanity necessarily comes into being: all very similar, very small, very round, very accommodating, very boring" (Nietzsche, 1880). But who cares such line of argument when individual autonomy is sold for a low price of amusement. And street appears to be a theatre of entertainment, and an art gallery source of grief and tragedy. In such a condition if any character appears on the stage, fearless and independent, salute her for being an authentic human being.

Comments

  1. Anonymous2 June 2022 at 21:12

    Apt and relevant consideration for all those who become part of crowd without knowing the damage being caused by their wantonness.
    Regards

    ReplyDelete

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