a new theory
It's frightfully scary how deeply I've been thinking about societal issues these past few days. The modules I'm taking just forced me to open my eyes and re-think the mindset I grew up with.I mean, I always knew that people come from different backgrounds and acquire different perspectives. That life is a bed of roses for some, and others struggle to get by. But staring the disparity straight in the face just makes me feel uncomfortable and guilty. I once chanced upon a perfect counter-argument when people try to console others by saying that their worries don't matter because people in poorer countries have it worse. I thought to myself, just because they have their worries does not mean that mine doesn't matter. The situation that I'm placed in at the very moment makes my worry every inch as real to me as the hunger and poverty facing those people in those countries. I'm not saying that their worries are not warranted; all I'm saying is that my worry matters too, and dismissing it as unimportant does not alleviate my pain (in fact, it makes it worse). When those people in the said countries have satisfied their poverty and reached a decent standard of living, they would begin to worry about how they can "up" their standard and live more lavishly. So I came to the conclusion that we worry about different things at different stages of our lives and life is a neverending cycle of worries. Thus my worry is just as important as those people's worries.
Looking back, I now clearly see the flaws in my selfish argument. If we were to look upon human life as a whole, we can rank the kinds of worries we face. It is like a pyramid. At the bottom tier are basic needs of food, water, shelter, clothes and security. Once these are satisfied, only then can one afford the luxury to worry about better food, drinks, houses, clothes and stability. The more of these basic needs we satisfy, the less we ought to worry. The trouble with the richer, younger generation (myself included) is that we tend to skip the worries of the bottom tier and jump straight into the middle. Which is why those worries look to us as big and real as the lack of food or water. The size of our mental pyramid is so much smaller than what it ought to be. I guess I can't really blame ourselves for being born in such an environment (it's all God's plan), but thinking about others once in a while doesn't hurt a bit.
posted by solitude @ 9:45 PM
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