Social Validation

Human beings are essentially social animals. We have learned to live in the society. It makes our survival easy. We have divided our roles in society and help each other live better. Farmers in society do the farming and make these products available to others. Doctors study medicines and treat people who fall ill. Engineers build the buildings. Politicians and bureaucrats run the administration. Everybody has something or the other to contribute and something to consume. We have also devised money as a tool to exchange different products and services.

In order to regulate the society, we have made certain laws. For example, nobody can physically harm the other person. If somebody does so, he is arrested by the police and a chargesheet is filed and the judges deliver the justice. As a punishment, his freedom is curtailed and he is put behind the bar. We have different laws to handle different behavior patterns that may disturb harmony in society. For example, we have laws to punish overspeeding on the roads, financial cheating, demands for a bribe by a government official, penalties for the short payment of taxes, and so on. 

In addition to the legal framework, we have a very robust system to ensure harmony in society. That operates in the form of social conventions, traditions, and a moral code of conduct. This framework is even stronger than the legal system. Law provides for the fines and punishments for certain crimes while the conventions and traditions provide for social disapproval. For example, in Indian society, if a son does not take care of his parents, he is looked down on by society. 

The social conventions, traditions, and moral codes vary significantly from one place to the other. For example, eating non-vegetarian food may be quite unacceptable as per the social traditions of one society while in the other society that may be quite a daily routine. Some societies consider drinking alcohol to be quite an immoral act while in some societies that is quite a normal thing to do. 

Whatever the society, probably all the laws, social conventions, traditions, and moral codes are just trying to ensure the harmonious survival of the members of the society. But, is the purpose of human life just to survive harmoniously? Suppose all the members of society follow all the rules, social conventions, traditions, and moral codes, will human life be fulfilling? Is survival an end in itself? I do not think that human life is so narrow. It has immense possibilities to evolve. Harmonious living is just a foundation stone. It is just like a launch pad for taking a flight to the higher world. Unfortunately, most of the time, means become the end and we live our entire lives just to confirm the social norms.

The entire society seems so intoxicated just to comply with the social norms that it is almost impossible for most to even think beyond these. However, at the core of our hearts, there is always a calling for freedom, exploitation, and creation. Somehow, due to mass ignorance, we give too much of a premium to survival. We spend almost the whole of our life in accumulating more and more wealth and power and hardly spare any time to explore. Even if we get some time out of that mass hallucination, we spend that little time in shopping, entertainment, visiting tourist places, and going to different countries, a very poor substitute for exploration.

I am not very sure as to what is the way out to wake people up of this slumber. People are so busy wasting their lives in the accumulation of wealth, building networks, and gathering more power and positions that they have hardly any time to think beyond these. The mass ignorance is quite reinforcing. It hardly leaves any scope for thinking beyond. However, there are always certain role models. If somebody just keeps his eyes open, he can see clearly the joy in the eyes of an accomplished dancer, musician, director, player, scientist, author, and so on. If somebody takes a few moments out of his "busy" schedule to look at life, one would soon realize that one can always take a lot of time out of the routine. Many of those things are not required at all. Their marginal utility is so diminished. 

This realization alone is sufficient to take the first step on the path of exploration. As one examines life from a fresh perspective, one sees an urgency to come out of the slumber. One understands that social validation has a functional utility. However, it is not the end objective of life. We are born here to freely explore the infinite possibilities. There are immense possibilities to explore. One can explore infinite dimensions of nature as a scientist. One can explore different forms of art in this world. One can explore the human psyche. The possibilities are unlimited and life is so limited. An aware mind has no time to waste in the slumber.