In a highly competitive world, strong on letting out emotions, aggression and urge to control, the voices of rational thinking individuals is a far cry. Today so overwhelming is the emotionally overpowering content visible in the social media that one’s thinking is drowned in the barrage ! For a long time there have been people ‘shooting from the lip’ and with a penchant for sensational revelations and opinions based on obscure facts. Add to this is the ability to ‘verbally fire’ first and apologize later if there is a ‘storm in the tea-cup’ or the established ‘apple-cart is getting upset’ !

With ‘WhatsApping’ becoming the most handy means of communication for sharing of news, views and ideas between groups, there appears to be an alarming rise in misinformation with malicious intent, leading the authorities to hasten the implementation of measures aimed at curbing the spread of fake news which have triggered serious incidents of violence in the country. Also, in a mad race of being one up, there’s a blitz of forwards, without checking source, facts or data, to impress others.

Why do some people behave so irrationally on the different platforms, even if they have no ulterior motives or axe to grind. Communication experts have another term for this- ‘An Amygdala Hijack’ – an immediate and overwhelming emotional response out of proportion to the stimulus because it has triggered a more significant emotional threat. The Amygdala is the part of our brain that handles emotions. During an Amygdala Hijack, the Amygdala “hijacks” or shuts down the neo-cortex or the rational thought processing of the brain. The Amygdala is responsible for the perception of emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness, as well as the controlling of aggression. The Amygdala helps to store memories of events and emotions so that an individual may be able to recognize similar events in the future.

We all undergo ‘Brain-fade’ some time not only on the social media but in all spheres of living. Quite frequently, we ‘lose it’ while bumbling into over-crowded trains to work /travel, negotiating impossible vehicular traffic, dealing with unruly people, non-sympathetic bosses, civic authorities, difficult suppliers/vendors and debates with younger family members in the inevitable generation gap ! The trick is to get hold of yourself when the ‘Hijack’ is getting triggered and get into the pause mode and take a deep breath. No action at that point is the best action ! Why indulge in antics for which you have to say sorry later – pause now to smile later !

(pic source : mirrorcitizen.dailymirror.lk)

Natural disasters happening with alarming frequency – earthquakes, tycoons, storms, deluge of floods all over the world. Alternating between certain years of droughts are torrential rains in various parts of our country, presently inundating some of our North-Eastern states. Too close for comfort are the spells that paralyze life, disrupt public transport and maroon many parts of our ‘maximum city’ Mumbai – also a startling reminder of the famous economist, Robert Malthus and his classical work we read in our post-graduate classes famously known as the ‘Malthusian theory of population growth’.

We would recall that Malthus examined the relationship between population growth and resources and arrived at the theory that population growth occurs exponentially, so it increases according to birth rate. On the other hand, food production increases arithmetically, so it only increases only at given points in time. Thus he had derived the postulate that, left unchecked, populations can outgrow their resources.

There are two types of ‘checks’ that can reduce a population’s growth rate according to Malthus. Preventive checks are voluntary actions people can take to avoid contributing to the population. Because of his religious beliefs, he supported a concept he called moral restraint, in which people resist the urge to marry and reproduce until they are capable of supporting a family. Positive checks to population growth are things that may shorten the average lifespan, such as natural calamities and disease, warfare, famine, poor living and working environments. The startling prediction was that eventually these positive checks would result in a Malthusian catastrophe which is a forced return of a population to basic survival.

Though later contested by many economists, the subsequent industrial revolution and technological breakthroughs in almost all fields, the Malthus postulates conceived some three centuries ago, suddenly appear too close for comfort.

As  one noted ecologist has opined ‘ while global warming is exacerbating environmental disasters, the root causes often lie in poor planning, disregard for good science and citizen apathy’. Studies now reveal that global warming is expected to make vegetables significantly scarcer around the world, unless new growing practices and resilient crop varieties are adopted and environmental changes such as increased temperature and water scarcity may pose a real threat to global agricultural production with likely further impact on food and health and lives of people.

Of greatest concern is the recent report from India’s think-tank Niti Aayog that our county may be heading for its worst water crises and almost 800 million people may face acute water shortage very soon. It also estimates that demand for water will be twice as much as the available supplies by 2030. What will it do to our economy and people ?

All this highlights the crying need to protect the environment, curb the staggering pollution levels that are engulfing our cities, develop alternate sources of energy, control unbridled population growth and bring about an abiding balance between man and nature – bereft of which, the future doesn’t seem to look very bright for the next generation.

( pic source : the nextweb.com )