The audacity of being stupid

 

In Appreciation of Stanger Things… 

I saw an end of the world kind of a movie from the 90s called ‘The Core’ and then I watched ‘Stranger Things’ season 4. I mean of course one could tell the difference between the scale of production and cinematic experience; the 90s narrative being more aspirational and this one being more realistic and relevant to current times.  

So much of what I understood as a teenager was from a distance. So much of what I picked up about American culture was from Hollywood or depiction of it from TV serials. Back then there were obvious limitations to having an actual live experience of what we are watching on our television screen.

But today, as an adult I can get a real sense of how much of it was made up. For instance, in this movie ‘The Core’ the role of the hacker is so blown out of proportion. I mean to show every hacker capable of hacking the US security system is just weird, isn’t it? No, every hacker isn’t the same and no, every hacker isn’t interested in taking down the US government. I mean, everybody cannot be up for taking that kind of risk. But then, for the movie makers to imply this by extrapolating where our imagination would end is what keeps us on our toes.

I love ‘Stranger Things’. It’s so fascinating! They’ve shown friendship, they’ve shown character building, they’ve literally had sex with our idea of fear. The whole build-up, comic relief and everything about it is so gripping. It’s like they’ve cracked the code, figured out a formula exactly in right proportions to keep people glued to their screens.

They’ve taken the inspiration from Asian (Indian and Chinese) mythical creatures and merged it into this scientific explanation of how a virus functions. I remember Devdutt Patnaik talking a lot about this demon who when stabbed ended up getting multiplied and I saw something similar been depicted in Naruto too. So, such concepts are not alien to us, Indian audience, or Asian audiences in this case.

Talking about mythology, there’s so much out there that we don’t know. Not just Indian, or Asian but Mexican, Latin American, Australian, African, Egyptian or even Russian. I don’t know! Growing up I didn’t have exposure to any of that. But I was always curious. And I am glad that we are living in times where we can see an accurate representation of the kind of narrative a real person would experience. I mean, thanks to Netflix and all the other OTT platforms, the characters we see out there are of flawed human beings, just like you and me.

We are not just vogue anymore. We are also ‘woke’ and we know that feeling empowered, feeling healthy, being in flow, feeling energized are all real things. That there is a way out. I don’t think our parents or our previous generations felt that way.  

So much of our war right now is psychological, it’s insane. So much of what holds us down to reality is this very delicate sense of connection, care, reconciliation, empathy, friendship and every other ethereal sense of emotion that we experience as part of being humans.

It’s not like we have lost all that, it’s just been buried with piles of modern-day constraints, that are too nuanced to be approached simplistically.

There has to be some infrastructure build around this for us to navigate in a way that we’re not trapped inside it forever. I am talking about psychological loops, exaggeration of negative outcomes in our heads that is stress induced and things that always makes you feel out of control.

For all there is, our human minds are very much capable of identifying the difference between texture, flavours, fragrances, is sensitive to change in temperature, reading other people’s emotions and picking up on clues and hints (things that we don’t understand) that makes us smarter and propels us further as a race.

The whole act of balance, literally, figuratively and even as a concept is a delicate thing. It’s as delicate as the existence of ozone layer; or the exchange of CO2 and O2 between plants and humans; or the reality of life existing only on this planet and not anywhere else on the solar system.  

Balance is always tricky. It cannot exist in extremes and it cannot be attained in isolation. For anyone who is balanced or level headed is meticulously in control of their emotions, is wary about their triggers and have slowed down to the pace of their realizations. To be balanced one has to be focused, for there is no room for carelessness or indiscipline.

Only when you’re balanced can you see things clearly or are able to see it from a vantage point that didn’t exist before. It’s like you’re somewhere at zero, but if you rise above you get the 360 degree view and you can see both the positive and negative aspects of a situation. And if you’re aligned enough, you’ll be able to see what’s within you and what’s outside. The whole perceptual map will be clear to you.