3 Tenets for a Productive Lifestyle
The Crusader Syndrome — among other things — getting in the way
Let’s face it, you must have come across a multitude of articles on Medium rattling off ’n’ number of things you need to do for grossly improving your lives overnight. This does not aim to be one of them. Rather, here are some musings that can perhaps help in gaining a more peaceful insight for shaping our everyday existence into a more peaceful and productive endeavour.
Social Media Sucks
The smartest people in the world are not spending time on Twitter or Instagram. But hey ho! Elon Musk is? Think again.
Celebrities or prominent individuals interact with social media in more of a ‘publisher’ role: they vent out their views and throw an update or two to their vast majority of fans/followers. A lot of them get paid for that (influencing) and some even have dedicated teams handling their accounts.
Normal folks use social media in a ‘subscriber’ role: constantly ingesting vast amount of information curated algorithmically for maximising retention and triggering strong emotional outburts. It’s literally equivalent to being subjected to a guinea-pig experiment.
The ‘subscribers’ end up wasting a large chunk of their valuable time, which can be utilised for much more constructive things, in trying to keep up with random titbits; while ‘publishers’ can get away with spending a mere fraction of their day acting as conduits for these platforms. You are better off subscribing to relevant sources of quality information which can help you expand and enhance your knowledge by providing detailed insights into any topic. Think books, journals, even Medium!
The best and brightest are not busy being another set of eyes in the large ocean of viewership that is being tapped into by the social media platforms. They are not being manipulated into scrolling through an endless river of worthless content aimed at generating revenue or marketing products or furthering agenda. If anything, they are busy setting those agendas.
The “Crusader Syndrome”
Often a byproduct of extensive social media bombarding, but a generally prevalent trend of the times we live in as well, the “crusader syndrome” is a term I use to refer to the constant pushing for everyone to believe and act as a crusader for some greater cause. This manifests itself prominently in the comment sections on various platforms where people are hellbent on vilifying others for holding thoughts that they think go against the “cause” they fight for.
No, you don’t need to be a a crusader. Yes, you can still believe and act for causes. It is important to realise that we live in a diverse world with an assorted sprinkling of people having varying thoughts, experiences and intellect. It is futile to expect for everyone to subscribe to the same set of ideas. Raising voice against the injustices rampant around you is important but you need to evaluate the time, place and means of doing so. It is futile to expect a random stranger on Twitter to understand and grasp your line of reasoning and it would not create much of a difference even if you are successful (which is highly unlikely).
Brands, media, platforms everyone seems to be trying to always “recruit” people into an army of believers for their crusade. Obviously this warrants people with all levels of intellectual capacity (or lack of it) being armed with means and desire to scratch and fight. All of that results in highly resentful individuals who are always appalled by the ‘injustices’ happening around them.
Stop Blaming “The System”
Start gaming it instead. You might have an idea what “the system” refers to here. It’s whatever mix of the government, corporate overlords, neighbouring countries, the whole world at large or nature itself which people happen to believe is wronging them. They despair and wail without gain at how the system is rigged against them. Smart people accept that as an unavoidable fact of life and focus their energies instead on how to make the best out of what they have.
Systems, of all kinds, are made and constituted by people themselves. By an extension therefore, they are bound to suffer with the same fallacies that plague the public. It is easy, moronic and futile to blame the system for failures without understanding how exactly they work and what practical challenges are involved. And yet we see people with the least knowledge running around criticising everything without ever offering a viable solution. How could they?
Take the ongoing pandemic for example. It is foolish to expect the government to be able to waive a magic wand and make all the problems go away without understanding the limitations imposed by a historically inept healthcare system unable to cope-up with the demands made of it, the lacking in the supply chains for handling the burgeoning stress of medications and vaccines, the unwillingness of people to wear masks and practice appropriate behaviour. These things are nigh impossible to be resolved overnight and abusive frowning or browbeating would do zilch to help in any regard whatsoever. Yes, there needs to be accountability but the time for that would be after the pandemic has resided and the next elections are round the corner. What would help now is to come together, help each other in whatever ways we can and maintain a positive outlook.
It is prudent learning to grasp and understand how things work at a practical level before throwing around judgements or letting consternation take over. Ultimately, complaining doesn’t resolve problems but acting upon them does.
Ultimately, we live in a world driven by numerous intangible forces continuously jousting for our attention. They will strive to impact, hone and mould us in different ways and the onus lies solely with us to figure out what really matters and how much. Time is a precious currency: investing it judiciously is our prerogative.