Denial of Death and the Recurring Spiral

Ever wondered why obese people prefer to to eat unhealthy food inspite of being warned of the dangers by a myriad of scientific reports?
Why people buy still more cars and fuel guzzling vehicles even as climate change is now a scientific fact?
Why sugary fizz drinks sell like hot cakes when diabetes is now a common modern malady?
Why people(including me) sit glued to their computer screens addicted to social networking sites when we all know that our modern sedentary lifestyle is bringing us one step closer to death?
Why alcohol addicts don't care a bit to where their broken life is heading to?
Why we deny ourselves the little bit of exercise that is needed to keep us healthy other than the fact that we are too lazy or find it stressful?
Why the majority of smokers and tobacco consumers in India still stick to their habits inspite of the products now being adorned by law with images of diseased lungs, ulcerous mouths, snake and scorpion logos?
Ernest Becker proposed an interesting theory.
To quote from an article:

In 1973 the cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker proposed that the fear of death drives us to protect ourselves with "vital lies' or 'the armour of character." We defend ourselves from the ultimate terror by engaging in immortality projects, which boost our self-esteem and grant us meaning that extends beyond death. More than 300 studies conducted in 15 countries appear to confirm Becker’s thesis. When people are confronted with images or words or questions that remind them of death they respond by shoring up their worldview, rejecting people and ideas that threaten it, and increasing their striving for self-esteem.
One of the most arresting findings is that immortality projects can bring death closer. In seeking to defend the symbolic, heroic self that we create to suppress thoughts of death, we might expose the physical self to greater danger. For example, researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel found that people who reported that driving boosted their self-esteem drove faster and took greater risks after they had been exposed to reminders of death.
...
A recent paper by the biologist Janis L. Dickinson, published in the Journal Ecology and Society, proposes that constant news and discussion about global warming makes it difficult to repress thoughts of death, and that people might respond to the terrifying prospect of climate breakdown in ways that strengthen their character armour but diminish our chances of survival.
There is already experimental evidence that some people respond to reminders of death by increasing consumption.
...
If Dickinson is correct, is it fanciful to suppose that those who are closer to the end of their lives might react more strongly against reminders of death?
...
And could it be that the rapid growth of climate change denial over the last two years is actually a response to the hardening of scientific evidence? If so, how the hell do we confront it?

The whole article, though it deals in length with climate change denial, could in a way explain many of mankind's "deviant" behavior and can be read here:
http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article42833.ece
I don't say this is a proven scientific theory but a plausible hypothesis worth giving a thought to.

On Cerelac(R)(TM)

I feel a slight tinge of embarassment as I write this.
The whole of last week I was plagued with an intestinal infection that kept me away from work and made life in general miserable for me. My diet was restricted to bland food; any experiments with the more spicy foods resulted in a bad case of diarrhoea.
I thought I had managed well when all of a sudden a state wide hartal(non-Keralites: this is general term for a full fledged strike when every damned business puts down shutters and life comes to a total standstill).
Normally I would have been at my company office on such a day and it would have been business as usual. The office environs allow for meals, morning, night or day, hartal or no hartal.
Unfortunately I was holed up in my bachelors quarters far away from office when this particular hartal played out.
I had arranged for cigarettes the previous night, betting that the good old Anand Hotel would be open next day even if there was a bandh as they normally do(under police protection of course).
But my luck ran out. The hartal had been called by the party in power in the state, and that meant it was severe than usual.
I got up morning to find that even Hotel Anand had not dared to open up.
Now, I had these courses of strong antibotics to take, three times a day for my stomach agonies. Normally I can go without food for an entire day without getting any more tired or fatigued.
But that day before I took those damned antibiotics I had to get something into my stomach: I knew that, otherwise there would be serious trouble.
I went out, did some investigating and found that not even a tea shop had opened. The only shops that were open were medical shops. It seems the strike organizers at least had some pity for the sick.
I browsed through the contents of one such medical shop searching for something edible. They had cornflakes. I thought I could give that a shot. But when I asked for condensed milk to go with it, they said they didn't have any in stock.
That was when I noticed Cerelac (R) (TM) for infants 12 to 24 months. The blurb said this was stage 3 baby food and included vegetable extracts- "to encourage the child to chew". I decided to go for it, especially when the label read that it already contained powdered milk.
So anyways, I was passing a lot of baby like poo for the past few days, so I thought some more of it would do no harm.
I bought one for a hefty price, wondering how could neo mothers spend so much on baby food. :-)
Took it to my room, mixed it with sterilized water till it was thick and gooey(no, I could not arrange for any lukewarm water as the instructions demanded).
And the only thing that came to my mind as I consumed it was whether any of those doting mothers who so dutifully fed this stuff to their kids had ever tried tasting it!
Jeez, what things life makes you go through!

The Sinful Penance

A major slice of my life was spent in a factory colony. The person with the highest resident post on campus was that of the Joint Vice President, held by an obese gentleman named Bordia. He was know to indulge in the most unhealthy of habits and hence the couple of extra kilos.
At a certain time of the year, anually, he took a ritualistic fast. It was supposed to be a religious affair, to wash him of all his past sins, which I suppose he really did need.
During the two week period he only had water and lemon juice to drink and a diet of dried grapes, almonds, walnuts, pistachio, cashews and exotic fruits and nuts which would surely make him a bit more ship shape.
We always knew when his fasting began, because precisely at that moment, the factory provision stores were in short supply of all the available fruits and nuts they kept. The big man is going on a fast was the rumor. I guess that period of sacrifice did him a lot of good and extended his blessed life for a few more years.
Once the fast was over he went back to his usual ways until the period of cleansing the next year!

Innocence Lost??

I always wondered what differentiates the offspring of Indian diaspora who opt to make a living in such far flung places as the Middle East; countries in unstable but oil rich countries in Africa such as Nigeria and Sierra Leone. I suspect one of the subconscious goals of expatriate Indians is to secure the future of their children.
Who else, but the son of an expatriate NRI can boast of driving an imported car by the time he is just out of his teens, or secure a prized seat in a prestigious college?
But what are the long term effects on the children? I don't think their parents gave much thought to this when they opted to fly off to alien lands.
The children confined to the airconditioned rooms of their flats miss out on the innocent pleasures of childhood. I know of children reared up in the middle east afraid of letting their feet touch sand! It is anathema to them, used as they are to the smooth floors of their dwellings, the carpeted cars that transport them to wherever they wish to and the marbled schooling institutions where they spend much of their time.
No playing with sand, no experiments with water and clay, no breath of fresh air outside their confined spaces!
Innocence lost!
Everyman poses an interesting observation - one he made on his sojourn to Saudi Arabia a few years back-
<quote>
The times arent changing, we are just getting smarter at an earlier age. But would that make us duller at an earlier age too? I wonder...
</quote>
The full post here
http://everymansdiary.blogspot.com/2007/02/just-kidding.html

The Scientific Disclaimer

Imbibing scientific temparament into oneself has been hammered into us time and again.
We are being spammed by results of scientific studies almost every day - on the net, in newspapers, on the TV, and in magazines too.
I came across an interesting study on how the world's most expensive coffee comes into being.
The initial discussion is how the Asian Palm Civet eats raw coffee berries which are defecated by this exotic creature, the beans then washed, and sold as coffee beans to make the world's most expensive coffee with a unique taste.
The study seems to suggest that the bean undergoes some sort of transformation within the civet's digestive system which gives the bean its unique flavor.
Then as a footnote, the study adds - the taste is unique quite probably because civets only forage on the most ripe berries and later excrete the seeds eventually used for human consumption.
Thank good for the disclaimer - now we can view things in a different perspective.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak
Another study on a completely different topic claimed that pregnant women under stress bore children who had a much lesser IQ and had learning disabilites. The study was carried out in Alaska at a storm shelter where offspring born there were found to have a much lesser IQ, because their mothers were stressed up due to the natural calamity, the report said.
Then the disclaimer - the study carried out on pregnant women at the storm shelter, belonged to the lower strata of society and perhaps it was but natural that their children should have lesser IQ and poor coping skills.
Thanks to these disclaimers.
Red wine some researchers argue is good for the heart in small doses. But another study goes on to say that to get the right dose of the "good chemical" in red wine, one would have to imbibe the drink in such a huge quantity that it would be mortally fatal to an imbiber.
These pros and cons on every subject under the sun have been made public.
Scientists have been mixing up the cause and effect of phenomena for ages. And results of studies that could mean almost anything have been put up as venerable scientific studies.
So next time you read the results of a scientific study somewhere, take it with a pinch of salt.
Poetic license should not not be a word in the scientist's dictionary!

Darwin and the Dodo

A colleague at work once happened to touch the topic of "Survival of the fittest". He said the same principles apply in the work place too. According to him it was not for the meek to inherit the earth. The earth belonged to the fittest.
I begged to differ.
What about the Quit India movement, I asked him. Were not the whites who ruled India at that time much more fitter than the natives who had nothing with them except for a weapon called "Satyagraha" devised by a man who was much ridiculed by the rulers at that time? The whites had fire power, they had money power, they were definitely on top of the survival pyramid than most civilizations. What could explain their downfall and subsequent expulsion from the Indian sub-continent?
To this, my friend did not have a ready answer. And I felt I had made a point.
Let us look at Darwin's principle of "Survival of the fittest" in another light.
Man is now the fittest living creature to inhabit the earth.
But what had he done to consolidate his position.
Right, he had made life easy for himself with his countless inventions and discoveries. He has made most of nature to his advantage.
But at what cost?
Factories spewing smoke into the virgin air, water bodies polluted with filth which would take ages to clean, non bio-degradable plastic dumped with the least caution all over the place, as remote as the top of the Himalayas!
True there are a lot of organizations who have woken upto this fact and are actively working to prevent such a disaster from happening. But what are governments doing? Most developed countries give a damn for the Kyoto protocol which is responsible for keeping in check climate change. The US in fact has not even ratified the treaty.
Is this how man is consolidating his position as the fittest on planet earth; as his own destructor?

Stale News

Just before leaving for work, I had a hasty look at the newspaper.
"Four killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq." "PM hopeful of an amicable settlement on the nuclear deal." "Famine in Africa." "Bird culling after Avian flu epidemic." "Blast in Israel kills two Palestinians." "Tamil militants attack army convoy."
These were the main stories of the day.
I usually have only a cursory look at the front page of the newspaper while the sports section and the editorial hold more appeal to me.
That reminds me of some great soul who had said: The first page of the newspaper is full of lies, the editorial is a half truth and the only page with truth in it is the sports page!
But I am digressing.
Having gone through the headlines I ritually moved onto the comics section. The newspaper people had messed up again I thought with disgust. They had printed the same comic strips that had appeared a few days back.
Suddenly struck by doubt I turned over to the first page.
I checked the date on it. The newspaper I was reading was more than a week old.
But why did I mistake it for the day's newspaper?
The news has so little variety today that I think last week's newspaper would be as good as today's!

Fruits of Perseverance

Pandurang was the only gardener at the Engineering College. He tended to all that grew out of the soil on the vast campus. For a gardener, his was a really hectic schedule.
In the monsoon he cropped the newly grown grass and made it an art in the way he did it. In the summer he sheared off the dried grass. He clipped the outgrowths from the hedges on the driveway, watered them daily, cut off the occasional branch of a tree when it became too unwieldy, mixed manure to just the right mix and dug them below the red and white rose bushes. His work made him busy but he loved his work. But today he was in a rather grumpy mood. He had just left home after a quarrel with his son who had failed five subjects for the thirteenth time.
Losing his patience he had got into an argument with Anil, his son, the gardener's son, the engineering student who studied in the same engineering college where Pandurang tended to the lawns.
Pandurang was wary of the engineering college students and tried to keep away from them as much as he could. But he wanted his son to be an engineer. Like them. Not become another gardener with a thankless job who toiled on the soil, come rain, come winter, come summmer.
Anil had desperately tried to make his case. "Daddy, I can do it", he had said. "Please give me one more chance and I am sure I will get through."
Pandurang had often seen the children of the rich come to the college in Porsche cars, move around with girls in the gardens among the rose bushes, and return home without attending a single class.
He wanted his son to succeed. But not at the cost of becoming a parasite to him and his extended family, very much like those spoilt brats he hated so much.
Initially he had kept his patience. But Anil's twelth and thirteenth attempt was getting him down.
"Look Anil", he had said sternly. "I am a gardener. And you are a gardener's son. But that doesn't mean I want you to continue the family tradition. I sent you to engineering college to make our family proud, not the disgrace that you are now. And remember, I have financed your education as well as I could, but money doesn't grow on trees. I will give you one more chance. The fourteenth attempt will be your last one. If you fail again, you may as well join me in the campus gardens."
Shaking his head at the challenges of life, Pandurang woke up from his reverie and went to a long forgotten part of the campus lawns. A prickly bush grew in an inaccessible corner surrounded by tall trees. It was a mousambi(sweet lime) tree, he knew from the way the leaves gave fragrance when he rubbed them on his hands. But it was not an ordinary tree. Since the very day he had joined the college as gardener, five years ago, he had watered that tree, tended to it. But neither did it grow. Nor did it flower. It remained the same height, its prickly thorns scratching his hands when he watered it.
Six months later..
Pandurang was back on the campus lawns after an extended illness that had left him weak. Sadly he thought that he would have to retire soon. And his thoughts bitterly went back to his 'wayward' son.
After the regular chores he went to the clump of trees in the midst of which stood the mousambi tree. He could not believe his eyes. Every branch was laden with fruit. All of them a rich mellow. The fruits must be sour, he mused. Tenderly, like a groom touching his bride he plucked off one fruit and peeled off the thin yellowish skin. He put a slice into his mouth.
Pandurang just could not believe it. The fruit was the sweetest he had ever tasted in his life. My efforts were not in vain, he thought, as he shook his head in wonder and headed home, his last chore done.
When he reached his shack which he and his family called home, he noticed something was amiss. His son, Anil was standing at the doorway extremely excited, waving a piece of paper.
"Daddy!", he shouted in glee. "I have covered all the five papers. I am an engineer now!"
Pandurang was speechless. His mind went back to the barren mousambi tree that had suddenly borne fruit. Uncomparably delicious fruit.