Surviving the Social Jungle.

By: Thejas on 6:48 PM

Man is a social animal, A Social media animal now, but none the less social. So, we have to adhere to the rules put forth by the so called "society".

All this begs to question what exactly do make up a society? Quite simply put Society is a group of quintessential acquaintances that you have met once in your whole lifetime,probably at a wedding of your third cousin's best friends sister-in-law or similar and a majority others whose only means of enjoyment is judging absolute strangers. 

But many a times we all have been part of this vicious circle of JUDGEMENT and even more times blatantly  have fallen victim to this social torment.

 The main issue with judging a person comes from the fact that you are never happy with the person. If he is studious then he's a bore, if he is not then he is good for nothing. If he has a beard he is a terrorist , if he is clean shaved he is not mature. If he is skinny he is anorexic , if he is chubby he is a loser. If he active he is fake, if he is silent he is rude. If he hangs out with girls he is a stud , if she hangs out with guys she is a slut. If he is religious, he is wasting his life, if he is an atheist  he will burn in hell. If he's fair he is a foreigner , if he is dark he is a negro,hell, most of the people dont even eat the first bread in the packet just because it is UGLY! So as you may have quite intelligently summarized, there is no way out of this oxymoronic  society that is slowly becoming less oxy more moronic as the days pass.



But no matter how demented it may seem, We have to live with it, live in it and live as it. So rather than crying , lamenting and scowling over the dreadful condition of our society, we have to learn to manipulate and quite sustainably co-exist with it because our success rides on our ability to form and maintain communities.


Hence, I give you, the wisdom that I have derived from the depths of my own mental prowess, even though I have not mastered any of these, these are the things that I eventually hope to achieve. Eventually, No big rush. :)

(P.S. This is not meant to be any self-help-bullshit. Just things that I've learned from hard earned experiences and of-course from movies)

# Acceptance

Accept who you truly are.Not the person who you project in public but your true identity, the inner Bruce Wayne, because until and unless you totally accept who you are, you cannot expect others to accept you [yes, this is what Magneto says to Mystique in XMEN: First Class, but I hooked up the reference, that is what counts].

One fine day, stop fighting these internal wars and admit "yes, I'm a fat,condescending , narcissistic , sarcastic moron who hates babies and still watches cartoon!!"[All descriptions here are of fictitious characters. Any resemblance to anyone living, alive or sitting behind a laptop is purely unintentional and deeply regretted.] Then you'll start realizing that the world aint so bad place after all. You'll feel a breeze of fresh air with  slight background scores.



Best thing about this is that now mockery doesn't work . If somebody calls you fat and asks with a smirk "Does obesity run in your family.", you just smile calmly and reply "No, apparently nothing "RUNS" in my family!"
Once you  join in making fun of yourself, the other party looses it interest, And You win quite fashionably!.

#Projection

Like Alfred so beautifully puts it in Batman Begins, "You start pretending to have fun, you might even have a little by accident." You can be anybody you want, all you've got to do is pretend.  Project a happier , more confident you  and voila that is what you become eventually! But go slow initially, Don't go all "I'm the king of the world" on the first day itself and then proceed to be the like the climax of the movie[Titanic, if it wasn't already obvious.]. IF It is played subtly , it remains the best way to fool the society into thinking that you are of some social importance.

#Goals

You need to have goals because projection can only take you so far. AND Not just any goals. Tangible, achievable, possible and measurable goals[kudos to Simon Sinek].

Martin Luther King didn't say "I want freedom for all", he said "I have a dream that one day black children and white children will join hands and play in this very play ground" and it struck the people because they could  all visualize this.   "I Want to be Rich" is not a goal, its merely an opinion. 

So is I want to be slim or I want to play guitar. Your Goals needs to be as detailed as the Kasturirangan report. I want to learn to play at least 3 verses of "Nothing else matters" on guitar by next week. Now that is a goal.

Modi had a deep rooted goal and worked for it. Rahul thought he might just get through because of his last name. And as they say rest is history.

#Silence

Manmohan Singh did not introduce the phrase "Silence is golden" , even though he personifies every element of it. But invariably , Silence is the best way to get out of many social bottle necks. 

When your mom says, "Now that you've finished Engineering, I really think you should have taken biology in your 11th standard then written the medical entrance, then repeated because you don't have a chance in the first attempt, and then appeared for medical again and got into AFMC just like Anu aunty's third niece.", you just have to think "dinner. Dinner. DINNER!" and remain silent  and quietly walk away from the room. Silence stops you from saying all those things that you will definitely regret in the future.

 You can also employ mild sarcasm[what we been doing here], but only if you are good at it.Sarcasm is the way of insulting idiots without them realizing and once you a get a hang of it, its all the drugs you need. So next time somebody asks,"why don't you get into IIM-Ahmedabad, I heard its a good college." ask "Really, I did not know that :| ".

#Family

This is the most important part of survival. Every body gives you sticks and stones , even your family but the important thing  here is that even when the society tears you to pieces it mostly only your family that helps you to pickup the pieces  But more importantly, they pay for your WiFi and feed you, and you've got to admit , there is no true love than that!