For The Exclusive,
Muskan Joshi
I’ve always struggled with having trust in humanity—skepticism always seeming to shape my perception. I’ve read stories and seen movies of heroism and goodness, of the good always winning over the evil. I’ve read a lot, I’ve seen a lot, yet I always seem to question the inherent goodness in us. Our intelligence and striking adaptability has allowed us to innovate and enhance our lives in countless ways, even achieve things we never would’ve thought of. But where do we draw the line? Progress, as we’ve defined it, often disregards the true notion of “enough.”
Growing up, I’ve never really trusted people or their intentions, but always gave humanity and people the benefit of the doubt, perhaps out of childish naivety. But in today’s world, I feel a stark disillusionment. I see it, I see it all now, from the news feed and an endless stream of content everywhere, revealing our paradoxes:
Unimaginable and jarring cruelty coexists with human selfishness,
All enhanced by the modern day media landscape. We scroll through moments of extreme suffering—wars, poverty, oppression—only to land on entertainment distractions that seem to negate the true gravity and extent of what’s unfolding right in front of our eyes.
The greed for power and control manifests in countless ways, from violent conflicts that rob innocent lives to restrictions imposed on fundamental rights, to seeing powerful countries at the brink of an all-out war, to seeing the disastrous effects of climate change in unexpected weather patterns and to then seeing people occasionally sharing posts, sometimes talking about the reality, but mostly detached, as though these horrors are separate from our own lives. This cognitive dissonance—where human tragedy is juxtaposed with light-hearted content—has become commonplace. We consume stories of devastation and horrors no human should be subject to, alongside snippets of a few living in extreme extravagance, and all the luxuries the world has to offer. In doing so, we ultimately numb ourselves to reality.
I want to rage, I want to cry, I want to scream and I want to fight, because how are we even supposed to live with this painful awareness? How do we work towards a future when we see progress slipping away, rights eroding, values regressing and our planet deteriorating? We’re told to be hopeful, to strive toward our goals, find our best self and be a good meaningful member of the society, all while the foundation of what the future truly holds is increasingly shaky. Meanwhile, society perpetuates this trance-like mass consumption, encouraging us to focus on the personal rather than the global, the trivial over the critical. This reality is truly unsettling.
In our modern world, where information is at our fingertips, we indulge, we consume, and we inadvertently perpetuate an environment where hate, dehumanization, and division are normalized and thrive. At the same time, we’re set in routines that blind us from ever engaging and critically analyzing the brutality of humanity.
Is there a way to break free from this cycle and work towards a meaningful change in a world seeming to be bent on division and distraction?
Is there truly any hope?
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