Today’s human life has become quite complicated—thanks to the multifarious inventions of modern technology. Machines of different types and functions developed by scientific pursuits of contemporary times have made human living far more comfortable than hitherto, at least on the face of it. Gadgets and devices to aid our daily life activities have made our chores easier and, in many cases, effortless.
Today, we don’t have to physically exert much to perform most of our daily chores. By harnessing the enormous power of electricity, we have devised machines to perform all our tasks at the press of a button or the click of the computer ‘mouse’. Even tasks like reading, cataloguing, extracting, filtering and interpreting are being outsourced to the latest tool called Artificial Intelligence or AI.
Despite the wonderful gifts of technology, as mentioned above, human peace and happiness are at a great premium. The individual feels vacuous inside, and there is a wanton feeling of fulfilment.
There is a grave sense of insecurity pervading all. Ideas and ideologies are many, and these have been embraced by sets of human beings dispersed all over the globe, but most of such ideologies are at variance with each other in a few or many ways.
These ideologies determine fashion, lifestyles, customs, traditions and habits, leading to broad cultural differences. And some of these differences are so sharp that human communities holding them are living in conflict mode, riven by mutual suspicion, fear and insecurity.
Hence, insecurity has afflicted humans at the individual level as well as the community level. Insecurity is the greatest bane of modern times. A businessman feels insecure about the uncertainties of the demand and supply situation, which can affect the market for his traded goods. A stock trader is ever in fear of the bulls or bears overwhelming the market depending upon which trading position he has taken.
An old person is afraid of moving around freely lest he should fall and sustain injuries. An average employee working in the corporate sector is ever afraid to lose his job. The ruler of a country feels constantly insecure in the face of powerful enemy countries located across its borders.
A farmer growing seasonal crops is insecure about his crops because of the vagaries of monsoon rains. A tiny toddler or small child feels insecure when it loses sight of its mother.
Youngsters are insecure about their conjugal relationships. Life is uncertain, and you can never be sure what problem or pitfall you may have to face in the immediate or near future and this future is actually unpredictable. The whole insurance industry thrives on this sense of human insecurity about the future.
Insecurity is a universal reality, and we need to keep provisioning for material resources. But insecurity should not grip us, leading to disruption of mental peace and pesky worry or tension. It will then play havoc with our personality and mar our productivity. We have to develop a more rational and pragmatic perspective on fear and insecurity. Truly speaking, nagging insecurity is due to factors more internal to us than external.
