Dualism in humans
Dualism is a marked feature among people in modern times. Dualism means to act, behave or show or pose different than the actuality. No one is spared and unaffected by dualism. The issue is not whether to practise it or not. The real issue is how far we have gone into practising dualism in everyday life. It has reached its extremes. It has been seen that people try to pose different than actual even in unimportant cases.
Sometime in the past, dualism existed as a marginal aspect of the total personality. It prevailed in the form and level of mood. A character was quite conscious of and aware of the temporary change in posing different from actual. Moral values had strong hold in life and the conscience pinched human heart as a reminder of doing sin by practising dualism regarded a vice. At that time a beggar in general, looked like a beggar and not confused with a saint, a sage, an ascetic, a hermit or a fortune-teller. There was more or less a marked boundary. A beggar aware of his limits, dared not pose as a saint. This was so because of a fear of being pointed out.
As time rolled on, most of the taboos and beliefs were shaken by modern scientific developments. People in general lost fear of heaven and hell. As a result the hold of moral values was eased. The people relished for an open and relaxed atmosphere. From moods, duality got transferred into attitudes. Practising duality was found rewarding rather than losing in most cases. In that case, the conscious actual self began to lose to the posing self. In other words, people began to improve in the art of dualism. It meant, posing or acting other than actual got perfected in minimizing chances of being detected or pointed out.
From being playfully moody in dualism, then making it an attitude, we have now entered into a phase of calling it human nature. Actually it has become a dominating character in life. Now a beggar can easily pose as a saint, a sage or a fortune-teller. Modern sensibility does not function like traditional wisdom. It perceives no stable base as a standard to judge by relating or comparison. The problem is, even the right and wrong have lost their original meaning. The reason is that the standard base to hold upon has been shaken. The result is chaos in modern life. Now everybody practices dualism.
An interesting question arises, if dualism has helped people to succeed in life in past, will it continue to help in future? The answer is no. The main reason for its failure is that it sometimes backfires. It is a two edged weapon. The problem is that even being aware of dualism to such extent, we still practise it. Despite of this fact, we expect things to be clear of their nature. The net result is dualism has bred suspicion. Even if someone or something seems or is genuine, we see with doubt because the ruling element of dualism prevents us to perceive and judge on account of any known experience. The experience thus formed up to that point had already been shattered and it failed to become a standard for genuine judgement. Since dualism is judging a dual character, the result is confusion. Modern minds in confusion are becoming weaker in memory. So no one tries to think hard in confusion and leaves the matter without forming an opinion.
The only hope to get rid of this evil is to revert to being playfully moody in dualism, unlike being serious in posing, what one is not. This will lead to developing a habit of playing occasional kidding gestures among people during interaction and thus reduce undue stress posed by deep-rooted dualism. It is high time to restore faith, encourage openness and respect otherness in the fast transforming Indian Society.
There are occasions and moments in life when we all turn introspective. When we delve deep into the human psychie we may locate the surprising changes in people's way of life. Humans are still in the process of evolution and achieving dualism may be considered as a means of self survival and at the extreme end, a way to know the world more by assuming an assured, safe hidden self to explore the world.
Thanks and with best wishes,
Harjinder Singh Sandhu
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Harjinder_Singh_Sandhu
