Diaries Magazine
Socially Conscious
Posted on the 27 March 2017 by C. Suresh
I have always been very socially conscious as everyone who has had to shove cotton into his ears when in my vicinity can certify. Why, I can wax eloquent about animal rights, greening of the environment or whatever for hours on end or till someone knocks me out with a scientific blow to my occiput.
The thing, though, is that people do not seem to accept that as a sign of a strong social conscience. Talking nineteen to a dozen about a subject is not enough, apparently, unless you fly business class to exotic locations and do it to a lot of other people who have also traveled in order to do the same to you. Now, THAT is beyond me nor, indeed, am I well-versed in the jargon of the area, so...
(As an aside, I am really vexed with the way jargon spoils everything for me. It is not enough that you SAY the same things that the acknowledged experts say. You need to say it in the same special words that they use to say it or they laugh you out of court if you claim to be an expert. Quite spoils my chances of being considered an expert in anything because my memory is jigged to remember only the concept and not those keywords.)
Given that the talking option was getting me nowhere, the only other possibility was the doing option. Therein lies the nub of the problem. I mean, when I think of having to bestir myself, walking out in the hot sun, actually doing something to clean the environment, or care for stray dogs or whatever...well, you know this enthusiasm for being known to have a social conscience sort of seems rather silly and not worth all that effort.
And, as usual, Social Media came to the rescue. Like take my recent venture at showing my social consciousness. I just posted on Facebook that Cancer was a deadly disease - a priceless piece of information that no doubt upped the information quotient of everyone who saw it - and then went on to say a lot of things about how cancer awareness was important and how my real friends would copy-paste and post this so that all those people in their circles, who thought Cancer was just a nice excuse for claiming Sick Leave, were informed otherwise. There, now, I have raised cancer awareness.
And, of course, I can always sign a few petitions on Change.org asking the Government to be nice to stray dogs and things like that. Nowadays, I am feeling quite noble about how socially conscious I am.
Well, there are always those who would say that, important though all this may be, more is needed from socially conscious people. Greedy pigs, that is what they are, who are never satisfied with what I do for Society!
The thing, though, is that people do not seem to accept that as a sign of a strong social conscience. Talking nineteen to a dozen about a subject is not enough, apparently, unless you fly business class to exotic locations and do it to a lot of other people who have also traveled in order to do the same to you. Now, THAT is beyond me nor, indeed, am I well-versed in the jargon of the area, so...
(As an aside, I am really vexed with the way jargon spoils everything for me. It is not enough that you SAY the same things that the acknowledged experts say. You need to say it in the same special words that they use to say it or they laugh you out of court if you claim to be an expert. Quite spoils my chances of being considered an expert in anything because my memory is jigged to remember only the concept and not those keywords.)
Given that the talking option was getting me nowhere, the only other possibility was the doing option. Therein lies the nub of the problem. I mean, when I think of having to bestir myself, walking out in the hot sun, actually doing something to clean the environment, or care for stray dogs or whatever...well, you know this enthusiasm for being known to have a social conscience sort of seems rather silly and not worth all that effort.
And, as usual, Social Media came to the rescue. Like take my recent venture at showing my social consciousness. I just posted on Facebook that Cancer was a deadly disease - a priceless piece of information that no doubt upped the information quotient of everyone who saw it - and then went on to say a lot of things about how cancer awareness was important and how my real friends would copy-paste and post this so that all those people in their circles, who thought Cancer was just a nice excuse for claiming Sick Leave, were informed otherwise. There, now, I have raised cancer awareness.
And, of course, I can always sign a few petitions on Change.org asking the Government to be nice to stray dogs and things like that. Nowadays, I am feeling quite noble about how socially conscious I am.
Well, there are always those who would say that, important though all this may be, more is needed from socially conscious people. Greedy pigs, that is what they are, who are never satisfied with what I do for Society!