Talking Shop: Cerebral atrophy

“The brain is a wonderful

organ; it starts working the

moment you get up in the

morning and doesn’t stop

until you get into the office.”

—Robert Frost

If you have just read the quote mentioned above and feel that Robert Frost got it right and bang on target, here’s another vignette, this one from George Jessel, stemming from an analogous genre: “The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.” Thus, I guess, betwixt reaching the office and picking up the microphone to get people to sway to our chosen tune, we have deliberately put one delicate and critical organ in a soporific state.

These two pensters also got me thinking hard, that there must be a reason that they had such similar, if titillating, thoughts. The stuff that I came across while doing some research on the subject was quite a tearjerker—sanitation workers throwing a hoopla on the job; anaesthesiologists who inadvertently let patients wake up during ongoing surgeries; politicians who make daring promises only to forget them barely a few months later; teachers caning the very students whom they are supposed to nurture; conservationists creating environmental havoc on the same hills that they were hired to preserve; and so on.

It is a long and numbing list, and we shall talk more on that, dissecting this exacerbated exploitation of the average human brain that’s leaving the critical organ tottering and bordering on extinction. A beginning has already been made—all around us, we are witnessing inane hysteria, a mass celebration of all that is rotten. Sadly, in practicality, we are thumbing our noses at the longevity of our own senses.

Irrational, oft incoherent

While deliberating on this subject, I was asked what was running amok in the country that was maiming our ability to think for ourselves, make rational decisions and opt for sensible choices? The answer, in one word, is misinformation. Blatantly and shamelessly, there has been a concerted and deliberate assault on India’s impressionable minds, especially when it comes to issues such as spirituality, religion and science. This assault has not been difficult to mount and the effects are deadly-dangerous, with even one rumour brutishly circulated on social media sometimes being grave enough to get people lynched, certainly pulled out of normalcy, liberty and society.

The results are the gory stories we see quite often, mostly on the same social media, since much of the mainline media looks the other way. Thus, we have lynching(s), honour killings, physical assault on people of a different colour, parading of women naked on the street with passers-by guffawing and applauding, inexplicable sloganeering and chanting, murderous outbursts and actual murders, crass witticisms (which oft-lead to grisly acts by programmed followers) and ungracious remarks that make us way smaller than we would like to be perceived as. Since I have already listed the comparatively smaller mental vagaries and brainless skirmishes in the first few paragraphs of this column, I rest that nuance.

What do scientists and ‘experts’ say? Most feel that the brain is primarily reflexive, driven by the demands of the environment. A tangential viewpoint is that the brain’s working is predominantly intrinsic, involving the acquisition and maintenance of information for interpreting, responding and even predicting environmental (read ‘societal’) mandate. I shan’t delve into the multiple levels of the brain’s inquiry system(s), ranging from cognitive and systems neuroscience to cell biology and metabolism, for then I would run the risk of confusing you and boring the bejesus out of you. It is enough to state that the brain responds to external stimuli, especially when bombarded with a targeted message from multiple quarters, quite akin to indoctrination and brainwashing. I daresay this is what is happening in our environs and country.

The incidents say it all

Let’s get down to brass-tacks. There are increased cases of polarization being reported from across the country and hapless authorities have a royal headache when religious festivals and processions are planned, for they typically trigger skirmishes and violence. In fact, across many parts of the country, especially Northern India, sectarian violence has flared over issues that till recently used to be run of the mill and everyday occurrences. What has changed? The narrative has, making it perilous now to even store cuts of meat in the house for your leisurely consumption, or for that matter flying certain hues of flags and sporting emblems from your rooftop—you get the drift.

Remember the second quote at the opening of this column, which said the brain takes a walk the moment a microphone is switched on and the ensuing tirade (mostly deliberate) stokes emotions of the wrong kind? Much has changed indeed. For instance, parts of our own flock are now resorting to devious subterfuge and borrowing tricks from history solely to trigger unrest, and people are still falling for the 140-year-old ‘scam’. It was first reported in 1892 that certain people in a religious procession in Tamil Nadu’s Salem district played loud music and danced to the tune with the sole objective of stoking emotions and sparking violence. It worked. Today, that infantile ploy is being utilized again and, paradoxically, it is still succeeding—that alone speaks for the state of our fickle minds now.

A word on COVID-19, without which no writeup on things medical is complete in our changed world. Scientists claim some COVID survivors have executive dysfunction, problems driving, managing money and medication, planning the future and even thinking straight. “It’s a toxic cocktail,” says one whiz-kid, adding that people are not reading social cues today and are disinhibited. Whew.

Covert December blues

Stupidly enough, some are calling the changed mental slant a symptom of the ‘December blues’, where people are making up for the lost 11 months by making good on their intent in Month 12, before the annual hour-glass runs out. To support this sand castle, they cite the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the attacks on India’s Parliament House, the singing of songs by soldiers in trenches in Europe while at war, the Bhopal gas leak, and even the Emergency coming into force in India. It is a long, woeful list. Such inanity apart, the truth of the matter is that in a changing world, a new world order is spawning—where we want to be in this scheme of things is something we need to figure out fast, and act on it faster.

For instance, India recently hosted world leaders at the G20 Summit in New Delhi. At the huge gathering, it was an open secret that many members were in attendance only because they were looking at India as a powerful partner to counterbalance China, a country has been flexing its muscle inordinately in the region, turning a blind eye (and ear) to international appeals and demands for restraint. Having reached what is an enviable position in the world order, India would do well to curb internal upheavals and disturbances. From both historical and future perspectives, there’s more at stake today than a rubber stamp or a visiting card, both of which will be gathering dust and fungus in just a few years’ from now. We need to jog our grey matter today, and for the right reasons.

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal