Talking Shop: Amygdala is the culprit

“Out of 6 billion humans on

the Planet, troublemakers

are just a handful of people.”

—Dalai Lama

Two developments have occurred since the Hon’ble Dalai Lama shared this insightful vignette with the world. One, human inhabitants on the Planet have procreated quite handsomely and swollen in numbers by 35 per cent to over 8 billion people; and two, I have arrived at my own interpretation of this issue, one that differs from what His Holiness says. I believe that troublemakers on the Planet are not just a few or even a dime a dozen, but are present in their billions. How’s that? Well, it is because there’s a devil lurking within each one of us, ready and raring to go 24x7. This fiend is ensconced deep in the recesses of our brain and is the cause of all the mayhem and discord that surrounds us, worldwide and at home. We are the conspirators, the anarchists.

Having proved(!) and concluded that this little imp is to blame for all that’s evil in the world, let’s move on to what it does. It is up and about all the time and perceives threats, alerting us if there is any sign of danger, often triggering within us fear, anxiety and sometimes deadly responses. This monster leads to depression and nervousness, involving the fear of specific things such as heights, cats, spiders, drowning and even bad fellowmen. Welcome to the Amygdala, the only human ‘organ’ that we can conveniently and nonchalantly blame for all that is going wrong.

This almond-shaped devilish structure lies in the human temporal lobe, just beneath the uncus, and has turned things quite rocky. It has taken away from our haberdashery the bells and buttons, the zips and the thread, replacing them with verbal gusto, hatred, guns and bullets. Given this numbing intro, it is time to see what this consummate devil made us all do in 2023, the year just gone by.

What indeed did it do?

After last year’s dispiriting winter, the devil woke up in May in bucolic and rustic Manipur, feigning a hangover and deigning to spark violence in the North-East between the Meitei, the majority that lives in the Imphal Valley, and the Kuki-Zo tribe from the hills. Under its influence, tensions b(r)oiled over and the Kukis protested against the Meitei’s demands to be given official status, arguing that this would strengthen their influence on society, allowing them to settle in Kuki areas. Harsh words were exchanged, as were bullets and billets, leaving thousands homeless or dead, children without parents and marking the entry of paramilitary forces. People were beheaded and women paraded naked. At last count, four locals fell prey to bullets on New Year’s Day. Score one for the Amygdala.

For four years now, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has been instructing the authorities to ensure that all police stations and enforcement agencies install CCTVs on the premises, and that the recordings of proceedings be cached as evidence in case of dispute. The authorities have dragged their feet on this issue and looked the other way, leading to a slugfest, with the apex court even threatening dire consequences for defaulting institutions and states. Nevertheless, all we have is a yawn and no-go from the authorities. Score two for Amygdala.

On another side, we have highways being spawned just like humans, leading to equally lethal mishaps and fisticuffs on our newly-born road offspring. Asked about these frequent incidents and the lack of quality road construction and preventive measures, the yawns only widen, our battle-hardened jaw muscles now on steroids. Another score for Amygdala.

On the economic front

The United Nations and our own agencies are waxing eloquent about the resurgence in the economy and manufacturing indices, claiming that India is outstripping the rest of the world. What they fail to see, perhaps due to their drag-down growth blinkers, is the searing unemployment which began in the pre-COVID era and was only exacerbated by the killer virus and its aftermath. Daily-wagers are still re-living harrowing COVID experiences, but it is the educated-unemployed who are frantically pressing the SOS’ and Maydays on their personal economic dashboards, with little done to safeguard their lives and investments. Amygdala strikes again.

Things are also getting desperate with inflation eating away at pockets, sending millions dipping into their savings and investments to make ends meet. Our inflationary vortex is a mixed bag—while YoY inflation was 5.6 per cent in November, food inflation alone stood at 8 per cent (mustard oil, onions or tomatoes, anyone?). Inflation surged during the pandemic due to supply chain disruptions, sharp rise in food and energy prices and black-faced corporate profiteering. Ironically, the fiscal stimuli provided by Governments only boosted demand and fanned inflationary pressures. Today, the only bet for the authorities is to tackle food prices, because monetary policy can play only a small role here. Little or nothing is being done here and that’s another strike for Amygdala.

Soliloquy: High food inflation and 80 crore people being free-fed don’t really go hand in hand. We should take a leaf out of Caesar’s book and call it a ‘party’ or an ‘orgy’. The flip-side is that orgies (at least those in Rome) always ended up in das vomitus and au carnala. Amygdala gets lusty here.

Global Warming you said?

It is not Global Warming or Climate Change that is leading to churlish skies and inclement weather patterns, it is mankind. We just didn’t plan for Global Warming and Climate Change, we created it. Exploitation of natural resources, rampant deforestation without a care, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, creation of plastic, vehicular and industrial pollution, the destruction of coral reefs and even something as simple as disappearing bees and other insects… It is as if we planned for a disastrous future. Well, that tomorrow is now today, thanks to Amygdala.

We are now staring at a drinking water crunch even as an oxygen crisis lurks. The world’s celebrated cities have AQIs bordering on the deadly and our children are growing up with respiratory ailments. Glaciers are melting, spewing precious fresh water resources into salty sea waters, leading to a rise in ocean levels. Closer home, our mountains are crumbling and people are scampering out of their homes to save their lives as houses and roads totter. This ‘planned’ environmental degradation has not happened over the last few years or even decades—it is due to a hungry and thirsty Amygdala.

Worldwide phenomenon

Whichever way we turn, Industrial Revolution(s) and economic growth without a care for tomorrow have caused towns to turn into cities, and those cities into monstrosities, both in population and geographical footprint, home to factories and other structures required in manufacturing. While job opportunities were the first draw for newly-generated urbanites, it left them with the miasma of finding a place to live. This meant moving into cramped tenements, some of which were old, others hastily thrown together. Over time, then newly-born Amygdala led to unplanned development and finally to today’s chaos. Remember, much of the Americas and Europe now have personas similar to our own shanties, and squelching and smelly suburbia.

Amygdala cannot be killed. We simply have to learn to live with it. It is within all of us. Thus, it has to be tamed. Only the resourceful and strong-willed can tweak their innards to thrash and thresh together a better today and a brighter tomorrow. Having begun with trouble and its makers, let’s end with what Elizabeth Warren said: “Sometimes, it takes a troublemaker to bring about change.” We thus need to tweak 8 billion-plus specimens of Amygdala, temporarily fry and short their circuits, and then rewire them. Only then will we be able to say: “Amygdala is dead. Long live Amygdala.”

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