Cultivate respect for local culture and customs, do not dump in our baggage from elsewhere, minimise any disruption we may bring
Change is not easy to come to terms with. While it is taking place all the time, there's a juxtaposition of the old and the new. Our eyes can either see a continuity and harmony, or we see a struggle.
If T.A.Edison were to visit my home, he'd notice the electric bulbs immediately. Right now, nearly all of them are LED. A few years ago, they were a mix of CFL and LED bulbs. Before that, some were GLS and some CFL. When all were GLS (it simply stood for general light source) bulbs with a few fluorescent tubes, no one quite expected much innovation in domestic lighting.
Now if Edison were to look for something remotely resembling a gramophone in my home, he would find no similarity with how music is stored and replayed today. Sometimes we look upon heirloom objects with understanding and admiration in a Science Museum. Some exhibitions are termed as 'retrospectives'.
Today, in the IT industry, 'retrospection' is a formally scheduled exercise. People gather to look at past events and concluded projects together to go over subjective and objective data and to share experiences. They expect benefits from doing it such as improved team collaboration, better productivity, preventing repetition of mistakes, anticipating future problems, and improved work processes.
There is a proper way to regard the past - merely raking it up in a rough way brings little good. It's also only vain to crudely compare the past with the present, and to say that one or the other is superior by far. About forty years ago, the bicycle and the radio were regarded as outmoded, and virtually as relics. Neither has disappeared. They have a redefined role and command a useful place, and offer a different set of experiences than they did before.
When a person from a different culture, particularly from Europe, looks at communities on other continents they don't see them instinctively as backward or primitive like in the days of their great-grandparents. This healthy trend began Down Under with the Maori traditions and then the Abo ceremonies being respected, and with legislation passed to protect and cherish indigenous culture and languages.
In many countries, with the onset of the tech toy craze and the information explosion from so-called "popular magazines", there was a devaluation of traditional forms of recreation, fitness regimens, beauty treatments, and handicraft jewellery. Regional folklore and linguistics have often got swamped under by the deluge of the wide mainstream channels.
When we really look at it, today's LCD/LED television has its forerunner in the old picture tube that you could see today as 'primitive' though it was a tremendous leap in knowledge and capability when TV was introduced. So when we come across what might seem simplistic or naive practices in our communities, we must realize that they are all stages. The new cannot dismiss the old. The old cannot cast an iron mold on the emergent new.
Very typically, we expect to see a 65+ person talking about the good old days, about ancient lore, historical bonds, and about movies of the 1930s their grandparents had mentioned! We are equally unsurprised when a millennial is wholly unaware that the Earth had been orbiting the Sun even prior to the release of the PlayStation console or The Need For Speed game. A 'generation gap' might seem apparent. Now it's commonly seen that just as there is a craze about the 'latest', there is a big business in 'antiques'. What is seen less is a practical perspective. To see a continuity and a succession of developments over months and years. To form an idea of how our earlier generations have lived and how our own lives have come to be.
It's true that there is such a thing as progress. We speak of 'golden ages' when largely peace prevailed. The arts flourished, new discoveries were made, and the general populace improved their lifestyle. These are decades and successive centuries with which are associated a bonanza of great buildings, musical compositions, garden areas, reservoirs, stage presentations, and poetry events.
When ancient learning from Asia could flow into European societies, their dogmas could get shed and an era of revival of knowledge and arts came about. Their ships then accessed the material and cultural resources on faraway lands on other continents. Thus, many communities across the globe have experienced the coming into contact with other ethnicities - some through barter and hospitality, and many through shock of violence and subjugation. Unsurprising the,n that conflicts always seem a greater likelihood than collaboration.
In a somewhat later era, scientific breakthroughs in medicine, transportation, and communication have travelled eastward this time, and electrified and awakened relatively dormant civilisations. And thus, the baton travels, the torch is propelled ahead. We see that everyone does indeed have their place under the sun, and there are no lasting monopolies. The value of enormous oil reserves can get assessed very differently in a mere 150 years. Distance education over the web is going to level out the quality gap in syllabus and teaching between regions. Zoonotic viruses from afar can arrive at your doorstep, just as remote opportunities become encashable for you.
In the midst of all the globalisation, what is the role of 'local'? What could that term mean anymore? Through very long periods of association, a language and its dialects, a bunch of sub-ethnicities and a larger society come to be identified with a given geography. Somehow, it feels natural that a deeper affinity is readily available amongst its members than is immediately possible with persons outside the 'locality'. This is not in conflict with globality. Rather, we only expand the scope of how we relate to each other - as neighbours, as our tribe, as native speakers in our language group, as fellow pilgrims, as river sharers, and so on. Vasudaiva kutumbakam, as is loftily inscribed on our Parliament building's entrance - of the world as a family - is an extension of this natural tendency in us.
The lesson we can glean from examples worldwide - from New Zealand to the Caribbean, from Polynesia to Alaska - is to cultivate respect for local culture and customs, to not dump in our baggage from elsewhere, and to minimise any disruption we may bring. This new attitude is writing fresh chapters in community relations.
It goes without saying that wherever extensive and deliberate fracturing had taken place in the past, the process of making amends needs honest acknowledgement and a commitment towards the future. When it comes to an illumined attitude, why should you be in the GLS era rather than LED?
When it is clearly possible for many modern companies to practise retrospection sessions to achieve their goals, it's a matter of time before the larger society learns to incorporate similar methods towards promoting harmony between communities and class interests. Typically, the approach assesses what they would like to stop, what they want to continue with, and what they wish to start. Except for the most adamant, many people find it possible to agree that some things can be stopped or minimised. The key thing is to orient individuals to initiate reforms rather than resist them. Welcome the change!
(The writer is a creative director, advertising faculty, and an amateur epistemologist.The views expressed are personal.)
