THE GEN ME SYNDROME

With increase in life expectancy, advancement of medical intervention and greater access to information, a marked societal transformation has taken place. For better or worse may not be the right direction of debate, but that it is changing the basal response style of society can hardly be doubted. In the present-day society, there is a generational diversity in terms of age. But wait a minute and ponder over the issue. In terms of age definitely there is a mix of the baby boomers, the Generation X, and the Generation Y. But all have become the Gen Me Generation. In terms of temperament, the dividing line between these generations is gradually thinning.

One characteristic feature of this change is the changing nature of societal attitude. The result is the narrowing down of the so-called generation gap. Age no longer is the desideratum of the thought processes. The young and the old divide in terms of thinking is gradually getting reduced. In fact, even the gender divide is also getting bridged with ‘tomboyishness’ and ‘sissy’ no longer the standard stereotypes in popular lingua franca.

In a true sense, it is the era of the individual, as everything veers around the idea of ‘me’. One manifestation of this mindset is that the malleability of the thought process is on the decline, while the rigidities are getting accentuated. The logical outcome of such a situation will be that when everyone thinks he or she is right, it is difficult to find out what is right. That perhaps is the defining feature of the present-day society.

Just imagine the scenario if every individual has an idea about everything.There will be no idea, only chaos. Something like that is slowly catching up with the present-day society. What is happening? Neuroticism is on the rise. Narcissism is on the rise. And not just political fascism, but societal fascism is also on the rise. This is the reason behind cognitive incoherence of  society.

These are the times of ego-centricism. One problem of such times can be described by the psychological term ‘scotomization’, which means having a mental blind spot that makes people fail to recognise faults in themselves. As the ego reigns supreme, nothing that is in conflict with the ego can be tolerated. Whether it is the result of some kind of an inferiority complex or a superiority complex may be difficult to confirm. But the rise in neurotic tendencies and the excessive obsession with oneself is catching up. The mannerisms, the lifestyles, the gait all point towards this.

Just a case in point. There was a Bollywood film Loha in which the baddie Amrish Puri was sporting a hairdo that suggested his villainous look. For the present-day youth, this is the latest fashion. So the mind-set of the present times can be summed in popular Bollywood style “Dong kabhi wrong nahi hota” of film Tehelka.

The times have changed. Even the gentlemen’s game, cricket, can provide cues. Some time ago, India-South Africa match was being played in Nagpur and the match ended in three days. There was a hue and cry about the quality of the pitch that was held responsible. Ravi Shastri found it tough to explain, but Sunil Gavaskar’s article in a leading English daily summed it all: “It is not the pitch, it is the temperament.” Yes, it is the temperament.