Training Our Eyes

By Anubhav Mishra

The year 2020 has been a year of yearning, for hope and normalcy. There are hardly any comparable disruptive events in human history. Years later, this era will be labeled as a ‘historical phase’. Such ‘historical’ events best suit the ‘history’ textbooks, as they are marked by a sense of uncertainty and scarcity, not just of material resources but of stability. In such situations, a little ray of hope can be a joyful experience. Such was the experience to write for ‘The Green Pages’.

2020, with all its problems, provided a great opportunity to learn and set up for future challenges. The most significant source of my learning was writing for the Economics column and more importantly, it proved to be a sense of expression, free from the shackles of unnecessary restrictions that are slowly encroaching on our notions of liberty and choice.

‘The Green Pages’ helped me realize one of the central problems we faced in 2020 (it was not COVID), which was the lack of problem identification and lack of empathy. As we march into a new era of human progress, it is high time we start training our eyes. Eyes, as most of you have learned, is one of the most important sense organs not just for human existence, but a trained eye is also needed for human progress, especially from a sociological perspective.

In my last article, I will take you through a memorable journey of learning through a few of my favorite articles, which added various lenses to my eyes to better understand the world the way it is and help me get a fuller understanding of macro problems:

1. Marketisation is not a win-win:

My third article for the column was an accelerator of sorts in the process of learning the skill of writing. While researching for this article, I came across the issue of factualising opinions in the 21st century. In the present era, it is easy to just spit our opinions without backing them with even a shred of factual information. Although one may call it freedom of expression, its devastating effects were felt when I tried to understand the perspectives on marketization. It became more than clear to me that we, in 2020, are simply more concerned about proving the ‘other side’ wrong than actually improving the situation for the people we claim to care about. This paradigm shift in the motive of deliberations felt deeply problematic to me.

With the help of this article, I trained my eye to add the ‘lens of factualisation’ which, according to me, is deeply important for maintaining sanity and is very fundamental to the existence of our society as well.

2. India’s Tryst with Destiny:

In an era where bashing historical personalities with ‘facts’ (often made out of thin air) have become the norm, writing this article was an attempt to provide the real picture of the Indian political economy. Through this article, I learned the difference between critically analyzing our forefathers’ acts and blaming them for all our present problems while excusing ourselves.

As I wrote about the (today, much hated) first Prime Minister of India, I developed a ‘lens of accountability’ and noticed the fundamental issue lying central to most of our social dilemmas, which is that we fail to hold ourselves accountable for any of the problems in 2020.

The responsibility always falls on the British or the Mughals (now even Nehru), and once we wash our hands clean from taking responsibility, accepting an issue like income inequality or caste system ceases to be our duty. Once we turn a blind eye to our social duties, the social evils continue with their devastation in the margins of the society, and the privileged continue to live with a pure conscience.

The ‘lens of accountability’ has given me a reason to understand the world better, as it is my responsibility to change it for the better.

3. You Need to Start Paying:

“News is depressing and the world is never going to change”

How often have I heard that phrase to justify ignorance, but never had I had enough to counter such an argument. Till I wrote this article, a part of me used to believe in the argument, as I never really understood the reason for the confirmation bias and hate prevalent in mainstream media. Upon understanding the central problem to the craziness in mainstream media, I realised that the solution was within the reach of the common readers, not the big money or political reforms. It was simple to understand the economy behind subsidizing news for readers like us, and its cost.

This added a ‘lens of optimism' to my eye, where I understood that much of the social problems, do not actually need big ticket reforms or magniloquent laws, but just a simple wave of education and social will. For changing the world, ‘we’ are our own masters. This needs to reverberate in our minds as we march into a new era and take responsibility.

4. Visualizing Climate Change:

Climate change is a question of human survival but it is also one of the most contentious topics in the developed world. However, writing for this article gave me an understanding of the human psyche which refuses to take climate change seriously as we believe it is something in the future and cannot imagine its effects. This piece was an honest attempt to help people visualize the effects of climate change and more importantly, understand whom it is going to affect and how.

Understanding the effect of climate change is crucial learning, as it adds the ‘lens of creativity’ to one’s eye. Climate change forces us to be creative as the issue before us is an unprecedented problem and needs to be addressed for our survival. Thus, it not just brings us back to the table of negotiation and deliberations but also forces us to create a better world.

Thank you, ‘The Green Pages’

Being a part of the future of mankind has always been a source of excitement to me, and having been passionate about making the world a better place, has forced me to try and learn something each day. Writing has trained me to connect historical events to the present problems and critically think about the possible solutions in the future. Being a part of ‘The Green Pages’ and writing for the Economics column was not merely a part of my right to expression, but also a source of motivation and direction to channelize my energy to create constructive content by breaking down scary economic terms. Researching various theme-based macroeconomic issues trained my eye to understand the roots of such problems and empathize with one another, such that we find a human solution. I will always cherish the memory of being a part of this amazing team of very talented individuals and never forget the art of training my eye to be more receptive to the issues around the world and to guide the masses through the dark path as a torchbearer, working for universal betterment.