So it is Monday again, you get up early wash, get the kids ready. You all have your breakfasts. then you drop off the kids at school and hit that pile of paperwork or whatever digital asset you have to grind against. You spend your whole day doing this. Away from your family and inaccessibility to anybody else who might benefit from your availability in one form or the other. You do this 30 odd times; a similar redundant routine, and at the end of the month you get that cheque or bank transfer that you have bargained your time for. As such, you are able to provide for your families, you are able to afford good education for your kids, good medical for the entire Jetson's family, etc. Life is great. Life is good.
Or is it? A human being's ability to concentrate on the problem at hand and solving it is amazing. Over time Greed Corp. has brainwashed the masses to solve the problems they need solved within their own bubble economy. So in the modern world we have jobs, designations... the so called corporate ladder. And young minds are coming out of their schools and colleges, trained, to focus on these economic bubbles.
Lets say my neighbour is hungry and their family needs attention. At the same time I have a hifi job or "career" in an exceptionally aggressive organisation of its time. The stuff that students talk about in their college just about the time when they are to leave this "camp". One college mate might prefer employer-a because of it's aggressive investment and yet another might prefer employer-b, because the pension would be great and the work is decent. In such situation even if I were a topper at school, and landed one of these grand jobs, and am now working in a stable environment. Which one of my actions directly and immediately relieves the pressure and stress looming over my neighbour. Sure I can go to a social gathering of family or friends and talk about the challenging work etc. Family is proud of my top rank at school. Everybody is bucking you up. A pat on the back for that amazing job that you just landed. A cheek pull from all or even one of your aunts, to communicate that the achievement under consideration is nothing to be taken lightly. Everybody exceptionally competent in the roles that they have had to assume, because they learnt and were trained by their elders who in turn were trained by theirs.
This routine pattern of a so called life has become the norm in the modern world. You want a successful life? Go out, learn well and train well then attack that job market. Your aim should be to become the highest ranking sales agent at the firm by the 3rd week.
I am from a developing country, and I've always had an affinity towards it regardless of what the culture says; which includes family and friends. Even through college mostly the discussion would be how to get out of the country. TOEFL vs IELTS, any new visa schemes that may facilitate the move, or even scholarships. Because of my father's work I had travelled around the country to affluent areas and the not so affluent. I've received education in exceptional schools, and the not so good ones. To be honest I do not think, either of those factors affected the outcome.
Fate is once written and frequently fulfilled. As such, when you come into this world your journey has been set by the all benevolent and you've been assigned your pit-stop team of angels whose sole responsibility is to ensure that you stay the course. At any given point you will be where you are supposed to be and in the end you will finish off the way you were supposed to. I digress.
So this routine life that Greed Corp. has created for us is to simplify life for themselves. Anybody who thinks of it as some sort of an achievement is an idiot (sorry). Does one think they are being favoured by given a certain job, a certain designation or even a certain salary. It would be naive of you to think so. Primarily, all that is happening is one going through one end of the pipe and is spewed out at the other end. Greed Corp. has designed this system of ranking, scale , authority etc. not for our benefits but instead just to make their own life simple. The average person is happy to comply to the order of jumping 3 times and doing a cartwheel. The system then presents this as an achievement back to the average person. As such, the whole family or even extended family and infact in some cases villages, felicitate upon the so called "achievement".
All in all the system is designed to keep one busy like clockwork. If everybody ticks at the right time as expected and directed by their care takers, for e.g: the employers. Then the human race will keep rolling along and predictably so. They might gift wrap it and call it progress. There was initially a lot of study in things that matter like medicine, or social care of sorts. However, now in the modern world, it has become a facade. It is all recycled. The idea to keep people busy is easily understood if you consider the analogy of bicycling with life. On one hand you have a bicycle that you ride to go to places, get things done, meet people etc. On the other hand you have an exercise bike. Great stats reporting, calories burnt etc. your favourite music pumping the background or the air conditioning, that ensures you finish that last season of your favourite soap on the wall mounted TV, without dropping dead on the floor. All this pedalling and you don't move an inch, basically a synthetic way of exercising yourself which is not what Allah had in mind. The "job" per se is that exercise bike, because sitting on a desk from 9 till 5 and pushing forms MAY indirectly benefit someone someday...potentially .. no guarantees. But do note that it will always be indirect when you are doing a "job" you're not fulfilling your God given purpose. Understand employment is for the machinery and not the organic responsibility that Allah has planned for us humans. It is true that that machinery may eventually benefit your/my neighbour or the people who live in the slum nearby, however not without the compliance to this synthetic system, and rarely without cost. But the offices we go to, and the corporate errands that we run on a daily basis have somehow become synonymous with one's social status. Most of these "jobs" have little to do with helping others.
So later in my life unfortunately situation arose that I landed in a care home. Here I was able to witness first hand the misery of man. There were people that had not seen anybody for years. Yet there were others who had nobody left in this world to see. Even more so, there were others who were literally abandoned because of some child birth disability. These people had all the care in the world. They did not have to worry about salaries etc. they were fed, washed and put to bed. The only thing missing from the equation was perhaps a bedtime story. Yet, this segment of people who have their basics taken care of (All Praise be to Allah), had this sadness on their faces, that was clearly evident. At least for the nice ones. There were others who expected and demanded this care as a right. This got me thinking about the privileged mindset in the first world countries.
In comparison, I started thinking about my own country, it is poor and infrastructure is not that great. But lonely, sad, sick, disabled etc. people exist everywhere. Yet they exist, Allah gives them strength, and facilitates their path. Otherwise it would be very very difficult if not impossible to survive.
So this literally crushed my heart. A heart that is fascinated and interested in the tech culture and will always be, but working on corporate projects or building websites etc. is not helping the average person who needs help. The realisation that has struck is that even though it is my subject of interests and I can (and probably find a way to pursue it on the side), I understand that this game of silicon is just feeding that same ugly giant of the selfish Greed Corp. without helping the people in the slums. So my promise to Allah is that, if he enables me, my remaining life will focus on Khidmat-e-Khalq; Service of Humanity. I want my kids to feel this and grow up with this empathy. Ignore the rat race. This is not what we are here for. Sipping a drink in a jacuzzi and bickering about your "supposed" boss or that work college is not real. It is pointless and meaningless. Heck you don't even need me to tell you you this. If you just extrapolate and create a trajectory of lets say your tie wearing paper pushing Job, imagine being at your grave and realising how many hours, days, months, years it was where all you did was fill out an online form, or get that contact between pen and paper. Where as if you had only reoriented yourself, threw that key board away, found a poor starving man and had a meal with him. The magnitude of this action compared to being a loyal paper pusher for multiple decades?!?!? I mean I shouldn't even have to explain.
And it is not that I am too idealistic and think that one should'nt work of course you need to have money to have that meal with that struggling person, perhaps you do approach players from the system so that they fund the real life. I myself am not at a point that I am aware of fool proof ethical way of financing all of this, but people are doing this or doing something which works to an extent. So I am sure there is a solution to that problem.
Life is not meant to be a pool of sharks fighting viciously for a prey. It is about caring, connecting and praising Allah in process. I guess, I would like to get off the exercise bike and actually cycle to a place where I can do something or am needed in some way. Allah is a great enabler and InshAllah he will help me. Ameen!