RICHNESS AND POVERTY OF TOTALITY

Written by

Brij Sachdeva

Richness or poverty of the totality of a person, from a social perspective, is the aggregate of the abundance or scarcity of everything having social value.

Your financial status, social standing, nationality, physical attributes, and relationships collectively form your totality. However, in society, richness in terms of wealth is valued the most. Those who are affluent, move ahead in their life, throwing money at their problems. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that the richness and poverty of the totality of a person is a relative phenomenon. A beggar can be rich in comparison to his fellow beggars and an emperor can be poor in comparison to his fellow emperors.

An Indian in South Africa is considered as fair complexioned and the same Indian in America, may be considered otherwise. A comparatively light-skinned woman in South Africa is considered beautiful. Now how would you consider this woman in India? In America, thinness is considered a popular beauty standard. Girls often feel that they don’t measure up to society's beauty ideal. Similarly, a five-foot man may be considered tall in one country and short in another country.

Perspective

It's all relative, but one of the silliest things we do is to advise someone who is dissatisfied with their situation to consider life from the perspective of someone less fortunate, all in the pursuit of finding satisfaction and contentment. For instance, we might tell someone who has no shoes that there are other who have no legs. While it's important for a king, for example, to consider the perspective of a beggar in order to work towards their betterment, I sometimes question why one should engage in this exercise solely for the sake of finding satisfaction and contentment. While understanding another person's situation is valuable, our own perspective should remain a top priority.

This game of looking at life from the perspective of someone less fortunate for the purpose of finding satisfaction and contentment seems to be a tactic employed by the wealthy and powerful to quell the discontent and envy of the less fortunate, ensuring that no resistance arises from the exploited and that any seeds of revolution are destroyed before they have a chance to grow.