Monkey see Monkey do - The law of tacit vying in Lock-down.
You arrived at the right time, we were just about to take a small trip to 3300 BC, the magnificent stone age. So, if you are all prepared, let's start this time machine. We all sit in our capsules, and a boom tube sucks as in, and the next minute we open our eyes. We see two cavemen, getting drenched in rain. It's raining like you have never seen before. Imagine, trees are getting uprooted instantly with a swift cut from the wind, sky roaring with thunder. And it's dark. Dark like depth of sea’s where no light reaches. It's pitch black. We can see the two cavemen, in intervals when the light is illuminated by lightning. Suddenly, lightning hits the forest, and it catches fire. This was not the usual rains which the cavemen experienced, this was rare, probably the first of its kind. With the fire catching on, the warmth calls one of the cavemen. He goes near. You try to stop him. But I'll hold you back, and say to you, “Be careful, any mistake here, we will change the fabric of time, which will create ripples, and who knows fire might be discovered by some other species. You stop, and stare, “Vineeth! this is just a story”, I know but still whimsy comes free of cost. Anyway, cavemen goes ahead and get’s burnt. Screams, and the other one, back off. He realized two things here, never to touch the red thing, the red thing comes from the sky, and the red thing gives light at night. Its early morning now, and the rain finally stopped, our protagonist’s cavemen, are roaming around the burnt forest, suddenly they see a creature which they used to get scared from, dead, roasted, and burnt. The last and most important thing they learnt, the red fire could kill the creature, and also, roast it to be delicious meat. And hence, the man started using fire. We fly back from that era to this, and you read this article further. I hope you read it further. I still haven’t made my point.
Fire, perhaps the reason we reached where we are. Once the fire was discovered the caveman started using the same for hunting, fighting and scaring of the creatures he was once scared off. It is said that Prometheus, one of the Greek titans, the god fire, was condemned to eternal punishment from the God Zeus, to steal and give “Fire” to the mankind, in-turn pushing the wheel of innovations. The fire was important. It gave Sapiens a little head start to evolution.
We humans from the stone age also had one other major advantage. We shared values and successful traits, we copied each other. The first caveman to get a torch, had only the advantage for a few days perhaps, before others noticed the same, and started doing it. Hence, created the first group of cavemen, harnessing the power of fire and showing unity, and we mark at this point, the beginning of a historic, landscape changing civilization. Before religion brought people together it was these shared fictions of food, hunting and safety, which is probably the biggest reason for our success. There could be countless number of people, yet we could come together and work towards something larger than ourselves. Wheels of evolution had started to churn.
Gossip was also an important part of the groups, if a caveman would not do the job allotted to him and do his share of chores, he would be thrown out. It was necessary they all shared the same institution of beliefs. If there was a difference of opinion, it would be settled by bouts, and thus man started having opinions other than what the group shared. He also realized that if he was having contrary and diverging views there must be many within. This time there was an ignition: this time, it was not fire, but the undying spirit of competition. Men became competitive. Both groups started displaying their thoughts, actions and opinions about hunting, different use of fire, and perhaps even the fact that fire could be produced by rubbing two stones. And whichever proved to be more successful, the latter started losing its share of people to the winner. Again a few years of mutual sharing of beliefs resulted in growing prosperity, and with the same motivation and motion for the betterment of its people. They moved to the age of agriculture. Sorry, jumping bronze and other ages, because let’s accept the truth, I have already put you half to sleep, and I really want you to complete this article, we are almost there.
What I mean by this long story of cavemen is that we are biologically programmed to either cooperate or share beliefs. Or compete and prove which is more dominant, AKA, the survival of the fittest. Competition can have both beneficial and detrimental effects. Many evolutionary biologists view inter-species and intra-species competition as the driving force of adaptation, and ultimately of evolution. The competition also serves as a mechanism for determining the best-suited group; politically, economically and ecologically. Competition can have negative impacts as well, like war. But I am in general talking about the positive benefits that competition brings, the mere nature of challenging each other's thoughts, notions and limits. Thus in turn bringing new innovation, ideas, philosophy to the entire world.
I am a big fan of sports, watching them as entertainment, or playing them as recreation. I am in for both. But when I questioned myself, as what’s the point of competing in a sport at international, national, or even state level? I was puzzled. I couldn’t find a rational answer. Well, money? Yes, a sense of pride? Yes, but there was something missing. The Olympics gave me the answer. The biggest event, a spectacle, a plethora of sports played by the world's best, trying to win gold, to be declared the champion. But then what? I soon realized, its a notion, its a belief, its unity, that every athlete starts at the same starting line. It's a common struggle all athletes display, in order to prove new limits the human body can experience, it establishes new boundaries only to be broken by someone, someday. But altogether it brings people together. The Olympics official charter is the following :
“Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”
So, I think I have given enough examples to now raise my point, what I am saying is when we display common traits, we learn, when we learn them, we challenge because we think of something better. We innovate and excel. The same as the other person does. It's like the Olympian spirit, having the same belief of unity, yet competing with each other to show there is always a better way out. It's like game theory. Using not only common belief that unites all of us, on the grounds but also competition to make us be better than others, thus making each other better. That’s what I meant by the title, “See monkey, do monkey”. We are all basically monkeys, who copy each other, and do exactly what the other does. We improvise on the same and then do a little better. The other monkey sees this and we are building a never-ending chain of improvement.
This worked till now.
With Corona/COVID, or whatever name you choose to give to this nerve-wracking phenomena, it doesn’t change the fact that we are working from home. This has deprived me of seeing my colleagues, do something wonderful, do something unique, have some healthy ritual, or absolutely anything. I am on my own, with no reference, as are many of us. We are monkeys, remember. If one of us ate healthily, there was a chance I would see him and eat healthily. If one of us worked diligently for an hour, I would have worked diligently for an hour. If I know a guy who was full of energy at the end of the day, I would try to mimic his values, in order to bring myself to the same level, and prove myself to be a worthy competitor. It was all about observation, tuning, improving, and scoring. With no reference, behind this digital shadow, I am left with me, only me. So are the millions, connected on teams and slack, but still alone.
I painted a very grim picture there. Sorry about that. But I hope you understand what I really meant. I seriously hope so. My answer to this is, creating small learning communities. Create small group, it can be for anything, if you are watching your weight it can be for that, if you are learning a new thing it can surely be for that, it can be basically for anything you want to improve in your life, choose people who are facing a similar problem, make yourself accountable to these people, report every day, treat it like a community centre, share things, share philosophies, share an idea, values, routines which work, bring in few people who you think can be set at role model for the community, as you cant see them work/achieve or observe, ask them to give tips, invite them to your discussion to come and speak about their routines. This way there is something every day to look up to. In the group, even 1 person starts getting better and reports positively, honestly, every single day, others will benefit too. It's time to form an online digital community of learners who will share the same values, yet will one day compete. The lockdown is a silent competition, as my title conveys: we can't see monkeys, and we can't, and the problem is that when this lockdown ends, we will be back in the office. There are chances that the one person with whom you competed, and in turn made you better, has moved leaps and bounds ahead, and you are there, and still where you were before the lockdown. Don’t let this happen. Believe in community learning, bring people who share similar values, report to them, compete with them, and keep making yourself better, with a proper digital reference to observe thereby making the best of these times.
“A horse never runs as fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace.”
