LIVING TENUOUSLY IN A WORLD OF IMBALANCES

We, humans, are living in a world of imbalances.

No dispute about that. And it’s not just a few, simple imbalances that we have to contend with. It’s more like maybe too much for our liking. Complicated, complex and discernibly unbalanced scales putting the world we live in a rather precarious state.

Ecological imbalance, wealth imbalance, education imbalances, social imbalances, work -related imbalances, personal – intelligence, raw physical imbalances (I’m handsome, you’re not, and I’m gorgeous and pretty, you’re plain Jane, sorts). Well, what should I say, the whole spectrum of social, political, religious, ecological and what have you more, varieties of imbalances.

A motley of imbalances, spreading outwards and touching the phenomena of tall and short, democratic systems and dictatorships, big salaries and those with AIDS (adequate-income deficiency syndrome ? Well, I’m in).

The imbalances are not restricted to just discrepancy between a rich and a poor man in wealth terms, but it covers and climbs up the broader political ladder discriminating between rich and poor nations, to the pinnacle of all imbalances, of rich and poor souls.

Well, let’s ramble about a known imbalance.

The Pahang Malays have been known to be great warriors and patriots, always fighting for their motherland - Pahang. And real warriors like Datuk Bahaman, Mat Kilau, Tok Gajah, Pak Sako, Manap Jepun, Tun Razak and a whole array of real men against British colonialism in the country, were mostly Pahang born and bred. The question that begs to be answered is "Why the imbalance? Other states too were colonized."

Well, the answer may well be that the majority of Pahang Malays have always been poor. They live by the banks of the rivers, planting padi and fishing in the rivers and seas to put food on the table. And thanks to the Almighty, the Beneficent, food could always be had.

But humans are such that if incursions into their life make for imbalances in their routines, then the invaders should be prepared for retaliation. Encroachments and imposed changes especially externally engineered, invite imbalanced decisions and actions. So be it, they say.

Emotions become imbalanced, more self-centered and motherland-centered, and intelligence gets more topsy-turvy. People with hunger pangs in their stomach, unless balanced by feel-good sensations elsewhere, will do anything to protect themselves, their family and motherland. Hence the rise of heroes.

But then it may be that because food is easy to obtain and life is easy as it comes and goes in daily life, fighting against incursions and invasions also upgrades the soul to a higher level. An inner sense of responsibility to protect valued subordinates, relatives and connected friends, in fact to the land and home they love and abide - nothing invokes the sensibilities more than someone from somewhere else intending and conspiring to take them away, or changing them, parting ownership. Hence the rise of heroes (and villains too).

Well, I better stop here. I know I didn’t answer the question. I can’t talk politics. It’s too deep for my knowledge and intelligence, too complicated for me to comprehend or justify, and too sensitive to perhaps suggest any political thought here.

So, coming back to the topic of my babbling -- of imbalances in this world.

We, humans, right now, I dare say, are living precipitously in a world of global imbalance in a specific, rather ghoulish realm that spells disaster of the greatest proportions.

I am talking about imbalances in the military realm, of bullies and the bullied, of advanced nations taking up the unilateral role as judges and policemen of the world, inevitably becoming real bullies of this life.

It is as though this world properly needs rigorous one-sided judgments and policing by any nation, that then begins threatening each and every other nation with a taste of its perceived military strength and might.

This is the state of imbalances inherent in the world today. We have self-assumed leaders of unbalanced mind, bordering on insanity with childish notions of grandeur, with simpleton views of justice, but constituting no less a real threat to the continuity of mankind.

We are all on a sharply precipitous edge, really. Another piece of improper conduct by any self-assumed leader of this world, nay, any childish notions of self-grandeur as I said, and, teng teng teng, the world and human life as we all know it (don’t we all?), will tether on the brink of extinction ourselves.

If we don’t wake up and work continuously to adjust, twist and turn the screws (in all childish heads of adults) to make everything right again, or in short, be wise, we humans may be extinguished forever.

All of us in this generation should learn. Do learn from the Vietnam war, do learn from the Korean war, from the two world wars and from the wars of the Romans, Spartans, Mongols, Greeks and what have you. Do learn the simple truth.

That all wars kill humans.

Ahh, what an incoherent and rather imbalanced babble I’m putting in my blog today. Perhaps someone can make it comprehensible. Or is it already?

Well, never mind. My imbalanced mind today will inevitably balance out those characteristically over-zealous, over-balanced minds that exist every second, minute, hour and day, of life in this world.

Wise up friends, (and me too).