It is perhaps too much to expect that the world will become a better place. It will be enough if one can change oneself.
The circumstances are trying and are very stressful, nevertheless it is a holy challenge for today's man to protect his dignity and sensitivity.
One has to free oneself from mediocrity first. In one's own life, there are hundreds of things that one scarcely pays attention to.
One's own clothes, the way one dresses, one's dwelling place, one's manner of talking, one's way of looking at others, one's cleanliness in mind and body, one's keen sense of aesthetics, one's sensitivity to both beauty and to ugliness, the way one sits, eats, bathes or sleeps, the things one is interested in, the books one reads, the music one likes, and so on.
All these things have to be observed and one's mediocrity understood in all its forms.
The beliefs one has, the rituals one follows, the people one respects, the dreams one has of a greater life, the lovingness, or the lack of it, which radiates from oneself, ...all these things are a reflection of one's own Quality of life.
Refusal to buckle under pressure, refusal to compromise even when one would lose money and would lose the respect of others, refusal to live according to the dictates of others, ...
It is a tall order, but what other way is possible? If one is to live happily, one must begin with oneself. One has been so deeply conditioned by the society that to understand and to throw off that conditioning in oneself is the first step.
When one has thus put one's life in order, one will find that there is another quality to life around oneself also. In that un-conditioned peace of mind, the ugliness of one's surroundings does not pervert one, the lawlessness and anarchy fails to shape one in its own mold.
And only then, one becomes a beacon to others. One becomes an example of happiness in a world which is so ineffably sad and beyond hope.
``There is hope in man, not in systems, not in organizations, but in You and Me.'' (J Krishnamurti)
One was born conditioned, but to be free of it requires great effort and will. But only an un-conditioned, free life has any significance.
To live freely, with great sensitivity, is the only tribute to Life that one can pay.