Before you form an opinion, ask:
Who chose what you’re looking at? And what are you not being allowed to see?
Every discussion, every spark of conversation around a thing, will increase awareness on that particular topic.
But isn’t awareness what often leads to progression in a discussion?
Yes.
But the direction of that progression depends on how the awareness is channeled—and what actions it provokes.
Awareness gives any topic an anchor.
It puts the discussion on a fulcrum—exposing it to the possibility of the happening of two different extremes/outcomes—positive and negative.
So, does that mean if we stop giving attention to certain things, the harm will fade?
No.
Let me help you really zoom out here.
What does attention mean and cost in the world we live in today, in the age of information overload?
Currency.
Yes. Literally.
Attention is the cost. It is the currency of the modern world.
Take news. Social media. Bro, literally everything.
Attention opens the gates to failure, sorrow, and chaos, while feeding the unseen catalysts working behind the scenes.
While the world goes behind a curated focus, someone—or something—is benefiting from the collective attention, at the cost of what we’re granted exposure of—misery, despair, suffering, melancholy.
Now, let’s come back.
Attention creates an anchor point.
Which unblurs our view of the possibility of the existence of the two extremes, positive and negative.
Here, there are two things:
Bad is stronger than good.
But bad cannot exist without the good.
Thus, attention increases the chance of happening of a negative outcome.
While no attention quietly holds the power to bring a positive outcome (assuming the activists are benevolent).
That’s why the people in power should be exceptionally conscious of how they channel their attention in order to produce a superior outcome that doesn’t harm anyone, even the oblivious.
That’s why the ones in “self-proclaimed authority” often have alleviated self-consciousness and diminished awareness-channeling capacity.
I hope you mindfully channel the awareness this post has provoked in you.
Thanks for reading till the end.
Jasir IbrahimFrom Beyond Silence