We're Suffering from Extreme Mediocrity Syndrome

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 5 February 2024 "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." (Mis)attributed to Andy Warhol "Stooping to an act of extreme frivolity with a view to promoting a noble cause always results in the dilution of the cause." Naguib Mahfouz in ' The Beginning and the End,' Egyptian writer and Nobel laureate in Literature (1988) The narcissistic Poonam Pandey hogged the limelight for 15 minutes, thanks to her well-orchestrated 'death' to promote cervical cancer. In this way, she belittled the enormity of cancer. This is symptomatic of the frivolous times we're living in. To quote Naguib Mahfouz again, "Humans have a proclivity to cheap publicity." We can go to any level to be in the limelight. Agreed, Poonam Pandey, Rakhi Sawant and their ilk may be extreme cases of attention seeking, but more or less we all have this tendency to be in news, albeit with much less intensity and drama. The question is: What makes us behave in such an asinine manner? We live in an age of mediocrity with superficial people. In these times of selfies and ubiquitous social media, the desire to create a sensation is overwhelming. Everyone is in a tearing hurry to give his/her opinion. Those who're brainless, yet want to be famous, try to emulate Poonam Pandey. Nothing profound is happening. Pedestrian people, performers and rank undeserving people are getting accolades and acclaim. General people also think that if so and so can win an award or be famous, why can't we? This encourages the likes of Poonam Pandey to shed clothes in public or feign death. The Extreme Mediocrity Syndrome is responsible for this type of utterly irresponsible behaviour. Social scientists believe that humans are passing through intellectually the worst phase in human history (courtesy, Cornell University Sociological Studies, 2022). There's no cerebral, seminal and epochal development in any sphere. World-class literature is not being produced. Classics are neither being created nor being read or viewed. Except for Noam Chomsky, where're legendary thinkers like Edward W Said, Umberto Eco or Jacques Derrida? There's no great composer of the class and level of Mozart or Bach. Nor is there a singer like Mohammad Rafi and Frank Sinatra. Mediocre times produce mediocre people whose only objective is to get a semblance of success and fame by resorting to fly-by-night means. No wonder, we've such inferior humans who die for a day to create 'awareness' about cervical cancer! I once again quote Mahfouz, "Wisdom brings sanity." Where's that wisdom in this age? Where's that sanity? When a whole country leaves all cerebral pursuits and runs after Ram and Sita, what'll be the outcome? You'll have a plethora of morons and retards. By the way, please read Naguib Mahfouz and his books like 'Palace Walk' (1956), 'The Beggar' (1965), 'Sugar Street' (1957), 'The Harafish' (1977), 'Midaq Alley' (1947) among others. I'm sure, the learned readers and contributors like Mr Ghulam Mohiyuddin and Mr Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi must have gone through Mahfouz's thought-stirring novels. The latter, being a scholar of Arabic, must have read Naguib's oeuvre in Arabic. We should read this Egyptian great who predicted long ago the times we're passing through now. By the way, English translators of Naguib's works such as Lyon Amiss and Afnaan Aqif, though exceptionally good, couldn't fully capture the essence of Naguib's idiomatic Arabic. Readers might be aware that Arabic is the richest tongue in terms of proverbs, sayings and adages. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/suffering-extreme-mediocrity-syndrome/d/131656 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism