Deep thoughts

It's only until an hour into my Mumbai flight that I realize what was so peculiar about the chaotic scene at the Delhi airport; there was no chaos to it. There is no anxiety here. All the motion and all the crowds bother no one here and I simply have never seen that. Given this scenario Americans would be bothered, offended, perturbed, confrontational, etc. There is not a hint of any such reactions reactions and it stunned me. No one cares about the countless homeless (I am guessing they are homeless) strewn about, no one is upset others are cutting inline, no drivers are really that bothered that people and motorcycles weave inches in front of them, even the pedestrians seem unbothered by the cars which miss them by inches. New Yorkers would flip if any of this happened. Screaming would ensue, fights would start because someone is offended and many birds would be flipped.

So why are we so different? What underlying trait do we have that causes us to get offended easily, or be likely to be bothered, or more easily angered? I think it is our ego. We feel no one should bother us because we feel important. Perhaps no one here thinks of their importance in the same way. Here is seems like no one cares about personal space, or getting cut off, or anything like that.

Perhaps after years of me not having to worry about if I am going to eat, or where I am going to sleep, my focus moves on to other things. And perhaps these other things are not basic because all the bases are covered and we only have everything else to be concerned about. I believe it is a human trait to be concerned about something so in the face of security we choose symbols of status as our objects of concern. One could argue we make ourselves status symbols. What other country holds physical appearance in such a light? Of the others nations that do, most participants probably are in similar positions.

Think about this we go to the dentist for cavities but also to get teeth whitened. Plastic surgeons make over $1M annually in private practice, among the highest salaries in the medical industry, on par with neurosurgeons and anesthesiologists(I guess our boobs are as important as our brains...to say nothing of our lives). Hair is highlighted. Eyebrows are plucked. I think we eventually became selfish and prissy as a country because life has been relatively good for so long. Since our basic needs are taken care of we proceed to interpret our luxuries as needs.

Now let me make an important point here because this looks to head down some bleeding-heart path. Not me; life is not resolved by self-loathing. I dont feel any guilt about this because its a natural reaction (most people in the world just dont get the chance). I just want to get across how apparent it is that none of that self-importance resonates here and it is amazing. Seeing thousands of people comfortable in an environment where you feel discomfort is a cumulative epiphany. I'm feeling like in India there is no room for your own ego and American anxieties can't exist because worry is reserved for only the direst of circumstances. Here you don't have the right to be bothered by the little things.