The Swinging Sixties
The wild cosmic dance slowed down its whirling. The stars and the moon snapped back into
their places. The earth returned to its
orbit. The attack of vertigo ended.
For those who have not experienced it vertigo is merely a
word. Perhaps the name of a forgotten
film or a medical diagnosis. But to
those hapless creatures who are whirled around its little finger like a toy it
is apocalypse.
Why is the swirling dizziness so frightening? The answer is simple. Lack of stability. We don’t value it till it is lost. The stability does not have to be real. Mother earth which is spinning like a top
affords us a virtual stability like no other object in the universe. And yet its value is realized only during
those calamitous moments of an earthquake.
Then why don’t we just sit on our backsides and enjoy the
stability? The evolution provides the
answer. The moment man became a biped he
lost all claims to a stable gait and was forever condemned to walk, run and
fall and thus was set upon the long road to progress. The unstable posture was an evolutionary
choice. A man can always crawl on all
fours if need be but who has ever seen a goat running on two hind legs? That is why the goat eats grass and we eat
goats.
Even so man has always sought stability in every walk of
life. This tempers the natural
adventurous streak in humans and prevents needless destruction. As we graduate
from the thrill seeking teenage to the more sedate thirties we abandon the
motorcycle for the far stabler cars. No
one wants to stay in an absolutely still pond of water where every ripple is
anticipated with a thrill. But nor are
we comfortable on the stormy high seas in a canoe. Most of us would rather be on a river cruise
with its gentle rocking and the musical lapping of the water on the side. Those who achieve it have made it in their
life.
Countries like Saudi Arabia are prosperous not only because
of the oil wealth but the extraordinary political stability. Iraq with nearly the same amount of oil is
wallowing in misery. Neither model of
governance is particularly appetizing.
The controlled chaos of the Western democracies is far more appealing. The current results of the Indian elections
might nudge us towards that happy mean.
Do I want a return of the vertigo? No way. I will not dare ride a roller coaster ever
but nor do I want the boring arm chair.
I am now heading for the garden swing.
Haily Dalvi
6th July 2014
