In the winter of 1989, I visited Pune for the first time. I worked in the Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad, as Project Manager for Airframe and System Integration in the ‘Akash’ missile project. I was sent to interact with engineers at the Research & Development Establishment (Engineers) in Dighi, in the northern suburbs of Pune. I spent a few days there, and one evening, walking through the crowded Budhwar Peth, I bought a book, Self and Others, by R.D. Laing. I had no idea about the book or the author. The title and the three overlapping circles on the cover attracted me, and I bought it. A Scottish psychiatrist, Laing,died that very year, which I would later know.  

This book gave me insights into how we are all created by the people around us. As a child grows, he is ‘told’ how to behave. Interestingly, this does not happen smoothly. The child ‘reacts’, and the people around respond differently to these reactions. Some children are cajoled and pampered, and others are scolded and punished. Many others are just ignored. By the time one becomes an adult, a thousand swings have happened from the one extreme – ‘I never asked to be born, leave me in peace’ to ‘I am all that exists, get out of my way’settling mainly on the middle ground of ‘live and let live’.

Later, I learned that German-American psychologist Karen Horney was the first to define the three-fold attitudes of human beings – moving toward, away from, and against others. Within this, three forces are hidden in various human behaviours and relationships, including parents and children,interactions between married couples, at the workplace, and even on the streets. Everyone is ‘attracted to’, ‘averse to’ and ‘hostile towards’ another individual. It is alright until these three responses are spontaneous and change according to the situation. Still, when they become ‘conditioned’ into habits, the behaviours become problematic, which psychologists call neuroticism.

I have seen how TV changed lives in the 1980s. The definition of ‘others’ expanded to include those we saw on TV. People were exposed to ideas, styles and fashions, which was earlier impossible. Then, the Internet came into the picture, and after it became available on mobile phones, social media created a new definition of ‘society’. In the past, contact was one-on-one primarily or one-to-many, and news spread through traditional media like TV and newspapers.Now, anyone worldwide can share their ideas and experiences in real–time and get feedback immediately. Thoughtful people could see how a few corporations made it happen, investing billions of dollars. But why have they provided us with all this?

 There are two books, ‘Anti-Oedipus’ and ‘A Thousand Plateaus’. Written by French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and published respectively in 1972 and 1980, both books have a similar subtitle: ‘Capitalism and Schizophrenia’, which provides the answer. The flow of capital and interest and the flow of desire are entwined. Behind every investment of time, interest and capital is an investment of desire, and vice versa. Why do we purchase anything? Out of necessity or out of desire? Is there ‘an invisible hand’ circulating money by making people earn and spend and creating profits for the ‘capitalists’ in every act of their lives?

The three terms – necessity, desire and wants, motivatepeople. Wise people know the difference between them; fools do not. Necessities are the essential requirements for survival and basic well-being. Everybody needs food, water, shelter and clothing. All must have protection from harm, a stable environment and health care. Some level of social interaction and support is necessary for mental health. Universal necessities are generally the same for everyone. Without these, survival and basic functioning are at risk. They are fundamental for life.

Desires are feelings of wanting something not necessary for basic survival but which is strongly yearned for. They are emotions, and they vary significantly among individuals. Desires drive people to set and pursue personal or professional goals and are a powerful motivating force for action and achievement. Wants are whimsical. They are primarily non-essential items or experiences that add comfort, pleasure or pride but are never necessary. People spend a lot on beverages, entertainment, cosmetics, jewellery, fashionable footwear and clothing, and touring for fun. Everyone must know how to distinguish what is crucial for survival from what is motivated by personal preferences and aspirations.This was called ‘Viveka’ by ancient Indians, and Adi Shakaracharya wrote the copious ‘Vivekachudamani’ on this subject.

The American philosophical writer and translator of ‘Anti-Oedipus’ and ‘A Thousand Plateaus’, Mark Seem, writes in the introduction of ‘Anti-Oedipus’:

If one wants to do an analysis of the flows of money and capital that circulate in society, nothing is more useful than Marx and the Marxist theory of money. But if one wishes also to analyze the flows of desire, the fears and the anxieties, the loves and the despairs that traverse the social field as intensive notes from the underground . . . one must look elsewhere. . . the history of mankind is the history of a becoming-reactive.

I was surprised when I dived deep into these two books andfound the ‘ego’ at the centre of this game of capitalism in the modern world. The Internet and broadband have been ‘invested’ to stoke billions of people’s desires so that they ‘buy’ what is unnecessary. In the name of fashion and trends, people must discard what they already have and hoard enough clothes, shoes and watches for the rest of their lives.

We are taught to see only ‘ourselves’ behind every social event. Even God is ‘waiting for us’, ‘listening to our prayers and pleas’ and ‘doing us favours’. This information gives us a picture of reality, but it doesn’t show us reality itself. We are presented with shapes, symbols and signs that hide flows and forces. They keep us from seeing other truths, especially the truth about how power controls us. They are meant to tame, and they make people obedient and docile.

Things seem to be going well so far. Now comes the challenging part. While all this is good for leaders and corporations, it creates internal suffering and a depressive tone of life for countless people. An increasing number of people are neuroticised at home, at school and work. Those who survive the ‘conversion’ become psychotic. These people escape their situations and run away, hiding their failure behind their false heroism. They turn into orphans – no family, atheists, and nomads without territories. German-American painter Richard Lindner drew the ‘Boy with Machine’ picture in 1954. So he saw it coming, so it came. 

This is the disease of our times, and humanity suffers from it. To improve, we must live by doing what is necessary rather than becoming ‘desire machines’ and Excel sheet numbers of corporations and in the mailing list of interest groups. By connecting to the machine of the universe – inside your body and outside in the sky – you live better in the flow of life, not by the ‘media’. You can’t change the world, but you can save yourself for good by floating on water like a lotus. The life inside you will show itself in growth, a never-ending process. Life clasps ego-less people in its powerfully productive embrace – and their desire-free work – ‘Nishkam Karma’ – turns them into greats.