Rohit

“आज सड़कों पर लिखे हैं सैकड़ों नारे न देख,
घ्रर अंधेरा देख तू आकाश के तारे न देख।

एक दरिया है यहां पर दूर तक फैला हुआ,
आज अपने बाज़ुओं को देख पतवारें न देख।

अब यकीनन ठोस है धरती हकीकत की तरह,
यह हक़ीक़त देख लेकिन खौफ़ के मारे न देख।

वे सहारे भी नहीं अब जंग लड़नी है तुझे,
कट चुके जो हाथ उन हाथों में तलवारें न देख।

ये धुंधलका है नज़र का तू महज़ मायूस है,
रोजनों को देख दीवारों में दीवारें न देख।

राख कितनी राख है, चारों तरफ बिखरी हुई,
राख में चिनगारियां ही देख अंगारे न देख।”
― Dushyant Kumar, साये में धूप [Saaye mein Dhoop]

“Thou shalt not distort, delay, or withhold information.”
― Meadows. Donella, Thinking in Systems: A Primer

“We've already seen the attention merchant's basic modus operandi: draw attention with apparently free stuff and then resell it. but a consequence of that model is a total dependence on gaining and holding attention. This means that under competition, the race will naturally run to the bottom; attention will almost invariably gravitate to the more garish, lurid, outrageous alternative, whatever stimulus may more likely engage what cognitive scientists call our ''automatic'' attention as opposed to our ''controlled'' attention, the kind we direct with intent. The race to a bottomless bottom, appealing to what one might call the audience's baser instincts, poses a fundamental, continual dilemma for the attention merchant-just how far will he go to get his harvest? If the history of attention capture teaches us anything, it is that the limits are often theoretical, and when real, rarely self-imposed.”
― Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads

“The most damaging example of the systems archetype called “drift to low performance” is the process by which modern industrial culture has eroded the goal of morality. The workings of the trap have been classic, and awful to behold. Examples of bad human behavior are held up, magnified by the media, affirmed by the culture, as typical. This is just what you would expect. After all, we’re only human. The far more numerous examples of human goodness are barely noticed. They are “not news.” They are exceptions. Must have been a saint. Can’t expect everyone to behave like that. And so expectations are lowered. The gap between desired behavior and actual behavior narrows. Fewer actions are taken to affirm and instill ideals. The public discourse is full of cynicism. Public leaders are visibly, unrepentantly amoral or immoral and are not held to account. Idealism is ridiculed. Statements of moral belief are suspect. It is much easier to talk about hate in public than to talk about love.”
― Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer