Darwin, survival and all that talk

Darwin, the father of evolution proposed the single greatest phenomenon in nature. He observed "survival of the fittest", a grand plan in the scheme of nature, a descriptive force only bettered by the might of creation. The laurels to the observation can go on.

This phenomenon has single-handedly defined our generation. In many ways we are stuck in a rat race which we are involuntarily a part of. We tend to have the survival skills at our sharpest as resources are dwindling and ability to achieve depends on the ability we have.  This generation probably has a hunger that can never be satiated by  nature. 

Everything has grown in our times and gone global, if we look at just one generation before, they wanted to settle for plushy jobs working 9 to 6, have a family and try to move less frequently; today we look for the proverbial "greener pastures" in moving to other countries and taking up better jobs.Change was a dreaded word and no one ever looked forward to it. There was a lot of red tape and underhanded office politics but it was mostly manageable. In todays corporate environment there is no red tape, partly because it promotes quick decisions and brings about progress and partly because the environment is very unstable. The office politics stoops to new lows and sometimes borders on "how much kiss-ass can you give me?". 

The market today changes rapidly, the next big thing integrates more actions into one and alienates people for the most crucial part. There was a day when you were charged extra money to use the ATM and internet banking facilities were never heard of, today banks charge money if you actually step into a physical facility. Its not just the banks here, my cellphone service provider Vodafone used to provide toll free customer service, now I am greeted by a message from some machine saying, " Our IVR menu options have been enhanced to serve you better", and doles out some gibberish that I have to carefully listen. Of course not all things are bad, the exposure to events across the globe, voicing out our opinion for a just cause and easy filing  of taxes are all great. When you ponder over the need for such things its mainly because we don't have time anymore, for a quick chat with our neighbor, or standing in a queue to pay a bill. We complain about travelling  an hour or more in a comfortable bus with push back seats. Our best friends are the people we say "hi" to over a  telephone line. We mostly wait for the weekend to drown ourselves in some mindless entertainment or a pint of beer. We want to fight for causes and make a difference in other people's lives, with no consideration of our own. 

Its all down to a numbers game in the end, how many times have you gone abroad, how many  employees do you have, how much revenue was generated, how much was the profit, how much money did you make, how many people did you help, how many friends do you have on facebook and the list is endless. The rat race is on in every sphere of our lives today, from the corporate world to personal life and in the great words of Darwin "survival of the fittest".