(I hold no responsibility for upholding my own views; I often change my views for various reasons. However, if you are in a phase of life where you agree with what I have said below, it should not matter to you whether I believe in it or not.)
(میں اپنی آراء پر قائم رہنے کی کوئی ذمہ داری نہیں لیتا؛ میں مختلف وجوہات کی بنا پر اپنی آراء اکثر بدلتا رہتا ہوں۔ تاہم، اگر آپ زندگی کے اس مرحلے میں ہیں جہاں آپ نیچے بیان کی گئی باتوں سے اتفاق کرتے ہیں، تو یہ آپ کے لیے اہم نہیں ہونا چاہیے کہ میں اس پر یقین رکھتا ہوں یا نہیں۔)
I often see that people who are not “materially” or “financially” rich are sometime assumed to live a life of low significance. Not only does society can think low of them, but they themselves may start to attribute less importance to their own existence.
They feel, like most “financially” rich, that their life is miserable due to financial poverty, and they continue to live in that bitter self-imposed reality.
The idea that low material wealth equates to a miserable life is so ingrained in us as a whole. When people from cities visit the countryside, they often judge others by their modest homes, clothes, and way of life. They assume these people belong to a lower class, meant to serve them, even willing to give up dignity for money. They do not see them as equal. This is entirely how we are programmed. Back in cities, this is exactly how their employers would see them: throw more money and they will sacrifice their life, relationships, morality. People in “developed” countries may assume that as a whole for people in “less developed” countries.
When people discuss ways to reduce poverty, the only solution proposed is wealth generation through business creation, making access roads, putting up more industries, etc. There is already so much industry in the world that the world today is sinking under its own weight in the shape of climate catastrophes, yet poverty is prevalent and situation is more dire today. Imagine if this solution makes logical sense? To me, it does not. What is the solution then? Try to think; it is not so difficult.
Human beings, regardless of their material or financial rating, are all entitled to a joyous, eventful, and dignified life. The essentials of life are available to almost every one of us; it is only when we make a choice to think and honor the gift that life is, we honor our own existence. We honor the sheer possibility of us making it to this world, the fact that every single moment is a gift. We understand the greatest use of life is then to focus on enjoying the stay as perhaps intended by the universe. Once we make that choice, we start moving toward a mindset of abundance, of realizing that there is already enough for us; we don’t have to subject our lives to the joyless, meaningless troubles that we subject our lives to.
This is how I think we can truly reduce poverty. To me, real poverty is not about money. It is a lack of self-belief, a way of thinking that doesn’t recognize the value of life or the potential within every human being.
If we help more people overcome this kind of mental poverty, we would be doing a great service to humanity. Sadly, many people who are financially wealthy still live with this inner poverty. I feel what needs a frequent telling is the message to them too that no human being is ever truly poor.
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