SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY AS THE CATALYST
SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY AS THE
CATALYST
There
are varied belief systems among all the parts of the country. These belief
systems helps in framing perspectives in life which may turn out to be either
positive or negative that is associated with the success of a person in his/
her life. There are even many therapies and fruitful ways to turn the negative
perspectives or views of a person into a constructive and fruitfully optimistic
frameworks. The functionalist principles gets in synchronisation while
analysing concepts like these with the practical realities of life.
Robert
K Merton is an American sociologist who coined the term “Self-fulfilling
prophecy”. This is in relation to what was the main context of a famous book
called “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. This book mainly focuses on the Law of
Attraction and how human lives are turned with positive or optimistic outlooks
in life. This term refers to 'a
false definition of the situation evoking a new behaviour which makes the
originally false conception come true'. In short, this means that
the beliefs or the perceptions which anyone may apply and go on with their
intuition will eventually happen accordingly in reality.
For example, if a teacher believes that his
student will perform well and get better grades then the belief he possess over
his student will have an impact on his performance and will turn it to be true
and he may perform well and get better grades. This is also partially similar
with the concept of Law of Attraction since it posits major concentration
towards beliefs.
But the irony lies where it may also happen the
other way where despite someone having optimistic beliefs over his/ her
performance to gain something which he/ she had quoted in their goals, it will
be disrupted with the environmental inconveniences. As the cognitive dissonance
theory states people are very sensitive to contradictions and inconsistencies,
their societal change will also influence their performances to reach out to
achieve their goals. Here, a person’s social influence has to be aligned and
adjusted or modified in a way that doesn’t cease his consistency towards his
input that is required to gain his goals through the means which he chooses to fulfil
his dreams and conform with the societal expectations placed over him. If a
person is aware of all these consequences, he might as well be acknowledged about
something called the “Survival of the Fittest”. This is a term used in Darwin’s
evolutionary theory as a way of describing the mechanism of natural selection.
A person who competes despite his dilemma of his perspective and his societal
influence which may burden him from achieving his goals will and can eventually
attain it and this person according to Darwin’s conception is deemed to be a “fit”
person in order to sustain and survive in the society. But this term “fit” is
been misunderstood in the society. Here, those who are aware of the irony
between societal influences and his own beliefs are benefitted and those who
lag this conception are deprived of the privileges and are end up with getting
nothing and are let to suffer and are stigmatised or stereotyped as the “unfit”
persons in the society who are regarded as good for nothing but as a burden to
the society and those who are slowing down the development of the whole
country.
India is one such country which is adjudged to
predominantly possess this because of the rates of poverty which is directly
proportional to the performance of its citizens and committing it to the growth
of a country. This is where people are deprived of the basic amenities and
privileges which makes a distinction between the haves and the have-nots as
founded by Karl Marx. The have-nots are alienated in terms of all aspects including
the place where they inhabit (i.e. According to the 2020 report, 6.5 crore
population live in slums of India). In fact, many crimes are associated with
the place where a person inhabits and is often used as a factor to veil the
sections of people from the truth and fairness in the politics too which has a
serious impact in the contemporary society. They are not just segmented on the
basis of occupations and the social status they hold but also on the basis of
caste and for which caste politics which is still acting as a cohesive force
for the victory of the candidates in the political matrix.
Therefore, a belief could drag down to all such
instances functionally in the society that could disrupt the flow in a society
by making it stagnant and unjust and bringing in a deep cleavage between the
haves and the have-nots among the same society and deteriorates the overall
development of the country. If this is the case, conflicts are not a rare
phenomenon and will trigger all kinds of ills and evils in the society favouring
dilemmas among the administrators responsible for the proper functioning of the
governance in a country.
In conclusion, any individual must be prompted
and forewarned about the functional dependence of all these institutions
contributing for both the individual and collective goal attainments despite
varied ideologies. Any individual who is well read or is assertive to deduce
the relations and the consequences of this will compete and reach his or her
goals and taste the essence of survival in the contemporary society and he who
is responsible for the governance must also pave way for them having in mind
about the matrix. This is where the self-fulfilling prophecy proves to be the
momentum for being the catalyst for change.
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