Chapter 7: Freedom Bubble & Population

       Your freedom ends where my nose begins. That's something that impressed me back in my childhood days.. 

       Now the space around you where you don't want anyone to mess around is what I like to visualize as a "Freedom Bubble". Now, let's observe the variations to the radius of the freedom bubble owing to the social variables. 

The various positive allowances that could reduce the bubble radius would be 

1. Friendship - personally granted

2. Family - obvious 

3. Attraction 

4. Circumstancial - depends on a lot of factors.

The various negative allowances (as it tends to increase the radius)

1. Enemity - yes you won't appreciate anyone even coming close if u can't stand him/her.

2. Bad breath / body odor - obvious

3. Family hatred - not just the family by birth but the groups you can't stand. For eg: some would run from the scene say if there's a aggressive political group marching towards you.

     Now that we've gone through a lot of bullshit, and since a lot if the dynamics of the bubble cannot be discussed in a mere blog, let's talk about the specific circumstantial factor of how population is affecting the whole dynamics of the bubble. Let's take the scenario of driving a car. And for example, take a country like USA & India. 

     As a driver, the distance that a driver would keep from the car in front is so that the guy behind can see the rear bumper of the car in front barely hiding the tyres. Now, if u have the same policy, in India, you can find 2 autorikshaws, 4 bikes and the nose of another car in the space you have left between the car in front. Traffic jams are going to feel like a hailstorm of injustice to your right of moving ahead.

Why did that happen? 

     Well, you came into the scene with a huge bubble. But the tension from the combined strength of the external bodies A.k.a the autorickshaws, the car and bikes, pushed your bubble in and squeezed in. This is quite frankly, a breach of freedom. You think about calling the cops and reporting the blasphemy! And then you think to yourself... "How many can get punished?". You still try to remain positive and push further towards the police station when next traffic signal, a cop car might violate your freedom bubble. Who'll catch that guy? No... Can't do... So eventually you do what you have to. Adapt & blend in. Dress to the occasion.. Slip out of the big bubble like a snake, and get into the high population bubble which is much smaller. You may not be comfortable. But it will get you somewhere faster.

     Please don't get carried away and laugh at the same and say "yeah dude.. It's crazy out there in India". If you see, it's more a population problem than anything. For example: New York is not alien to bumper to bumper traffic. 

     Also the concept applies to traffic alone. It also applies to social situations. Think about the distance You would be ok with a stranger standing in a closed 10m x 10m elevator when it's just the two of you. My guess is you might be sticking close to the diagonal corners.

And now imagine how far would you be ok with him standing if the same elevator has another 25 people apart from you too. You can say hello to - the social pressure. 

    To all who read the whole thing, I do have a request to respect the bubble of the person around you. Because the radius of your aura is directly proportional to how much respect you give to the other person's freedom bubble & inversely proportional to your own bubble radius.