The Outliers

Geologically speaking, an ‘Outlier’ is a new or young rock formation which is surrounded by older rocks of long continuity. It comes into being when erosion in the older rocks separates the newly formed rocks from the older ones, making them distinct and independent. By a unique feat of nature, the outliers are born onto the landscape. They look like a stand apart body of rocks – a marvel of nature: Their continuity with the old being lost, there is the new.

Metaphorically, an outlier in the social context is one who stands out because he or she is not of the herd, not within the realm of the old, the tradition. In the outlier, there is an emergence of the new, the detached, and disconnection from the anchor of orthodoxy.

Social outliers are atypical. They think differently; they perceive human problems differently.

In the world of human psychology, belief is predominant. Most people are easily given to believing in something. They may believe in one set of ideas or another, but to believe is common to most people. It is also logical enough that human beliefs have led us to innumerable social divisions. In today’s world, the mankind is suffering primarily because of these uncountable divisions – divisions in religions, in values, in ideologies, in political or non-political ideas, in personal goals and interests, and what not! Human tradition has conditioned the mind to think in divisiveness, the ‘you’ versus ‘me’, the ‘we’ versus ‘them’. Thinking is always limited and thereby it is constantly breaking down the whole into pieces – the one into many.

It stands to reason that as long as we think in parts, pieces, or portions, there ought to be conflicts in our self-expression and behavior. There cannot be love.

There is a ray of hope in the outliers who are capable of questioning the traditional way of thinking and looking. The outliers can question and reject the culture of piecemeal approach to our problems. They can bring a true revolution in the field of thinking and therefore, living.

Then, there may be peace on earth.