The writer is former Ambassador of Pakistan and ex-Assistant Secretary General of OIC
Question: “Is it true that married people live longer?”
Answer: “No, it only seems longer.”
The profound exchange enunciated above may appear to be a trifle uncharitable, but may also be largely true. Since times immemorial man (and woman, no doubt) has been obsessed with the length of a life span. This obsession is conditioned by the assumption that a long life is somehow a ‘good thing’ or at least something worth striving for. The elixir of life, it would appear, has ever been the elusive goal of researchers for as long as one can scan history.
The question, begging for an honest answer is: what does a person do in order to ensure that he somehow outlives his fellow beings? The researches have centered on such things as diet, habits, environment and the like. The general inference one draws from the expert analyses is that the secret of long life lies in not living it in the way one should. In other words, if you enjoy life then you are destined for a shorter existence. Live a life of abstinence and you will be rewarded with more of the same! Or, at least, it would appear to be so. There is no telling for tastes.
Rummaging through the archives revealed a study by experts some years ago that showed a light of sorts at the end of the tunnel. For a change, this was a research study that differed somewhat from the norm, thereby holding out some hope for the future. Experts at the Mayo Clinic in the US State of Minnesota, after a longish research analysis, reached the happy conclusion that optimists somehow live longer. This should be good news at least for those with a positive mindset. Or, is it?
The acknowledged father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, one is informed, declared optimism to be neurotic. For the philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, optimism was ‘fundamentally wrong, banal and corrupting’. A rather gloomy lot, these philosophers and psychologists! Makes one wonder how they would have reacted if they had found out about the fresh revelations aforesaid. Maybe a little optimism could have crept into their gloomy minds, after all!
One question that does come to mind and has yet to be fully answered is whether or not it is strictly accurate that optimists do live longer. It may well be that, being optimists as they are, they might just be feeling that they live longer! What is more, one must not also overlook the fact that merely living longer can hardly be considered as an end in itself. It is the quality of life that should matter the most, not its length per se.
Another of these scientific studies (that, incidentally, appear to be sprouting like wild mushrooms after rains) has come to the conclusion that being egotistical, stubborn and disagreeable will help an ‘ambitious’ person to forge ahead. A bit of untidiness, it is added, will help too. A research study, presented at about the same time as the earlier one to the American Psychological Association Conference, examined the traits of the most successful men in US history (it is to be noted that with all their pretensions about gender equality they somehow never talk about successful women in US history) — all 40 plus presidents — and compared them to more average individuals.
The truth, according to Texas academic Dr Steven Rubenzer and colleagues from the University of Minnesota, is that ‘being nice gets you nowhere’. The researchers, it would appear, discovered that the great presidents were low on ‘straightforwardness, vulnerability and order’. Success and being nice, it was felt, don’t go well together. What came as something of a surprise to the good doctor was the fact that those who were a little disorganised appeared to have done a bit better. “Abraham Lincoln was notoriously untidy, and it certainly seems to be an asset,” he asserted.
Americans are known for taking scientific studies seriously. It was to be hoped that the study aforementioned would not find its way to influence the minds of those who set the school curriculum! Regrettably, going by what one gathers from US TV soaps, it may already have!
Published in The Express Tribune, August 5th, 2018.
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