There is a famous theory called the broken window theory that’s based on an inexplicable aspect of human psychology and social behaviour. According to this theory, a broken window that is left unfixed can quickly encourage more crime and vandalism because it sends a message of apathy to everyone who sees it.
It’s common experience that in a room that’s a complete mess, yet another thing dropped on the floor doesn’t make much of a difference. If a room is immaculate, we try to avoid being the first one to dirty it. The message is: Keep things as clean as possible; Bad things attract other bad things.
Malcolm Galdwell has written an interesting book on this theory called The Tipping Point in which he has stated that New York City credits the sudden and dramatic drop in crime in the late 1980s and 1990s to an effort to rid public spaces of graffiti and other symbols of lawlessness.
If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street it faces.
The broken window is a metaphor for behavioural norms and is applicable to every field of life. A neglected job, unrepaired machines, late-comers in an office or a fostering enmity between two colleagues are all broken windows. If they are not attended to on time they grow out of proportion and the management cannot handle it.
Every organisation has to be on the look out and fix these problems on time or else creative energy starts leaking. Indecisive executives or emotionally-undeveloped heads of families are the worst broken windows that secretly corrode the benefits of an organism or a family set up. The small fights of siblings end up as family feuds if not nipped in the bud.
Big disasters always start with small leaks. If disorder goes unchecked, a vicious cycle begins. The mind is programmed to be detail oriented, and this is why if you’re not on top of the details, the perception is that things are out of control. Of course, attention to detail is tedious — one has to go to the root of things, clear the filth. But it is very rewarding in the long run. Take time to fix small holes so that the entire wall is saved.
How does this law work? It’s difficult to say, for it is one of the mysteries of existence. Yet it applies to every field of life.
Osho explains it with a slightly different slant: “This is one of the fundamental laws of life: If you have you will get more, if you don’t have you will lose even that which you have. It is a very strange law but one has to understand it. Nothing can be done about it, one has to follow it... It is so in the ordinary world, and it is so in the inner world. The rich man gets richer because money attracts more money; the poor man gets poorer. The same is true in the inner world too: The blissful person becomes more blissful; all God’s blessings shower on him. The miserable person becomes more miserable. You get only that which you have because that which you have becomes a magnetic force. It attracts something similar to it”.
Becoming more conscious and responding to every moment with alertness can resolve this issue.
— Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops
around the country and abroad.
Links:
[1] http://103.241.136.51/amrit-sadhana-612
