Your Friendly Philosopher & Guide

Violence has always been part of human civilization, and if we think that world will exist without wars – then we are mere fools. History is full of wars, religion is full of violence, and then why do we get so perturbed when there is a terrorist attack? May be the media blows things out of proportion many a times.

Of course I feel bad about 100 odd people who died in the mishap, but then I also feet bad for the 100 people who die of snake bites each day in India, and I also felt bad for 9000 farmers who committed suicide in AP during Chandrababu’s regime. Life is precious for everyone, and life is important for everyone – whether you die in Star Hotels, or die by starvation, or die in politically motivated religious fights – doesn’t really matter.

We think we tend to come together in time of crisis, and we think that is patriotism. In fact the very thought of being patriotic and the very nature to kill someone just for the sake of land is incorrect. If all agree to it, then there won’t be any borders - but then politicians would hate that to happen. They will lose power, and will lose all the avenues to make money for their generations to come.

I read a news article in Sify that the policemen who died in the mishap were already warned by the particular group – against their harassment towards their particular community and also towards women and children belonging to their community. No one is a born terrorist. If the situation demands even ‘You’ and ‘Me’ would take up violence. None is a nut to lose something as precious as life for dumb reasons. It just depends upon how far someone is pushed and how long someone is pushed. Everyone has a breaking point depending upon the situation. And who creates the situation is something that we need to think about.

We as individuals are biased in many ways too. We think only about what Osama did to the US, but refuse to know or accept about what the US did to the Islamic country. Women and children who died in 9/11 are no different to women and children who died in US attacks on Islamic countries. Life is the same everywhere! Then why do we think life of people belonging to a particular community or a country is more precious than someone belonging to other community or country.

I received a forward today about how Indian military force from all over the country came together to rescue the hostages, and how patriotic they were. But to be very honest – I thought it was their job for which we are paying our taxes. Being in military doesn’t mean you are patriotic. If tomorrow there is a curfew, and you are seen with more than 4 friends, they will be the first to put a bullet through your butts! Your nationality won’t matter much to them. They are there to take orders. And it was Indian Army, which pressed the trigger when General Dyer gave the orders to fire at Jalianwala Bagh massacre.

Good God the episode is all over – the media got good TRPs and websites would have got good page views. Newspapers and magazine would have made their share of money. For few days there will be few human interests stories popping from here and there, and another mishap and we would have forgotten everything. BTW do we still remember the plane hijack episode of 1999? I am sure you are ready to google already!