It was meant to be a personal opinion as most columns are, but the response has been pretty public and vocal. A columnist for a daily newspaper in the city wrote that there is a Narendra Modi in every one of us (he was referring to the Gujarat CM, allegedly the mastermind behind the massacre of Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots). Is he wrong? Or do we all have a latent genocidal maniac lurking in the abyss of our mind? I think we do.
So what is it then that prevents us from making like Pol Pot having a temper tantrum and obliterating everyone in our vicinity? The answer lies in our fear of repercussion.
Humans, unfortunately or not, live in an environment of fear. And it is made with the blood and sweat of our own beings.
Fear — whose greatest patrons are organised society and religion — keeps us hemmed in; prevents us for realising our potential and above all exercising our need to express our free will.
Anarchy would be Politik 101 if it wasn’t for our fear of being labeled social pariahs. The execution of those we despised would be far more agreeable if it wasn’t for our fear of being incarcerated — or worse, executed ourselves.
Society claims that these are the very reasons why dogma and rigid diktat must be enforced: not so much to protect us from antisocial elements, as to keep us from harming ourselves. Society is nothing but religion’s general, and we mere foot-soldiers in a battle for (pardon the cliché) global hearts and minds.
There is a Modi in every one of us, says the columnist. I would go one step further: there is a bit of us in Modi...and Manson...and Papa Doc...and Hitler.
We live by a moral code that is not ours, and has been thrust upon us by consecutive generations of feeble-minds. Veer from the road well-traveled and feel the brunt of religion’s apocalyptic horsemen: Justice, Family, Society and the Word.
Modi gave his henchmen carte blanche. He took away their fear of repercussion and promised them freedom to express their will. He turned them into humans, he took away their social consciousness and returned them to their primordial state. In many ways he set them free. The fact that Modi used religion to spur on the killers is moot, what isn’t, however, is that he turned society’s weapons upon itself.
Modi, however, made one grave mistake. He sought refuge within the belly of the very beast, whose commands he had shredded, and whose codes he had destroyed. This is his comeuppance. In his case, his lack of fear, was his undoing.
Society is an unforgiving nemesis: at times, it may lapse, but it never forgets. We fear repercussion, because it is inevitable, not because it is righteous.
Those who rail at the columnist’s views are merely reading from society’s hymn sheet. It is time we begin to rail against the system. Anarchy — violent or non-violent — works. Just ask the likes of Gandhi, Robespierre, and Samuel Adams.
Modi may be wrong, but in the homicidal carnage he inspired, there is a hint of the rebelliousness, inherent in all of us. We must now begin to tap it.
2 comments:
Mr. Dean-I'm going to moderate all of your comments-Williams I think you should write a blog about India's obsession with the word "the".
You know what I'm talking about. I know you have a smile across your face right now.
"The boy went to the bank to get the money so he could be able to buy the bread for his mummy who was coming from the work to make him some nice daal. Afterwards he would be going to the his the room to study for the school examinations so he could get the best mark and place the number one in his class."
I just wanna know why. What is up with the exsessive use of the word "the"???
P.S. Don't forget to approve my comment.
Man is a social animal. The first thing we did was form tribes, then cities and nations. People inside these groups, who want to break free, go out and find like-minded fools to form another society...ad infinitum. The vast majority of these groups pay heed to the basic laws of humanity (summed up nicely by Moses)not because they are slaves to them, but because they rely on them to survive. Anarchy? Pass the shotgun, I need to buy some milk. Damn, the shops been looted. Oh no, my house is on fire. Who needs the hassle? Anarchy tends to appear when one group feels particularly threatened by another. All laws are forgotten in the desire to eliminate the threat. Rangers fans attacking a Celtic bus-lets get them..Muslims attacking Hindus-lets get them..WMDs attacking Americans-shock and awe,dude. The nutters you mention, Pol Pot in particular,is the exception that proves people are more motivated towards law and order. Thats why we live,in 2007,under "a moral code thrust on us by consecutive generations of feeble minds" and not in year zero under a black flag.
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