Shakespeare had said, “All the world’s a stage.” An unforgettable human drama was unfolding on the world – stage two years ago. Let us take a time-machine and go back to November 13, 2015 in Paris. It has just witnessed a terrible terrorist attack. But now it has become a stage to manifest hatred versus compassion. While terrorists have just showed supreme hatred for human values, marked by an almost cannibalistic pleasure in killing as many people as possible, the taxi drivers in Paris personify compassion in the backdrop of hatred as they are now silently rescuing the victims from the danger area to a safer zone or to a hospital without charge.
The stage looks like a battlefield. However, it is not a battle between nations or religions but between cultures, specifically between the progressive, secular, liberal variety on the one hand and the dogmatic, fanatical, and medieval at another remove. It is a battle, so to speak, between Malala Yousufzai and the Taliban.
Society cannot advance without cooperation and tolerance. It is a key for existence of everything. Our body could not have functioned had there been quarrel and mutual disrespect among its parts. Simple common sense tells us that coordination among all of its parts is a must for smooth running of a machine. Unfortunately, inhumanity is not a Taliban monopoly. Cut-throat competition is integral to modern society. Market economy foments consumerism and as often as not provokes cruelty.
Popular video games like “Vice City” and sports like WWF can twist human spirit for adventure into sadism. This virtual and real cruel games and footloose hedonism that preaches “shop till you drop” way of life are destroying the sensitivity which is the essential composition for humanity. The limit of one’s freedom is in front of other’s nose. But the market players want to stretch it further and break the nose of human values.
It has been reported that among the ISIS recruits there are some teens who are eager to get a real feel of virtual games. Therefore the bridge between these two forces can clearly be seen. The greed for power, be it political or economic drives the rabid Taliban and business tycoons alike. Impressionable age is the most soft and easy prey of these greedy monsters.
So, this battle is been fought in every sphere of the globe. In fact this needs to be waged even within our minds. The need of the hour is to cleanse the greed for pleasure at the cost of others and to take concrete safety measures to thwart such attacks in future.
