THE ILLUSION - AT PRESENT (Pratik Raghu, June 09)

How ironic can it be that we explore the notion of Utopia as the all-too appropriately labelled ‘decade from hell’ comes to an uncertain, screeching halt? If the last ten years have proved anything, it is that we as a race have many hurdles to clear before a ‘perfect world’ becomes more than just the subject of melodies by philanthropic musicians. The optimists among you may crinkle your noses at my less than upbeat summation of the era that so recently faded into the annals of things past. You may triumphantly point out numerous technological breakthroughs that punctuated the ‘noughties,’ or bring to my kind attention the election of an African-American president. Allow me to ask you this: what do the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Bali nightclub bombings, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the global recession, the global food security crisis, unrelenting climate change, waves of violence in Pakistan, North Korea’s nuclear testing, Israel’s invasion and blockade of Gaza, SARS, bird flu and swine flu have in common?

It is my belief that we should avoid pointing to specific causes of turmoil that have offset the possibility of a bright new feature, in which all the people of the world hold hands, singing in sugar-coated falsetto voices while dancing beneath a rainbow. This is not because I consider Al-Qaeda’s atrocities acceptable, subsequent ‘Islam-phobia’ tolerable or China’s ridiculously irresponsible growth justified. I feel that the problems we really need to address lie within, embedded deep in the enigma that is human nature.

Human beings are inherently selfish: most of us are far more concerned with ensuring our continued wellbeing than with extending our hands to those who desperately need to lift themselves off the proverbial ground. If you protest that this is not the case, explain then why half of this planet’s population is allowed to survive on less than a dollar a day: if sharing is caring, what does the aforementioned statistic say about us? Why does a minute portion of mankind possess the vast majority of attainable wealth? If the needle of the global environmental status meter has indeed moved into the red zone, why aren’t major manufacturers banding together to ‘go green’ for the greater good? Maybe the conspicuous absence of global conflict has helped us forget that suffering is still very much a destructive force to be reckoned with. Irrespective of reasoning, there can be little doubt that we have become sucked into the trivialities of our own ‘hectic’ lives, content with pushing the flipsides of our privileged existences to the basements of our awareness.

History unequivocally proves that a savage beast lies dormant within all of us, waiting on tiptoes for a chance to unleash its unbridled, malicious fury on anything and anyone, everything and everyone. The denizens of the animal kingdom kill out of sheer necessity: human beings, on the other hand, need but half a creaking, feeble excuse to execute acts of almost surreal cruelty. The lack of instigation that we require to set us off down a bowel-covered warpath is truly the stuff that nightmares are made from. Think about this: it took but a handful of subliminal message-laced broadcasts from a single radio station to turn Rwanda’s streets into corpse-populated avenues of decapitation and decay. We seem to possess an overwhelming desire to reduce ourselves to smithereens. The tools we have diligently crafted to aid us in our communally suicidal quest are too numerous to list. Could Hitler’s consummately disturbing pledge indeed be an acute observation of our potential for incomprehensible destruction?

“We shall drag a world down with us – a world in flames.” 

~ Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

Our wretched self-absorption and brutal capabilities are surmounted only by our ability to turn a blind eye. Ignorance is anything but bliss for those who bawl for assistance to no avail. How convenient it is to imagine that we are any closer to achieving the oh-so-ambitious Millennium Development Goals. That our glittering sneakers weren’t as a matter of fact made by a little boy in the stuffy confines of a Chinese workshop, desperate to earn a bowl of rice and not a cold-blooded thrashing. That so much of the natural beauty we readily take for granted will shortly cease to exist as a direct result of our consumerism, our hunger for looming glass facades and brimming gas tanks. Convenience is the fog that clouds our compassionate perception, while passivity is the rocket that incinerates a youngster in Gaza, the chain link fence that locks in a Sri Lankan refugee. Perhaps the advent of high technology has helped us sink even deeper into the comatose recesses of our comfort zones, where no shock waves can churn the waters of our consciences. Perhaps we consistently, tragically err when choosing between what is right and what is easy.

But what if, what if the night is darkest just before the dawn? I do believe that the forces of light are capable of penetrating even the most consuming darkness. In every age, a handful of individuals have always managed to break free of the suffocating bonds of ignorance, selfishness and violence to inspire and uplift the rest of us. Think Oprah Winfrey, Bono and Muhammad Yunus, Mahatma Gandhi, Desmond Tutu and Oskar Schindler: to follow in their illustrious footsteps, to move towards realizing the Utopian vision, we need to look inwards and confront that which truly frightens us. We have to awaken our consciences and open our hearts. We must embrace the fact that we are not enemies, but friends, that while passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. We need, now more than ever, to become the change that we want to see in the world.