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Modern man is too busy with waging wars against everyone and everything, but really don’t know what for.
I think, man is basically a warmonger. It is in his blood. This is what he has been pursuing since the time he has evolved to his present form. Naturally, it is very much evident in his interface with the current corona virus pandemic too. The most common words we often hear in these days are; ‘war’, ‘attack’, ‘corona warriors’, ‘frontline’, and so on.
If we pay close attention to his historical trail to occupy the singular centre of power in this planet, this warmongering is quite apparent. This is because, man had waged war against other living creatures for his survival in stone age to begin with, and then to spread his civilisations across the globe through constant friction with other beings and indigenous people in the process. So, it is normal for him to believe that he has to fight a ‘war’ against ‘others’ to secure his berth. In this way, ‘history of mankind is the history of war statistics’.
To begin with, man’s first war was against other species. When he was a minority in the planet, he decided to outgrow his population for his safety, at the cost of other beings. This was the beginning of disruption in food chain.
Consequently, his immediate task was to transform the world to suit his needs, namely ensuring the availability of food at all seasons and also a safe place to reside. In this process, he got acquainted with powerful weapons, which empowered his mastery over nature. With weapons in hands, he started behaving like the gods he created, and control the planet and other species for his use.
This human act exposed other species totally to be exploited by humans to cater to their self-centred benefits. The growing human population and also its longevity due to advanced health care, necessitated speedy modification of more land for agriculture to feed humans and domestication of wild animals for agriculture work as well as for human safety. In addition to it, clearing more forest area to build houses as well as to create empty spaces around villages for human safety.
Nevertheless, the nature could somehow withstand all these destructions till the colossal deterioration of nature which started with the industrial revolution in nineteenth century. This created urbanization and vast migration of people to cities in search of better livelihood. Of course, industrialization and its mass production has eased the life of urbanities and attracted more people to settle down there. Again, the invention of sophisticated machines has given humans a lot of leisure time, entertainment and luxury too. But, on the other hand it has transformed man’s idea of human life, source of happiness, social status, visions for future.
With more comforts, man has become more individualistic and has created a flawed idea of one’s life. This is successfully implanted and popularised by the flashy advertisements sponsored by the industrial power houses. Being caught in this web of fake self-identity, man has engrossed in his search for happiness in goods and gadgets, as well as, constant craving to have them all in one’s life time. This is like, a short life with limited income, at the face of too many expensive objects of joy to possess with. As a result, modern man is too busy with waging wars against everyone and everything, but really don’t know what for. This idea of human life has made him short sighted, and blocked his vision from being aware of his lineage and also the responsibility for the future of this world, of which he is a mere tenant.
What do we make of this? Man has perceived this planet as an ‘outsider’, so to extract as much as possible from his perspective of usefulness and has always believed in waging war against it like an enemy. This kind of alienation, rather than belongingness has made him irresponsible in his continuous atrocities on nature. Meanwhile, this ‘otherness’ has always prompted him to treat nature as his enemy and to deal with it mercilessly whenever there is a conflict. This is demonstrated in his attitude towards insects and worms which destroy to save his crops. He poisons them with pesticides. Leaking industrial wastage to the immediate environment without a sense of guilt, is not of any consequence to him, as long as his interests are protected. So, as a continuation of this warmongering nature, man has evoked the same response to this invisible virus pandemic. In spite of having highly well-equipped war machines, he has not achieved any success in this new encounter so far, other than hiding himself in isolation. Even the most ‘powerful’ nations look pathetic in front of this virus.
Thus, it is high time to change our attitude towards nature. Let us speak in the language of love rather than war. It is time for ‘peace’, not ‘war’. This love of nature is already visible around us. The lesser the human interference with nature, the results are better. We hear of positive stories like; rivers, ponds and oceans becoming cleaner, hilltops being visible from a far-off distance, wild animals roaming freely around without the fear of speedy vehicles and trains smashing them, ozone layer healing up, etc. Let us respond with mutual love for nature, for once at least.
Drifting our eyes off the human suffering at the moment for a while, the nature is whispering to us the message with love, ‘Don’t hurt me more. Let us have a symbiotic relationship. I can give everything you ‘need’ with love, but can’t satisfy your ‘greed’. I am not your enemy to wage a ‘war’. I am your mother. I love you all like all my other creations’. If we hear this loud, it could be the biggest take away from this crisis, a game changer.
Image Source: Pexels
Dr. Jyothi, Assistant Professor of English, Tumkur University. Has been a teacher of English and also soft skills trainer, with special interest in writing poems, articles, short stories and translation both in Kannada and English. read more...
This post has published with none or minimal editorial intervention. Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
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