The Games go on...
Friday, August 1, 2014
The world is the same. We are the same. The games are on. The players keep changing, though.
It is not that we are the first hapless inhabitants of a world that witnesses mass killings, barbaric violence, death of innocents and torture of the most frightful kind. At almost all times, there have been wars and violent struggles for supremacy. There have been wars that went on for hundreds of years and blood flowed incessantly. Not many decades ago, it was in this month that one big player decided to play a deadly game and teach a lesson to another player and dropped two atomic bombs. The decision makers or the perpetuators of all oppression never die in the games, though. The Presidents, Prime Ministers, self-styled Commandos of groups etc play the moves and watch the drama unleash as millions of us-- the robots, cut throats and blow up fellow human beings in the name of our duty towards our race or community or nation.
In the past fifty years, the big players have been almost the same, while the small players or rather, pawns have changed. A few decades ago, some nations were ruthlessly partitioned for varying reasons—today, some others are staring at not just partition but a total breakdown of their systems and nationhood. We could not be closer to the truth that there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies in the world.
Yesterday’s enemy of a big power may very well today, be a friend. While some small power is an enemy, the rest of the world is also instructed to stay away from it and strictly prohibited from trading with it too. Yesterday, an ally in the war on terror; today, it may not be so. The dictatorial rulers of many nations were buddies and collaborators in many a games, until one day when they became threats to democracy. They had to be killed for the ‘Spring’ to be ushered.
A would-be-enemy or an evil empire is encouraged to take birth, flourish, and is used for amassing quite a many gains. Then, as the game progresses, stakes change and the time comes for the pawns to change. Then, another set of games. Hysteria is generated against those who were allies before but now are enemies of mankind and of democracy. The whole world is made to believe: they have to be eliminated. However, the elimination is never smooth. In the process, much blood is spilled and before it dries up, another bigger monster is ready to spread the fangs. If such games were not continuous, then the arms-industry would not have flourished as well as it does today. If weapons are becoming deadlier and deadlier than ever before, the occasions to use them must be oftener and oftener than before.
Which nation and which players will be arm-twisted when, how, and for what purposes can never be correctly predicted in our world. These days, if the pinching is not in terms of generating law and order problems, then it is surely financial. It is easier and more lucrative to finish nations by generating economic upheavals.
What are the gains in all these ongoing power struggles and for whom and for how long are questions which cannot be answered with certainty? The world looks pretty ugly as we see it now, and especially so, when the frightened faces of thousands of little orphans stare at us on all news channels or when the shrieks of widows and old mothers echo aloud from several parts of the world.
I am bigger or you are bigger; I should prevail or you should; my beliefs are correct or yours; I will rule or you will... ---before we settle these scores, let us take a look at the dust below our feet. That is what we shall finally be reduced to... and sooner than we know it. All the beliefs, swords, bombs, and crowns cannot change this simple truth.
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Navniit Gandhi is an academic since 25+ years; a feature writer (300+ articles), and has authored 10 books.
Her 10th and most recently authored, published and launched book is titled: NOT MUCH IS AS IT SEEMS
Her write-ups can be read at
navniitspeaks.wordpress.com
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