An eye for an eye, only turns the entire world blind

Devastated by the attack on its Pearl Harbor, USA decided to take revenge on Japan by bombarding it with atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One end result is that Japan suffered a great loss of life and the health problems continue to persist, and neither could USA get back the lives of people who were killed at Pearl Harbor. This shows us that an eye for an eye only turns the whole world blind.

It is observed that human beings are always trying to prove their own point and often ignore others’ views. This leads to conflict where there is no attempt to defeat each other, and in the process, hurting not only each other but also others around them. They often ignore the fact that hurting someone in response to the attack will not only hurt the enemy but also themselves. This is a manifestation of animalistic impacts on human beings.

History has witnessed numerous battles and wars which have only caused pain and suffering to those involved. The European countries, in pursuit of their colonial interests, waged mercantile wars, destruction of native cultures and exploited the colonies. The wars not only caused human loss to them but also a great amount of irreversible damage to the colonies and their peoples.

The Cold War only continued the legacy of damaging the developing countries. With the USA and USSR being at loggerheads always, they tried to divide the world into bipolar great amounts of resources were diverted to these Cold War strategies, often at the expense of their development, to subvert these poor countries by making them subordinate. This hampered not only the progress of USA and USSR but also blinded the growth of the poor countries.

The trade war between USA and China in the 21st century is causing great damage to global trade. With the imposition of restrictions and competition in raising trade barriers, these two countries have reduced their bilateral trade causing decline in growth. But its effects are spilling over on other countries, and overall there is a slump in global economic growth thus creating darkness in lives of peoples around the world.

In India, the conflict between Hindus and Muslims has manifested into a series of events such as Babri Masjid demolition (1992), Godhra riots (2002), Dadri lynchings (2015) which witnessed a great loss of life, and the hatred among the communities continues to act as an igniter of future conflicts. This hatred and mutual distrust have resulted in destruction and division of Indian society.

Elections in India are often seen as a competition between political parties for power. ‘Power by whatever means’ has become the motto of these parties. They create caste conflicts and consolidate their vote-bank by flaring up such disparities, thus harming society. Thus, the conflict between political parties makes the Indian masses socially blind.

Tribal people are often victims of developmental activities. The competition between states to attract investment has led to weakening environmental regulations, and in the process, the rehabilitation of these tribal populations gets compromised, and they find no other livelihood opportunities to sustain their families. Thus mindless competition between states brings darkness to the lives of tribals.

Consumerism has become the norm of the day, and people today buy things not for their needs but project their social and economic status. This leads to a mad rush in consuming unnecessary and redundant products which take a heavy toll on the environment, ecology, and climate through pollution, land degradation, and water crisis. Thus, mad rush for consumption has led to destruction of environment of the entire world mostly affecting poor and underdeveloped countries.

Conservatism in the world is now leading to inward-looking policies, and erstwhile liberal countries are no longer willing to accept migrants. This is because of the perception that migrants are a cause of crime, terrorism, and unemployment. There is a relook at immigration policies, making them much more stringent. The western world is competing among itself to reject refugees blinding lives of these refugees and their children.

Multinational companies are perceived to be the propagation of new-colonialism. Though they do not have political power, they have enough financial power to twist and manipulate the policies of governments of developing and least developing countries. They exploit the resources of host nations to their own benefit and give in return a paltry amount. This is done to maximize their profits and stay ahead in the race of international competition. Such policies/practices often result in devastating the lives of citizens of these countries.

Parents are considered role models for their children. However, due to increasing individualism, we see ego-clashes, domestic violence, and divorce rates increasing in society. This leads to improper parenting, and the child is at the receiving end. The inadequate love he receives only creates insecurities in him and creates between parents blinds the world view of the child.

At an individual level, adverse resting internal conflict keeps us away from thinking on important issues. Self-interest, insecurities, jealousy, greed, ignorance are at war with our conscience, value system, wisdom, cognition thus making us blind to the outside world and its concerns depriving us of opportunity to understand about empathy and compassion.

Thus, it can be seen that conflict, revenge, responsive attack, and tit-for-tat approach not only affect those who are involved but also those who are not involved. Therefore there is a need to understand the root cause of the problem first.

We must inculcate values of tolerance, patience, critical thinking, scientific temper in children right from childhood. The ideas of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam, Syadavada, Anekantavad need to be imbibed in people in order to understand other people’s perspectives and be tolerant enough to acknowledge them.

With moral stories, case studies, and life examples people must be made to realize the futility of war and consequences. The policymakers must be trained in this aspect as well. India has done its part by promoting policies of Non-Aligned Movement, Panchsheel policy in order to diffuse tensions in the world.

However grave the situation might be one must realize that sitting and talking is only way of resolving issues and no amount of war can replace it. There is a need to promote diplomatic negotiations to replace warmongering talk. We must take into consideration those who dealt have say in decision making and must think from their perspective.

There must be a change at individual, societal, national, and international levels about this, and everyone must realize that “There is no good war and a bad peace”.