Wars on Terror: The Debated Battlegrounds

As we offered a minutes silence to the victims of the Manchester terror attack this week in the Hong Kong Stadium, I couldn’t help but reflect on the dynamics and continual societal tussles in the world and the kinds of things that drive them.

Manipulation

 If you have ever experienced someone or groups of people try to manipulate you, whether it is in terms of your activities, your personal use of time, and most importantly your emotional focus, you will know it is something that can cause damage. The most unfortunate thing is that it originates with an individual’s insecurity and desire to see their stocks rise in the world whether that be in terms of social standing, financially, or even in a physical sense. It is sometimes said that ‘religion’ was conjured up and instituted to control masses of people. Manipulation tends to be conducted by individuals; we see it with so many examples of dictators. As the number of people one controls increases, the reward gets bigger since it gets noticed more.

 

The Middle East

Most people in the West have never been to the Middle Eastern countries where there is regular turmoil; not many would dare. They’re not the most prosperous; they’ve been subject to many underground militia regimes that are extremely dangerous, with agendas we cannot imagine. Their concept and lack of value of life is one that an average person in the West cannot imagine.  I once recall a conversation with a Japanese neighbour, who told me that most average people just want to have a family, have children and live a happy life. This is non-different in the Middle-East. So we always have those who want power through various means, and those who just want a peaceful life. Imagine a swimming pool with a shark who is hungry, and throw in some fish who just want to raise a family and be happy. Even one shark, will cause turmoil for the fish at certain times. This is nature also. The difference, according to certain religion is that humans have the capacity to think deeper before acting on our instinct to eat, kill, etc. The less primitive the civilisation or society, the less thought they give to consequences or morality of action including the value of life, before acting; and hence the closer they are to reflecting animal tendencies.

Polished interventionism

With the red carpets and accumulated formalisms of western politics, there are people with motives that may not be so considerate of the wellbeing of everyone, although it may appear that this is their concern. Motives can arise from personal ambition to leave a mark on hordes of people, to make a difference, that can be attributed ultimately to themselves. When the desire for this supersedes compassion for ordinary people, it can be destructive. The difference between this and the Middle Eastern behaviours is  the polish and glamour. Trails of destruction are hidden because of the sophistication and ability to manoeuvre, a veil is lifted and put down by choice on masses of people. Self-preservation and benefit is the name of the game.

Confluence

When the two above meet, the value of life, is far lower than the desire to win, exact revenge, and the plethora of other ego-driven motivations driven by ignorance on both sides. The result is death, and lots of it. It is like a stampede ruining so much effort, loving experiences and exchanges of individuals, dreams of betterment and happiness of the common people. The scary thing is, these impure desires such as anger, desire to control, and greed leading to such devastating actions, exist in most of us; it’s just that we act on them to varying levels at different times in our lives. In this way, the battlefields are really our hearts, and this is where the work needs to be done. 

 

Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.

Bhagavad Gita 16.9