The sense of nonsense

It is not often that we witness a world full of possibilities as envisaged by the definition of humanity. On the contrary, it is a rare or, to put it as a matter of fact, an obsolete occurrence these days.

Today was another such day. This world woke up to fifth straight day of Israel-Hamas standoff in West bank. I mean, the current form of standoff. I have lost the count of how many times and in how many ways they have come face to face in past. Trying to kill each other. And kill why? Because they want to live. This irony – destroying lives to live - fails me. To kill and kill again so that lives are saved. This does not make any sense at all. I will not and I do not want to lay blame on any one party for starting this. My sensibility does not permit me to do that. I believe a war starts when a blame is laid. A dispute surfaces when a finger is pointed out. We clash because we collide.

Any conflict is born out of desire. The intensity of desire and the insanity of resolve determines the extent of destruction and the resulting chaos. At the root of this conflict also is a desire. Inner desire of all Palestinians to be a part of organised state and to enjoy privileges afforded to every other human being. For a quarter of century, while Israel was building itself into an ideal democracy amidst all the hostilities, Palestine was mere a British controlled community. Israel was and is synonymous of a resolve that is not individualistic. It is a symbol of social resolve and mass desire. It is also a symbol of success, human bonding and democracy. Palestine is not. Not that it is Palestine or their people’s fault. It is their ignorance and a common insensibility pervading their society. It is also their lack of constructive social resolve which Israel possesses in unquantified measures.

Palestine is a nation gone wrong. Not because they did it wrong. But because they did not know how to do it right and because they did not have leaders to shape it up through its entire building process. History is witness to the fact that great nations and ideal societies are built by a few visionary leaders. It’s an easy job to maintain a society in its current form once the baton is passed over. Toughest part is to build it into an ideal society subscribing to all the doctrines that humanity advocates. And that Palestine missed. If only David Ben Gurion had a half brother across the West Bank border, things might have been very different. What it has, instead, is Hamas. Which wants its men to marry four women and breed as many children as possible so that all of them can fight and die for the Cause. Where is justice in that for all the children of Palestine?

And Isreal – Palestine is not the only story. There are others. Civil conflicts in Africa, Terrorism in India, Cartels in Colombia and many more. All of these born of out of desires. We are most evolved of species. So are our desires. Having broken off the barriers of primary needs of food, shelter and safety, we want so much beyond.

A desire to control, desire to seize, desire to overpower, desire to own, desire to excel, desire to beat. What happened to the other form of desire that we read about in books? A desire to give, desire to construct, desire to nurture, desire to pacify, desire to build. Are these only confined to books and fantasies?

Something has seriously gone very wrong. We love to hate each other. On the basis of caste, creed, origin, religion, colour or anything that we can think of. We have to stop finding sense and pride in all our nonsense and foolishness. Big question is – can we do it? So far, no. But there will be another day and hopefully there will be a generation born with a wonderful dream. A dream to coexist and to live for each other. To give and to build will be their legacy not to kill and destroy.