Turkey airport – 45 people dead.
Bangladesh café attack – 20 hostages killed.
Orlando gay bar shooting – 50 people dead.
Baghdad bombing – 200 people killed.
The first alarming fact is that all of these have happened within
the last 3 weeks and barring one; the others have happened in places that the
“us”; the unaffected; frequent. The commonplace locations of these attacks
increase the sub conscious belief that there could be a fatal danger lurking in
the next bar, airport or coffee shop we visit.
But that’s not the point of this post.
The point is about the even scarier possibility that we’ll
start thinking of this as a way of life.
“This” being the fact that we now live in a world where a
terrorist attack is a commonplace occurrence.
“This” being the fact that being blown up by a bomb or a
terrorist’s bullet has the same probability as being hit by a car; while
crossing the road or being in airline crash.
“This” being the fact that we gloss over the news of a few
hundred people dying and move on to the more interesting conversations around
whether Sultan will make Rs. 200 cr.
“This” being the loss of sympathy and frustration, to be
replaced by apathy and avoidance.
“This” being the
Comfortably Numb.
Skeptics will argue that feeling sympathetic without any
action has no consequence. Our behavior, unless supported by some radical
action, like joining the army or staging a protest against a weak government
holds no importance.
I think it does. We cannot lose the “what the fuck is
happening to this world” reaction that we spout everytime we hear of these
incidents. We cannot lose that instinctively violent reaction; that feeling of
disgust and helplessness that immediately follows such tragedies.
The loss of life; any form; demands attention. A person who
is someone’s son, daughter, wife, father, friend or lover has lost his or her
life to a reckless act of violence.
The least we can do is feel bad for the victims. To close
our eyes and say a silent prayer. Or to mouth that nasty expletive, which
captures our helplessness.
That is called humanity.
The fight of terrorism is against humanity. The idea of
terrorism is to foster hate for a fellow human whom you don’t know by
developing a sense of apathy against the person.
Which is why the sympathy needs to remain.
The day we lose that feeling. The day we become comfortably
numb is the day terrorism would have truly won.
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