MLK Jr said this decades ago. But still today, in this 21st century, hatred is prevalent in our society. A large number of people are directly engaged to spread hatred. And the rest of us, who are completely against this hate campaign, are in oblivion. We don't know what to do, how to confront this monstrous, abhorrent campaign.
Recently, on 14th February, 2019, Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group attacked a convoy of CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir, India. This was a moment of shock and grief, not only for those who lost their loved ones but for every one of us. It was a moment of anguish, but the way the agony was turned into hatred and spread out over social media which led to many undesirable incidents of attacks on Kashmiri students in different parts of India and on those who spoke up against war and hatred, like wildfire, was an indication to understand the society we live in.
It is not like this type of hate campaign happened for the first time neither is it limited to Indian subcontinent only. This hate campaign is a common phenomena in the whole world today. It is the duty of every single human being of this planet to stop this campaign, right now. What shook me the most was the participation of my young fellows in this campaign. We don't need to learn rocket science to get the simple idea that war is never an option but a bigger problem. Then why do we get so absorbed by this that we stop thinking rationally?
Our jingoistic leaders and war-mongering media persons can get votes and Television Rating Points respectively by it. A few billionaires can earn a lot from a war, but what do we, the common people, get? This is the reason why many of the common folks must understand the inefficacy of war. But the bitter fact is we, the common people, are often completely bewildered by this. Even nowadays many of us label our leaders or anyone who speak against war as "weak"; this reminds me of what Albert Camus once said, "We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realise that we know where it lives...inside ourselves."
It's high time we realise hatred among us only creates hatred and by spreading it, we are proceeding nowhere but toward our doomsday. When will we realise that when a soldier dies in war and "blown to small bites. No one seemed to care/ Except that lonely woman with white hair". When will we learn that soldiers too dream, they too strive for a life we all crave for? When will we start caring about their dreams because, in the words of Siegfried Sassoon, "Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin/ They think of firelit homes; clean beds and wives."
When would we start thinking rationally and stop getting bemused by emotion? The earlier we start it, the better. Otherwise we will have nothing to do, but lament and say "I am wide-awake and some chap's dead."
