The horror...the horror...

These words, spoken by a somnolent Marlon Brando in the landmark war movie Apocalypse Now, (based on Joseph Conrad's short novel Heart of Darkness) could very well serve as the anthem of our times. Acts of random(but, purportedly, premeditated and meticulously constructed) and vicious violence in the name of some personal cause come splattered in all their sickening, gory glory(!) on the front pages of dailies, and so inured have we become to the existence of the monster amongst us that we shudder, mostly involuntarily, bemoan the chaos at the heart of this modern disease, and turn the page.

I confess I can hardly begin to skim the surface in this matter, and that prospect alone is the stuff of several nightmares, but what struck me is how impersonal a tone the modern-day cry for attention is acquiring. It is more than simply scary or puzzling to observe that today, in order to have your way, you simply blow up your neighbours or, for the heck of the arbitrariness, blow up Timbuktu's Central Square, for after all, we, as a world people, still abhor homicide as the most grievous of crimes. Someone is bound to sit up and protest!

Meanwhile, Israel and Hezbollah continue to challenge each other to bring on their latest toys and do whatever it takes to save face. How ironical it is that Israel issues an obligatory warning to inhabitants of its latest target town to evacuate or else!!.... and promptly blast it off the surface of the earth. The lackadaisical response of the superpowers to the gruesome face-off in Lebanon has been berated, ridiculed and scrutinised just about everywhere, but combine a 'once-bitten' lesson with the prospect of measly returns from intervention in these minor skirmishes, and is it any wonder why? Even so, one must acquire the distinctly American trait of exuding an air of self-possession and self-worth even when you are making a prize ass of yourself , if only to gauge the 'depths' of the mind of Uncle Sam's head-cop.

And in a time when dialogue or negotiations are synonymous with a blind-alley or a political plateau, the only exchanges are those that maim, impale and kill. Pity, therefore that all efforts at human communication have taught us that they are dispensable. Brevity sets in, conversations of the rat-a-tat-tat proceed with ruthless efficiency. If anything, the scale of destruction we witness by the day can only galvanize as yet undecided forces into action, convincing them of the infallibility of the weakest principles and demands. Indeed, the power one can command today simply by virtue of an evil(selfish) impulse is all-encompassing.

The intolerance exhibited by man today is quite astonishing. His choler, a weird and unfathomable beast. Was it ever so facile to exterminate life as it is today? And the atmosphere as conducive? We breed fanatics who single-mindedly seek their own brand of justice while ignoring all others. It is a wonder that the intense focus and solidarity with their cause these anarchists must necessarily possess to make any impact whatsoever, are born of weak, dastardly and deranged minds. What this cesspool of ill-directed energy could beget if properly channelised!

It is often said that it is the idea that endures, not the man. Justification enough for genocide as a means to a noble end? Clearly, the deeply impersonal connotations of this statement have suppressed the point. It is as if, in order to prove the adage right, an idea must consume the man. Does that make sense? Does the modern insurrectionary regard himself as merely a concept, an idea born of fever and passion, and nothing more? Has the fire shrivelled the heart? Can one behold one's standard fluttering proudly in the wind that bears the report of a gun, the thud of bullet against bone, the dying gasps of a fellow human, the stench of rotting flesh, and the vestiges of humanity, and yet hold one's head aloft? Can a victory more fittingly Pyrhhic be imaginable? Call me naive, but I'd like to believe, with all the fervour I can muster, that we haven't sunk that low yet. Maybe some misguided souls just overreached a little...

People learn exactly what they choose to, from history. And heaven knows we have spilled enough blood down the ages. Our heritage of wars-as-a-solution-to-incompatibility speaks volumes about our innate penchant for violence as a means of expression. But then, the last century did feature 2 of the greatest war generals of our time, and they were contemporaries: one who went from patriot to demented bigot and war-criminal in the space of 2 decades, and another who went from strength to strength in advocating the efficacy of sane, rational, well-informed dialogue and non-violence as the nemesis of violence. Hitler had more up his sleeve than just the prosperity of his motherland(or should I say fatherland?), and he made it abundantly clear. Another brilliant mind that festered even as it shone, a minefield of creativity-gone-haywire, prejudice and hate. History dealt him his just fate, but may not be able to keep up with the spate of clones who emerge every day.

Surely, the cruellest irony was that, in the context of the Mahatma, the Beast killed Beauty(to use a metaphor)... and all we do now is recall him fondly and extol his beliefs.

But I digress. Are we to blame for believing that it is only the drastic that merits attention? That only wilful chaos can bear a constructive outcome? Personally, that seems too irresponsible an excuse to me, but it is obviously the general impression, if what is happening in the world is to be believed. The value of human life has depreciated sufficiently to make terror a viable and vastly versatile weapon. The shock value of such a tactic must be irresistible to its proponents. And fatal to its targets.

Horace's immortal lines : "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" (It is sweet and appropriate to die for one's country, or in general, for one's beliefs, really) were hardly meant to be imbibed as such, thus glorifying the spirit of war and dissent.

Things look bleak...unremittingly bleak. There is no solution, it appears, to weeding out anti-social elements from within us. Will people learn to be wise, humane, well-meaning, moral, intelligent citizens of the world? Phew! What a staggering proposition it sounds like! The future generations sure have a hell of a lot of cleaning up to do....