The dichotomy of human progress as represented by the peaking of scientific and technological development to the most sophisticated range of artificial intelligence (AI) on the one hand and a homicide over trivial matters or mass killing ---actually genocide---now being carried out in Gaza or Myanmar is baffling. Yes, good and evil are in a constant tussle within the soul of a person. Education and enlightenment are the right tools to establish the supremacy of the former over the latter. With the progress of civilisation, more individuals than not are supposed to take over the mantle of saint-like and peace-loving mortals.
However the ugly truth is that under the veneer of sophistication and suavity, there lies a diabolical side of human nature capable of committing the worst crime. Or, else how can programmes like ethnic cleansing can restage from time to time. Weapons of mass killing has made it easy to exterminate almost an entire community. Invaders from central Asia often hailed as great warriors were the first to commit mass murder in the sub-continent and Iraq. Their sole intention was to plunder riches. But the attacking hordes did not have at their disposal weapons of mass killing.
The world has come a long way from the dark Middle Age but have nations achieved the mental transition matching the scientific and technological progress? That the answer is a clear 'no' can easily be realised from the rivalry between the so-called advanced, rich and powerful nations or blocs. What 'powerful' here means certainly issues from money power, scientific and technological advancement but the most important of all is the weaponry system nations have at their disposal. Isn't this a distorted view of strong and powerful nations? Great attainments in socio-economic affairs allowing qualities of life, art and culture to flourish could be the right measure.
Why should antagonism and hostility mark the relations of the superpowers? After the cold war which just maintained a status quo on the assumption that the break out of a war would leave both parties annihilated, now the same logic is prevailing between the US and China in maintaining contrived relations of no aggression against each other.
This does not speak high of the present civilisation. Often Africa's tribalism is rudely criticised for the savagery and mercilessness involved in hostilities between two tribes. When the most advanced nations are locked in rivalries casting an ominous shadow on the future of human race, isn't it a worse kind of tribalism? More to the point, if a superpower and its allies side with a rapacious and brutal army carrying out crime against unarmed civilians in their homeland, how should the act be defined? This is, moreover, a case of a people---the Palestinians to be precise--- on whose land the invaders were made to settle on creation of an artificial but independent state, depriving the former of their independence.
It is the leaders of the powerful nations who have actually blurred the definition of human rights, values and moral principles. But they are not found wanting in crying hoarse about violation of those intrinsic human qualities the United Nations has upheld for everyone to respect. Clearly, those cannot be sacrosanct in one case but completely otherwise in another case.
If international politics can go the extra length to make black white and white black as was done during the War of Liberation in Bangladesh, after 52 years the people are witnessing a similar Mephistophelean role with the difference of a rift between two great players who were on the side of the evil. Whatever the geopolitical considerations are, the country is paying for the slide it is sustaining in terms of the value of human life.
If politics is for the people, they cannot be made a pawn by anyway. But it is exactly what they have become thanks to mutual mistrust and bitterness that mark the relations between the predominant political parties here. Today, people are apprehensive of some physical harms they may sustain when they commute within a city or town or on a long-distance travel. Several incidents of arsons and sabotage of public transports including trucks carrying goods and passenger trains awfully expose the political bankruptcy of those who carry out such criminal missions.
Political rivalry must draw a line beyond which no one should venture. People who lost their lives and sustained grievous injuries have no enmity with parties across the divide, they had to travel because they could not help. Frequent road accidents have rendered human life cheaper so much so that the nation has accepted it as something quite normal. But it is not. Now these latest acts of sabotage, on top of the failure to put in place an effective deterrent to various accidents, threaten to erode the last bit of sanctity of life.
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