Results of conditioned reflex

The time is out of joint; O cursed spite,/ That ever I was born to set it right!
Thus Hamlet shares his frustration with the ghost. Not only has the prince of Denmark in that Shakespeare's famous drama felt the need to right the wrong but also young men in their prime of youth everywhere have felt a similar urge to correct the maladies of this mad world. Some have indeed responded valiantly to the call of duty. In modern times beginning with the late 19th and 20th centuries, this part of the world has witnessed the resurgence of youthful energy and commitment to a cause.
The Jugantar and Anushiloni Samity in then undivided Bengal chose revolution against the repressive colonial British rule in the subcontinent. Revolutionaries in those days too were not averse to violence when it came to the freedom of their motherland. Imbued with the spirit of patriotism they actually sacrificed their life at the altar of the land of their birth.
Then came a phase in independent India when frustrated youths in then West Bengal assembled under the flag of the Naxalites to wage a war against the establishment. They surely were considered insurgents but the rebellion was guided by at least some ideology and spirit of socialism. Many of their programmes were misguided, no doubt; but the complaints against the existing system of socio-economic inequality cannot be refuted until now. Notwithstanding the disintegration of socialism, some of the values and ideals they wanted to establish have their lasting appeal. Yet the ways and means they chose for realising their utopian dream are evidently legally untenable and morally hollow.
In a full-blown war of liberation, Bangalee youths proved their mettle in face-to-face battles on many fronts. But it was the guerrilla war in which they excelled and wore down the Pakistani occupation army in Bangladesh. Some outfits like the Sarbahara, taking cues from the Naxalites, were active in many parts of Bangladesh for sometime.
Clearly, by this time the youths have a long legacy of rebellion throughout history. But not all such acts qualify to be sacrifice for a worthy cause. Deviated and derailed, some can indeed rouse hatred in people if they themselves resort to needless hatred and violence. The baptism of fire thus can go awry if love of the land and the people are missing. It is exactly where the bands now leaving the cosy comfort of their affluent families to set on violent course have erred.
They too have considered that the time is disjointed and may have looked for avenues to set it right. They have felt frustrated and before becoming the monsters they are today, their mind might have been extremely sensitive to social inequality, injustice and aberration. Theirs is a conditioned reflex. Freud may have suggested that the malady is in an individual mind and therefore the need is to treat the mind that is all set to rush towards fire like moths. But mind is hardly independent. It takes beatings, feels stimulated and reacts to social actions and reactions. But when society itself is insane, individual and national psyches are likely to get deranged. This is how eminent author Gopal Halder analyses his contemporary society.
This is true to society we all live in today. Socialism has taken leave of society and created a vacuum. To fill in that void, religions in their extreme forms and politics of the rightwings have started taking over all across the world. The reaction to the banality, falsification and deception of affluent societies had to be cynical. And that really has been the case. Bangladesh cannot remain immune to this invasion of what can be termed psychic erosion. Unless society at the top echelon mends its ways by way of abandoning the many forms of notorious life marked by avarice, crimes, filthy luxury and lack of love for the country, bizarre appeal, following the rules of conditioned reflex, to the youths will prove only ever more irresistible.      
The country has at last woken up to the reality that quite a number of its youths have clandestinely chosen the so-called jihad as the ultimate mission of their life. Today there is a desperate search for youths who have disappeared. One of the law enforcement agencies have opened an online service for families to inform it of their missing sons (so long names of girls have not surfaced), if any. Of course, those abducted for ransoms or for exacting revenge are unlikely to stay alive after a reasonable period.
When students including female of them of Bangladesh origin in the United Kingdom, Australia and other European countries left for Iraq, Syria or Libya to the Islamic State (IS) about a year ago, many things could be read between the lines. How many young men from Bangladesh joined that dreaded outfit was not known. However, now that Singapore has sentenced four Bangladeshi youth for financing terror in Bangladesh, at least a missing link has become public.
Not all students studying in some particular educational institutions become militants. But at least a few do. This is certainly a cause for concern. A thorough probe might point to the masterminds. The sooner it is done the better. No less important is to take care of the sick society that has sailed off course. The ideals, values, social and moral underpinnings that have worked as the guiding principles during the liberation war have to be revived in order to resurrect society.
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