When brute power gets the better of modesty

Humans are not certainly known for the strongest physical power. At the top of the raw power order among land animals, elephant has no match. Then come rhinoceroses, hippopotamus, bison, buffalo and the likes. Yet these animals are not called the king of the wild. A far smaller animal, lion holds that sobriquet. In the same way the homo sapiens sit atop the trophic pyramid largely controlling their food sources although the species lacks physical brute power.
It is the advanced intelligence, highly developed languages, tool use, invention and creativity of unlimited range that have enabled humans to adapt with varying and changing environmental ambience. Chimpanzees, elephants, dolphins, ravens or crows can use tools, have complex languages and long-term memory but none of them learnt how to produce fire. This simple act of producing fire has placed humans far ahead of other species. Involved with this simple knowledge is the art of burning or frying food or meat. No other animal has learnt this art. The culinary art has been taken to the limit of sophistication now.
Even the earlier civilisations acquired the knowledge of making and burning earthen pots and pans for use as utensils. Human civilisations have come and gone but animals have no such legacies. Some animals may claim to have survived for longer periods without remarkable metamorphosis. For example, cockroaches have survived for over 300 million years enduring mass extinction. Their ancestry predates the dinosaur age. The evolution of humans, albeit a slow process, has given the advantage of a highly developed cerebral cortex, representing over 80 per cent of brain mass. This has enabled them to have cognitive thinking of complex issues.
When the modern civilisation has developed on the basis of superior thought process required for scientific exploration on the one hand and aesthetic excellence on the other, side by side there was competition for achieving tools or arsenals that would earn them victory in battles and wars. It was not long before machine was invented to produce consumer goods for mass use. But at the same time, the lethal weapons also were developed to get the better of enemies or rivals.
What began as an industrial revolution through the invention of the steam engine in the 18th century England has now made a giant leap to the transformative 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR). While the robotic transformation is delving deep into the niche world of artificial intelligence, human soul is perhaps getting sold to this automated 'Big Brother'. Does this civilisation have an escape route from this type of mechanisation?
The symbolic theft of fire from the heaven by Prometheus for giving it to humanity has now been taken to another level of destruction. Without fire, the culinary art could not be taken to the sophisticated level it has reached and at the same time the destructive power of fire was never so apocalyptic as it is now. And there are mad men to test its limit now. Sukanta wanted to gave up poetry because in the domain of hunger, the full moon represents a scalded rooti (bread). But here is an attempt to rule over the rest of the world population no matter if it is deprived of the basic needs.
So the world has gone berserk where soft feeling, compassion and emotional togetherness are a rarity. Where renaissance taught people to be enlightened in a manner that that opens doors to knowledge, contemplation and dialectics within one's self, today it is all consumerism and calculation for profits. The era of brute power has also returned with the dominant powers getting their way to the dislike of the meek and modest all across the wider part of the globe.
When profit mentality prevails and humanity ignored, the world cannot produce conscientious people and nations. The fire power now decides the fate of human race. That fate cannot but be destruction of a cataclysmic order. Already overexploitation of the planet's resources has made this world poorer and the aggressive advancement of interests has no limit. It happens with some crazy and insane people misreading the history. Wise men have warned, 'the greatest teaching of history is that no one learns from it'.
When an individual becomes arrogant, s/he behaves insanely and invites his or her doom. When a people behave so, the repercussion is far wider and the entire human race can be dragged into the conflagration for its untimely doom. To be modest is a virtue but when the house is on fire, it is time to call the spade a spade and protest the insanity in the interest of humanity.