Killing for peace

He was exactly a week into the New Year. Some of the balloons were still fresh in the rooms and the huge courtyard. Some of the unused candles were still lying on one of his million shelves. Then came the 8th of January. He didn’t know that he was some hours away from an attack that would finally take away his paddy fields, his orchards, his ponds and, of course, his peace of mind. And what happens after such happenings, happened.

That remains my vision of man’s hatred for man.

He died fighting hard for his land and fighting harder for his self-respect. He was a victim of ethnic violence that tore through his city of birth decades ago. He was groomed there.  

That remains my vision of man’s hatred for man. I never bothered to find the reason behind the hatred because hatred (not to be confused with opposition) couldn’t have had a reason because reason is adored for not courting evil, just to keep its trade plying.

Gradually I discovered that human history was about human blood. That really left me depressed.

The discovery was reinforced with World War II stories narrated by my father’s father and my mother’s mother. They told me how some beautiful countries, known for their lovely poems, their great music and their breathtaking paintings, turned ferocious and decided to go to war or kill fellow human beings in the name of fixing tyrants.

They told me about how our city was bombed by the Japanese because they hated the beautiful countries and their backers.

It is another story that now Japanese gadgets entertain me when I choose solitude over boring company. They told me about millions being killed.

Their father’s father and mother’s mother told them stories about World War I. Again, it was about human beings killing human beings in search of fair and peaceful governance.

Killing of humans to achieve peace, it didn’t make sense then, it doesn’t make sense now.

While tens of thousands were being killed by the most civilized and cultured in the name of rescuing democracy across the world, in came some leaders asking the workers of the world to unite to fight exploitation. However, in less than 100 years a man emerged from the group to command the wind in a manner it would skirt the group’s flag. Predictably, the flutter stopped.

Well, what bothers me is when were we peaceful and when will we be peaceful? And, of course, what is this nonsense about human beings being killed by human beings to realise lasting peace? That’s an absolute coffining of logic.