Where Is The Love?

Why is there so much violence in the world? Take a walk near your house, and you'll see seething anger in every second person. Switch on the TV, and chances are you'll see stuff like war scenes, serial killers, fighting, and blood. Where's all this hatred coming from? Call me childish, naive or innocent- but I believe we can work out our differences. Surely we don't need to resort to killing innocent people, planting bombs, and setting off nuclear weapons?

And somehow, the problem with all this violence around us, is that it influences children. They think violence is the answer to everything, the most recent case being the kid in Gurgaon who shot his classmate. One might say the kid needs counselling, another might say the kid is just plain crazy- I think it's the culmination of all the violence in the world- coming to infest a young child's mind, and making him believe that it's something he must aspire to. I mean, I was shocked when I read the papers this morning- to think a child can have so much hatred in him that he could actually shoot another, in cold blood. Either that, or he wasn't fully aware of what he was doing- of the full implication of his action.

Personally, I believe opposites exist in the world. If there's good, there must be bad. But why must it be so, well... in our faces? So all over the place? I don't have a problem with violence onscreen- but it should make sense. Half of the violence onscreen doesn't even fulfil that basic criteria- it's just violence for the sake of it. And yes, every one of us has violence inside us- it's a kind of primal instinct to hurt those who hurt us. Does that mean we should all act on those urges?

It has just become a part of our everyday lives. We're so used to it that we ignore it. Nandigram, the Iraq war, the tension on the Kashmir border- it's all been drilled into us so much that we've become immune. It's accepted as just another part of life. We see it happening all around us, we just look the other way. What's happened to humanity?

Wife-beating, female infanticide (yes, it's violence too), gang crimes, rape- it's everywhere. And the horrible thing is- it's just getting worse. Presidents give orders to drop bombs on a country, do they even spare a thought about the number of lives that will be lost?

Alex DeLarge in ' A Clockwork Orange' was made into a kind of robot- who would feel nauseous in the presence of violence. He didn't know right from wrong- the basic difference, but rather, it was drilled into him, so that his reaction would be automatic. It shouldn't be that way. All of us have the capacity to recognize what's right, what's good. Why not use it, then?

Violence has become the answer to everything. Why?? Why not 'give peace a chance'?

Michael Jackson's 'Heal The World' is a cheesy song, true- but the lyrics have a lot of truth in them.

For those of you who have watched 'Se7en', you'll know the last line, spoken by Morgan Freeman. It's this, "Ernest Hemingway once said, 'The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part." Makes a lot of sense, if you think about it.

Aah yes, Hemingway couldn't have been more correct.

(Added five minutes later)

A certain friend of mine says this post is idealistic. Yes, it is. But shouldn't we all be, to a certain extent?