BRAVE OR WISE?

6:03 PM Shanky 1 Comments


Boundary..... Limits..... Border.... what do they mean to us? What do they mean to mankind? Well, the sane thing that anyone does to know the meaning of a word is to open the dictionary. So what does Cambridge dictionary say...? "the line that divides one country from another" or "a real or imagined line that marks the edge or limit of something". Assuming that Cambridge is a good dictionary, Let us decipher the meaning of boundaries and what they mean to mankind? There have been conflicts regarding "these" borders and boundaries since time immemorial. Most of these conflicts have been on the "real line" that Cambridge puts forward. Right from Xerxus to Alexander to Hitler, everybody wanted their line extended. Every body desired that the entire human race be under their rule and every human being follow their customs, rituals and practices. But in this entire urge to conquer the world, there was little philanthropy and more of selfish motives. There was more greed and fame associated than doing good deeds.

Today, though, the dreams of Alexander and his likes, who wanted to conquer the world has come true. But time is never predictable, is it? It gives its own twists and turns to the story of mankind. Today, almost the entire mankind wants to follow other cultures, wants to learn other languages, wants to pursue careers abroad. But there is more to this trend. In his pursuit of learning and following, man has actually made the real existing border as imaginary. The whole world has now become one small village! A part of what the conquerors of yesteryear wanted is now happening at the cost of the other part of their desire or greed. With these borders becoming increasingly imaginary, are we going to witness a war-free, terrorism-free world? Maybe, yes. That is how I envision this world to be in the distant future. Too much of terrorism that is happening now, will one day give way to love and harmony. There will be symbiotic relationship between nations, between conflicting groups. But where is the synergy that will make all this happen? There must be something that should unite this goddamned fractioned world. Again, it is the borders that will be the answer. Confused? "It is the imaginary line that marks the limit of humans and nature" that will make us unite!

Apart from having crossed the limits of green house emissions and creating a death trap for his future generation, man has crossed one more lethal boundary; that between him and his quadruped counterparts. With the land under forest decreasing at an alarming rate, he is inviting danger to his lap. Bears invading into houses in Nevada are becoming common. A leopard visiting our household in India is no more alarming. Elephants coming to our fields for an evening walk are no more a rarity. Is this taking us a long way down the memory lane when our forefathers lived with these animals in the caves? Maybe yes, only this time it is with a vengeance that our friends have invited themselves to the party. This struggle between humans and animals might just be the key that might unite us. It might look like a very small threat and hence a very small driver to unite as all, especially with all the sophisticated science we have now. But be warned my fellow sapiens... It is not only us who have developed defences with time. Animals can also develop immunity against the chemicals/science that we might want to use against them. The harder we try, the harder they will rise as well.

We are doing the same thing that Alexander and others wanted to do. Now that the boundaries have been broken, we want to conquer nature.One difference, though, is that we are doing it unconsciously. We are uniting ourselves without knowing that we are going to be united. But there is the same greed and fame associated here as well. As a result of this brutal conquest we will have to fight nature and its constituents. We, the two (legged), can unite against the four (legged) in the future and fight them. But is it worth the stand off? Can we not avoid this? "Brave men win fights, wise men avoid them". Same is the situation here. But the question to be answered and actioned is this: How should we be, brave or wise?

1 comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...