The heart of a terrorist …
Terror !
The Mumbai terror attacks has been a wake-up call for the whole of India. It showed us our vulnerabilities in the most unflattering light. All of India was glued to the TV, waiting for the next development. It had over a few days become the national obsession. Emotions of various hues were displayed by our news channels. Everyone who was anyone spoke about it and showed fear, sorrow, anger and all the variety of reactions that define us humans.
The Pakistani government and media spoke and so did their Indian counterparts. The US and European Union countries had something to say also. The only ones who did not speak were the terrorists. They were nameless , faceless , speechless icons of evil. They were not a bunch of people with guns – rather they were symbolic of terror and their individual identities merged to become the “enemy”.
But what about them as individuals. Everyone among us knows about the making of terrorists. We know the dirty money that funds it. We know the religions that enshrine it. We know the people who are using it. We also know the people who are being used. However we actually don’t know about the people who work for peanuts and give up their lives in a futile attempt to glorify their religion.
Can someone live with the thought of killing so many innocents ? How as a human does a person reconcile himself to killing un-armed screaming innocent people ? What is that “pressure release valve” in their brains that malfunctions ? And what is the cause for so much pressure to build up that there is finally no choice but to blow up in self-annihilation ? Is it this anticipated guilt of killing innocents – that makes them wish to die ?
These questions need to be studied and satisfactory descriptions of the “terrorist brain” has to be solidified. Terrorism like any other career has a certain stereotype as its requirement. Social evolution will eventually club the “likely candidates” into the “proper religion/creed” so that they can give vent to their need for violence. A while back warring armies liked such a stereotype – the type who would give up their lives killing un-related individuals. The reason was “noble” – it was for the motherland.
Now we don’t have as many wars – and in any case the fatalities are minimized as far as possible. So where did that stereotype go after the war ? They started fighting smaller battles, for lesser reasons. Until up came a religion-based fanatical-tribal faction that had the right “job atmosphere”. They provided a reason to the warring individual and the warring individual found the justification necessary to be free from the guilt emanating from his actions.
What is sad however is how the media and the people in general comprehend this “individual”. There is no attempt to understand the mind that becomes a terrorist. They are nameless – and now even religionless – because their religious leaders have disowned them ! So what are they ? What part of the brain is built differently that such an individual can overcome such deep emotions as compassion and sympathy ? What is this psychosis ? Can it not be a form of mental disease – maybe even treatable ? Maybe some people are genetically geared towards violence – we know from our history that they were a highly necessary group of people not a long time ago (from the beginning of the first war ever fought by man !).
Every war has “collateral damage”. Mistakes that are at that point not too costly. Maybe a 100 innocents get killed while a bombing mission goes off-target by a few miles ! There are apologies extended by the errant army and the matter is forgotten. But the hidden cost of such mistakes is huge – its called terrorism ! These emotionally scarred innocent survivors built the most unbeatable mental defense system ever invented by man – the will to die ! A person willing to die cannot be reasoned with. Death is the end of any individual – and the love of it frees the soul from mortal fears. All our societies and systems are built on the premise that we will help each other survive. But what if we give sufficient reason to a person to make him wish to die ? He cannot fit in anymore – he becomes the outsider – the terrorist. A very ironical question that may be asked at this point is – can terrorists be terrorized into submission ?
The roots of terrorism cannot be found in religion. It is not in the “training camps”. Its not in the religious institutions where fanaticism is fanned into the populace. Its is not in the ideologue. Its not inside any country or in any society. The roots of terrorism are in two important facts that we haven’t analyzed sufficiently.
a) Our need for people willing to die for “sufficient reason” while killing the unknown enemy.
b) Our callousness in fighting our wars – where we neglect to heal the innocents who have suffered the emotional damage.
Without understanding the ramifications of the above we can never hope to solve the “terrorist problem”. We will keep fighting these “terrorists” as their brethren get further scarred and hence become more of the same. The society as a whole has to heal before “terrorism” goes away. And stupid wars fought for stupid reasons will make it much worse than it already is. I hope that in our future we are better aware if this reality and make amends for the millions of innocents killed in ideological wars.
Conflicts of Interest
Its a fact of life. As long as there is more than one man there has to be a conflict of interest. But what is this interest and where does the conflict come from ?
To determine interest is really not an easy task . What is ones interest in “living” ? – is a very broad question with subjective answers. It has to be broken down further to small answerable questions. One such question is what do I have to do to be alive today ? Another could be – how to I prepare for a medical emergency ? And so on …
Since we cannot really answer things like “What the hell we are doing here anyway ? ” , lets not waste time on such questions.
Well believe it or not, most people I have met think that way and with good reason also. For them not all answers have to be found to make sense of their lives. And they are very comfortable because of that. And while they are “comfortable” they choose to have the smaller questions like “How am I going to have forty people working for me ?” And that is in essence the origin of interest.
An interest is a trivial pastime engaged in to prevent boredom arising out of ignoring the main issue of our lives – which is … why are we here anyway ?
Some people actually dwell on the main issue and come up with mind “opening” answers. These people, who got enlightened, have often thought on this question for years in forests and other “meditative settings”. They are the spiritual leaders of their times. Their mind after staying in “altered” states for long, looses the ability to get irritated or angry. There is pure bliss.
But what about the average guy ? He is not spending his mental mojo looking for these answers. So this wonderful instrument called the brain has to be used in some other direction. So we pick up an “interest”. Its mostly an arbitrary want/need/desire which we think is very valid to have – mostly because at some point in the recursive thinking process of questioning its validity – our mind gives up and says “well I am like that !” or “the world is like that”.
Conflict of Interest
Every body does that, at some point or the other. How far we go recursively depends on how much IQ we have. However – no one can “go all the way” – cause no one knows where is the end of “all the way”. However people who question their needs/wants are better of slightly – they can atleast start seeing the truth. And the truth is we can pick any need we like. It doesn’t really matter what we choose because the larger question of life is anyway quite un-answered.
So certain enlightened people choose an interest based on what they are comfortable doing day to day. The not so enlightened choose an interest dictated by circumstances. It could be a parent, a friend or maybe a professor from college. Any sort of circumstance can have an impact based on how “receptive” the subject is. So most interests get chosen for non-intuitive reasons – trust playing a huge role (you trust the guys who tell you what you should be interested in ….).
Initially a group of similarly “interested” people may find perfect harmony – but since for most the interest was arbitrary anyway – they change over time. And then we have a conflict of Interest. A logical questions here is – what about the enlightened few – do they have conflicts of interest ? Well of course they do – the difference being – they have chosen their interest in an intuitive manner and hence are more constant about it. Over time these people also learn to alter their immediate interest to something that is available easily – and keep a higher moral “interest” in a trunk in their mind.This helps to keep the conflicts to a minimum.
Now that we have gained some insight into the reasons for a conflict of Interest, we can start thinking about some remedial procedures. One way is correlation. If we can correlate more points with another’s life then its likely that the change of interest will have a similar pattern and time line. Another way is a partial lobotomy to remove the “interested” centers of the brain ! A third way would be engage in an activity so much that the non-interested people either become interested or leave.
There could be a million other ways – and finding such remedies could be an “interest” for many. But since the interests are arbitrary so are the conflicts and therefore the remedies are infinitely varying. In fact a large number of people make use of this knowledge to earn money – they are called lawyers !
The reason for such questions is simple. I often find some fools arguing about something and I start wondering. Are these fools tracked to see if their interest remains the same after a year ? If I put these fools together again after a year will they start arguing again ? The main question then – Is the conflict the main interest for all things living ? If tomorrow we did not have to strive at all – will we all attain nirvana or will we all be dead ?
Can anyone tell me ?
The Fear Within
I am lucky to be in India – the land of festivals. There are a million of them here and at all times of the year. And each one has its own essence – a special context. Every community participates in all these festivals, their involvement varying with the perceived congruence of the particular festival with the religion, customs and traditions of the community.
So to come back to the question – what is a festival about ? Various answers come to mind. Celebration of a historical or mythical event. A traditional gathering of people with a common purpose. A place to sell your wares maybe …
But behind all the stated objectives of the festival – is the one important and subliminally understood objective. And that is to let go of the daily drudgery and enjoy the company of like minded and happy people. To elevate ourselves from the constructs of our daily routine and give vent to our primal need to feel joy.
And so it was during Durga puja. At least till the last year. But before I go ahead with my story – let me explain a little about Goddess Durga and her mythical essence.
Once upon a time the Asuras ( read the diabolical beings ) became so strong that even the gods were unable to overcome them. So they approached Lord Shiva for a solution. Lord Shiva in all his glory opened his third eye and conceived of a female being of immense power. She was Durga. And she overcame the strongest of the Asuras – Mahisasur. Thus the gods were able to regain control over heaven and earth.
Goddess Durga symbolizes shakti, the raw unimaginable power of goodness which can overcome the greatest of vices.
But sadly the message was totally lost on our population during this years Durga puja. Coming at the end of a series of bomb blasts and terror attacks – this years puja was a celebration of fear and not of the forces that overcome fear. Yes there was the usual shamiana with the huge idol of Durga. There were also a multitude of stalls selling food of all kinds. There was music and people danced on makeshift stages. However, among all this there was another very incongruous entity.
The gun toting law enforcement people. And they walked proudly among the revelers with their three foot guns, glaring at everyone that came in their path. And with them came gloom. More than the terrorists, the sight of commandos with their Ak-47s struck fear into the heart of every reveler.
Some said it was necessary – that the safety of the revelers was most important. Some said that it was a bit too much. But all agreed that the revelry had almost but disappeared. And all that was left was the drudgery of our common lives. It was the same policeman breathing down everyone’s neck. It was the same standing in line to get frisked. It was the same shutting down everything by the midnight hour. And most importantly it was the same fear that we felt for the past many weeks.
As the puja ended – it left a queer feeling in my mind. Suddenly it seemed that we can never go back to enjoying our festivals like we did before. As if all our senses had been over powered by the fear emanating from within us. A fear that cannot be cured by twenty policemen or one hundred commandos. The overwhelming fear of knowing that death awaits us whenever and wherever we get together in large numbers to celebrate.
The festival season has almost come to an end this year. But the festival has ended a long time ago. We are now like shadows of our joyous selves. Treading with cautious steps, awaiting our end in the form of that mysterious packet of explosives left in the midst of us. And the gun-toting policemen just keep reminding us of this fear within.
Void Human
The Neurons in our Brain
What if we were a product made by a superior intelligence … and there was a void human test … something like the void comp test in blade runner … to determine the humans from among the more endowed …
Can we beat the test knowing its purpose … what is the limit of our “mind” ?
What is the limit of intelligence … of the highest order ?
Can a machine be someday more intelligent than us ? Do we become secondary then …
Can we bear the fact that we might be looked after one day as relics of “intelligent beings” – like well-fed monkeys in their cage ….
Can we presume all the above will never happen ? Can we be sure that the evolution of intelligence will always be routed through biology ?
Worst case scenario ?
Was reading a book … Bill Bryson’s ” A Short History of Nearly Everything ” …
So on the last day … as the population on earth notices the first clear unaided image of a black dot in the sky … the reality sinks in … the first crisis i presume will be of faith … almost everyone among us has faith in “something that nurtures life” … given various names and incarnated as various gods … we also have faith in knowing that nothing like “this” is ever going to happen in “my” lifetime …
We all watch as the dot grows larger … the reality sinks in … we could do nothing … our governments have failed us … our famous bombs failed us … the fabled secret weapons failed us … the alien technology failed us …. “how cruel can god be” … “why would he want to build all this and destroy it in a flash “… there is no end to this paranoia … and paranoia coupled with a crisis of faith is a heady cocktail.
However intelligence i believe is more powerful than the atoms that make it … once all hope is lost … we become gods ourselves … we relieve ourselves of our burden of existence … some choose death ahead of the event … others feel free and unfettered …. as if the ropes that bind us to be “ourselves” are suddenly gone … some of the depressed start feeling happy … they suddenly don’t feel unjustified … some with extraordinary faith will never loose it … knowing that dead or alive doesn’t matter as long they are happy …
There will some of us who will head for the liquor store ( especially in Delhi ) … and some of us will head for our near ones … some will hide in deep bunkers with timers in their hands … continuously checking the dials to make sure the life support systems are all working … TV crews will have various levels of coverage .. Barkha Dutt will probably fly close to the action on a chopper … she always “has it in her to do that kind of thing” … Charu Sharma will put a brave smile and take it in his stride ( i mean really !! .. the guy can take his dads demise , bad performance of his “team” as well as getting kicked out of his post at IPL all in a months time ) … anyway he will blabber away at the studio all the while wishing he was with his wife … a very painful scenario of bone-headedness i might add …
To continue …. now its visible to everyone … some of the people will start singing together … the “common intelligence” taking over the individual “mind” … the religious will pray and wish for miracles …. the drug addicts will get “high” …. the boozers will get their “buzz” … celebs will take barbiturates … Britney Spears (in dowdy midriff revealing sweatshirts) will break car windows with umbrellas and other assorted items – as a mark of her individuality ….
The first world countries will have the biggest crisis of faith … its almost like they are so dependent on the “government” to solve all their miseries … like noisy but faithful kindergarten kids … checking their blackberries nervously … others will load their best guns with the best bullets … or fire up their favorite Mozart piece (depending on which side of the Atlantic) … a great majority will “wager” …
“In other Asian countries people have started looting stuff from the big shops …” – kind of summaries the evergreen images of the Asian outback … well in reality people here will handle it much better …. they are more used to such failures of the government ….
Well … the thing hits the ground …. the streak of light across the sky ends over the horizon for most … we were “told” that the shock wave is to be expected at “x” time in our area … and we wait … in absolute awe … the first pics of the impact will come in soon ( an interesting question would be – will the tv images reach us before the shock wave or vice versa ? ) … a brilliant flash in the distance …. people doing “aahhhs” and “ohhhs” in the background of the tv feed …. the iconic mushroom cloud but this time larger than anything ever before …. the immense waves traveling at breath taking speeds on faraway shores … the shudder as buildings are toppling one by one … people becoming hysterical … the lonely musician playing a guitar on the sea-shore … enjoying the music as he waits for the “wall of water” …
The shock will soon reach the mantle and then the liquid outer core …. and then their will be fireworks …. as the magnetic field running this planet changes orientation in seconds …. small changes in magnitude but immense in effect … the pent-up pressure under various tectonic plates will start releasing … dormant volcanoes open up like dragons spewing mile high streams of rushing super hot magma … the surface shock will crumble most high rises for many thousands of miles around the zone of impact …
Then there will be the “black cloud” … the Queen’s men will not rue the weather … theres normally very little sunlight they see anyway …. the Mediterranean shores will see the most drastic changes … from good sunny blue sky to dark thunderstorm like scenario in a few hours …
Well i fear to imagine what comes next … other than a whole lot of death among the mighty humans … there might be survivors till a few years later … but most of us are going to perish in the first day itself … as a flicker of hope some of us may get free of our mother Earth and head to space in ramshackle rockets … knowing all too well that only some alien can save us …. our technology being totally incompetent at preserving life outside earth for prolonged periods …
Some of us will send movie cds and other data in satellites so that some other “intelligent being” will get to know about us … someday … maybe billions of years later …. when they get to load our USB drives ..
In the parlance of cosmic space, this event would be called a firecracker going off next to an assortment of exploding nuclear bombs …
Well thats how fragile we are …. and yet how sure we are that nothing like “that” is going to happen in “my” lifetime …. and we go through the grind of our daily routines … with a nonchalance of diabolical proportions.
