By Dolorem Ipsum
“We have met the enemy and he is us” says Pogo the famous character created by Walt Kelly. This quote is above all a rallying cry for a generation of conservationists. Let me use this in a different context.
I am an “outsider”. To all the faux NGOs, many empty suits masquerading as leaders, and fake intellectuals… I am an “outsider”. To them, I will never be a fellow human being, a neighbour, a friend, a person who can effect a change in this city. I will never be one of their own. I am a second generation Shillong’ite; yet, I am an “outsider” and will, probably, always be an “outsider” to them.
This experience of living as a second-class citizen is mentally depressing and emotionally sapping; however, not all is lost and there is some hope for us “outsiders”, as there are many good folks around. To all our Khasi brethren and sisters who do not consider us as “outsiders”, who stand by us, who understand our plight… I thank you, and I offer you my sincerest gratitude for embracing the most powerful emotion we transient beings can experience—Love. Love can conquer everything, and I hope that the mindless drones and the self-proclaimed leaders who have anointed themselves as the guardians of the community, clan, and society can understand this elementary fact, too. They need to realize that their penchant for jingoism and bellicose rhetoric, their manic obsession with violence will only lead to loss of innocent lives and destruction of property, both personal and public. Leo Tolstoy, in one of his letters to Mahatma Gandhi, had written—“Love is the only way to rescue humanity from all ills.”; and, it seems that humanity is indeed ill, ’tis suffering, mired in hate, lost in the wilderness of despair and crying out in angst… deprived of love.
I grew up in Shillong and have, over the years, noticed the city’s facade, landscape and ethos change… some for the good and some for the bad. A few things, though, have remained the same—incompetent politicians, lackadaisical attitude of the citizens, armed strife, and gutless insurgents “sniping” innocent folks. The rich have gotten richer, and the poor, poorer. We are lusting for earthly possessions that are fleeting and ephemeral—cars, phones, houses, stature, etc.; yet, at the same time, we are losing everything that are cardinal in life—family, friends, community, habitat and health. Our coterie of corrupt politicians, inept “leaders” and NGOs engage in platitudes, hackneyed slogans and rabble-rousing, while most citizens are satiated and somnolent after drinking the Kool-Aid served or they cower in fear.
The more I observe the human behavior, the more it seems that we are, indeed, consumed with the seven deadly sins—wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony. Like an addict, we need our fix regularly; we seek instant gratification, believe in the microwave culture, and worship the deity of consumption. We have become malevolent while pretending to be benevolent. We over-promise and under-deliver. We cannot provide clean drinking water to our populace, but want to replicate The Times Square. Our hillsides are dotted with concrete tenements that have flouted all zoning guidelines, building laws and construction standards. We are one cloudburst or a seismic event away from a major human catastrophe. We struggle to adhere to basic traffic rules, err with traffic management, but are quite competent in road rage. The cities are bursting at the seams, the infrastructure is crumbling, and the riverfront is disappearing; we cannot collect and recycle waste efficiently, and continue to litter the land and the waterways with non-biodegradable products. We blame others for our woes and are not averse to killing a person who does not look or behave like us. We forget to introspect and identify mistakes we may have made and those we continue to make. We are quick to call our countrymen foreigners, but are eager to kowtow to the distorted version of the western modus vivendi that is projected on television and movies, and call it our own. I am saddened by the realization that the potential of this city has been laid waste by compromised politicians, corrupt power brokers, and a lethargic populace. While countries around the world are opening their markets to talented outsiders, we are intent on closing our doors to those who are ours. We want to create barriers to entry, while, at the same time, we desire investments, jobs, growth and development. Irony?
I am left bewildered by our lack of empathy and wonder if many of us are full of spite for those who are not like us—do many of us support the faceless extremists because they publicly voice what we secretly wish; how Many of us are xenophobic and only pretend to be welcoming and tolerant? I wonder how many of us love to hate and hate to love, because loving someone takes understanding, empathy, compassion, and effort. If, however, the majority of us are kind-hearted, then, why do we allow a scant few to dictate our lives? Why don’t we all speak up in unison, march hand in hand and flush out those goons who pretend to be looking out for the weary and the downtrodden, but end up gaming the system and enriching themselves? Why do so many of us seem to be so few, while those soulless, gutless, faceless, hateful few, seem to be so many? Where are the so-called “leaders” of the community? Why aren’t they leading from the front? Are they cowering in fear, or are they in cahoots with the faceless cowards and want to perpetuate this environment of hatred and fear for their own interests, gains, and self-aggrandizement?
I believe we all share the ideal—live and let live; however, because of the conniving ways of the manipulative few, we are constantly at loggerheads with each other. As commoners, we may feel that the slyboots have an iron grip over our lives; however, we do have the power to thumb our noses at them. We, the people—the commoners—control their destiny, their reach, their power. They “control” us because they have hoodwinked us into believing they are all-powerful, and we are at their mercy and need to be subservient to their needs or face their wrath. The fact that we do not band together speaks volumes about how successful they have been in creating fissures between us.
We all need to understand that the world is changing, societies are evolving, and businesses are in a state of constant flux. The only way you can beat your nearest competitor is by continuously improving and innovating. In this globalized marketplace, we have to lead, or we will be forced to follow or get out-of-the-way. If the incompetent politicians were running a private company the way they are running their administration, then, they would have been fired from their jobs, a long time ago. The politicians get away with it because we allow them to get away with their misdeeds. We elect them and re-elect them based on their hollow promises and divisive agendas. We, mistakenly, empower them and entrust them with the responsibility of changing our future, and they betray us, stab us in the back, and we exclaim aloud—“Et tu, Brute”. Then, in the next election, we re-elect them by displaying the same lack of judgment.
Many famous personalities have been credited with the maxim—“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Well, based on that quote, we are all insane. We are asleep at the wheels, and we are approaching the edge of a cliff rapidly. We either make course corrections now or risk going over the precipice, shortly. Today, more than ever, we need visionaries, we need pioneers, and we need people who are willing to sacrifice their today for a better tomorrow for the future generations. If we cannot make this transition now, we will, one day, awaken from our slumber of short-sighted beliefs to realize that the quagmire of despondency we are in is entirely our fault. We will then look around in befuddlement, will be unable to recognize the desolate landscape that surrounds us, realize that the magnificent valley is long gone, and rue the chances of self-correction that we had missed and murmur to ourselves—we have met the enemy and he is us.