" There is only one way in which one can endure man's inhumanity to man, and that is, to try, in one's own life, to exemplify man's humanity to man"- George Bernard Shaw
I recently read a book which has profoundly affected me, "Night" by Elie Wiesel. He is one of the few remaining survivors of the horrific Holocaust, a terrible genocide in which Hitler's Nazi Germany killed about six million Jews. The book was a simple but stark account of the horrors which Wiesel and his family saw and went through. There were women and children thrown into furnaces, men forced to work in unspeakable conditions, who were praying every day for rescue or death. Hitler and the Germans did this, simply because they felt that the Jews were an "impure" race, and should not be allowed to breed with the "pure" Aryan race. It was simply a show of power, which cost millions of people their lives. The survivors were very often, in no better condition, with memories which would haunt them the rest of their lives.
Slavery in America, in the 17th and 18th centuries was another example of a brazen show of power over the weak. People were bought and sold like chattel, and very often treated worse than animals were. According to several accounts, they were punished by whipping, shackling, hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, branding, and imprisonment. Punishment was most often meted in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but sometimes abuse was carried out to re-assert the dominance of the master or overseer over the slave. White people simply believed that they were more "entitled" than the blacks, with respect of freedom and equality of wealth.
The civil war in Syria has been waging for the past four years. The rebels' and the ruling regime's war to retake Aleppo has resulted in countless civilian deaths. Again, because of the greed for power, innocent civilians are caught in the backfire, unable to escape.
Sadly, there are so many other examples.. The Germans bombing the Lusitania during the First World War, the Japanese treatment of American prisoners after taking over Pearl Harbour, the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, the cases of abuse of women and children in modern society....
It is at times like these that one doubts in humanity itself. How, one would ask, can we call ourselves humans, when we commit such acts of meaningless and vicious destruction, just because we can? We are, theoretically, more evolved than animals are, but even they would not be so merciless to a fellow animal, even if they are more powerful.
The majority of us are safe in our homes, looking on all these events in a detached sort of way. Sure, we may feel sad, and angry, but, after a few minutes, we simply move on to other things and they slip from our mind. It is not until they affect us directly, that we actually do something to stop it. We need to bring back the humanity in people, and remind them, that our first identity is that of "humans", before any race, religion, or country. We must forever fight to keep this world free, in every sense of the word. No one should be afraid, to talk, to eat, to live a life they want.
Even talking about it, and discussing it, will keep it fresh, and those people would not have died in vain, just a fleeting, already-forgotten memory.
We should remember, and do our bit to ensure that these, the darkest nights in history, do not repeat themselves.
"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that is the essence of inhumanity" - George Bernard Shaw
"As long as one child is hungry, our lives will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs."- Elie Wiesel
I recently read a book which has profoundly affected me, "Night" by Elie Wiesel. He is one of the few remaining survivors of the horrific Holocaust, a terrible genocide in which Hitler's Nazi Germany killed about six million Jews. The book was a simple but stark account of the horrors which Wiesel and his family saw and went through. There were women and children thrown into furnaces, men forced to work in unspeakable conditions, who were praying every day for rescue or death. Hitler and the Germans did this, simply because they felt that the Jews were an "impure" race, and should not be allowed to breed with the "pure" Aryan race. It was simply a show of power, which cost millions of people their lives. The survivors were very often, in no better condition, with memories which would haunt them the rest of their lives.
Slavery in America, in the 17th and 18th centuries was another example of a brazen show of power over the weak. People were bought and sold like chattel, and very often treated worse than animals were. According to several accounts, they were punished by whipping, shackling, hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, branding, and imprisonment. Punishment was most often meted in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but sometimes abuse was carried out to re-assert the dominance of the master or overseer over the slave. White people simply believed that they were more "entitled" than the blacks, with respect of freedom and equality of wealth.
The civil war in Syria has been waging for the past four years. The rebels' and the ruling regime's war to retake Aleppo has resulted in countless civilian deaths. Again, because of the greed for power, innocent civilians are caught in the backfire, unable to escape.
Sadly, there are so many other examples.. The Germans bombing the Lusitania during the First World War, the Japanese treatment of American prisoners after taking over Pearl Harbour, the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, the cases of abuse of women and children in modern society....
It is at times like these that one doubts in humanity itself. How, one would ask, can we call ourselves humans, when we commit such acts of meaningless and vicious destruction, just because we can? We are, theoretically, more evolved than animals are, but even they would not be so merciless to a fellow animal, even if they are more powerful.
The majority of us are safe in our homes, looking on all these events in a detached sort of way. Sure, we may feel sad, and angry, but, after a few minutes, we simply move on to other things and they slip from our mind. It is not until they affect us directly, that we actually do something to stop it. We need to bring back the humanity in people, and remind them, that our first identity is that of "humans", before any race, religion, or country. We must forever fight to keep this world free, in every sense of the word. No one should be afraid, to talk, to eat, to live a life they want.
Even talking about it, and discussing it, will keep it fresh, and those people would not have died in vain, just a fleeting, already-forgotten memory.
We should remember, and do our bit to ensure that these, the darkest nights in history, do not repeat themselves.
"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that is the essence of inhumanity" - George Bernard Shaw
"As long as one child is hungry, our lives will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs."- Elie Wiesel
