Why heart bleeds from a distance
Whenever something bad happens anywhere, our immediate reaction is usually anger. Rationality can wait. Let us vent first. We know the situation is beyond reproach and we understand the dismal state of affairs. Nothing is surprising anymore. Yet, we are surprised every time an unsavoury news flashes on our electronic devices. How can that happen in 2017? Why are people so mean to each other? Where did compassion go? When is common sense coming back from vacation? What the fuck? Several questions with fewer answers.
Everything, well, almost everything within the perimeters of consciousness, can be gauged from two vantage points. One, mass level and another, individual level. At mass level, generalization has a field day because there is no distinct clarity. For instance, it’s cozier to suggest that a majority of Indians are unpunctual or squalid or hopeless than actually do the math. Conversely, things are more promising at an individual level. You can directly ask a person what has he or she done regarding this or that. When it comes to you, there is a difference between voice and work. In simpler words, how exactly did you help the case in a positive manner? While XYZ was taking place, what exactly was your course of action? Feeling sad for an event is as effective as an umbrella in monsoon. Real change occurs when individuals abandon their luxuries and get under the sun.
If you think about the state of empathy among our generation, an amazing paradox is brewing. We dearly desire to hold on to our privileges but at the same time, wish to be viewed as somebody saint-hearted. There is no way we’d secede even an inch of our comfort but want the world to magically turn awesome. The mess that we are in is gigantic because it took contributions from a lot of people over a long period of time. This didn’t happen overnight. Similarly, to un-mess it, we’ll need a lot of people over a long period of time too unless we use our brains to find a marvelous shortcut.
Speaking of empathy, our heart bleeds for everything and everybody but we can’t imagine letting strangers inside our house. We want to help the disadvantaged and the destitute but from a safe distance. As long as they are away, we are willing to chime in a few coins to feel better about ourselves. Why stop at being shallow when we can be stylishly shallow? More hashtags please.
This absurd ambivalence of compassion is also a symptom why we are reading more and more about the failure of globalization. Since the prevalent system worships money, our common denominator is set at matlab (an Urdu word that means meaning as well as purpose; matlab ki duniya is an appropriate expression for a world full of purpose, favours and deceit). Take for instance the ongoing migrant crisis in all the continents. We are talking about people here, like you and me, except that they aren’t privileged enough. They are barely surviving on scraps. When they leave their homes and flock towards a foreign land, they are chesting all sorts of fatal risks. Some would be called migrants while others would be branded refugees. A Mexican family trying to escape the violence of a local cartel by sneaking into American territory would be illegal immigrants whereas those from Syria dodging bombs would be refugees. Both are similar in their construct but vary in their nomenclature.
From an individual vantage point, your heart goes out to both these groups of people. You’ve got access to information and the angel in you has convinced you about the benefits of feeling bad for them. You are doing exactly zero for them in physical terms. You are not hosting them or providing for them. You are aware of online aid units but somehow not a penny has been donated from your end. And even if you did spare a few bucks, the ground economics doesn’t change because you’ve got nothing to lose. When these immigrants/refugees enter a new country, they naturally compete with the lower rung of the society — let’s call them non-privileged — for jobs/livelihood. The same is true for the Afghan refugees in Pakistan or the Bangladeshi infiltrators in India or the Rohingyas in Bangladesh. The competition isn’t between the haves and the have-nots. It’s between the have-nots and the have-nots. They aren’t coming to steal your job. You are nowhere in their equation. Despite all of which, you continue to wonder why the poor in your country make poorer choice during elections. Turns out, due to lack of presaged privileged, they see the world as it is. A massive mess run by economy, not empathy. And that surprises the faint-hearted.
