The US of A has a long way to go before it matures as a civilisation. Its behaviour on the world stage reminds me of something that is often built in the psyche of children by their guardians. When children have just begun walking and hurt their foot by accidentally hitting an object with it, guardians nearby rush to quieten their howls of pain by gently stroking the area that has taken the blow and also hitting the object the child has bumped into. The idea is to tell the child that the cause of the pain is the object and justice should be done to the child by punishing it. The child too takes the cue from there and hits the object to settle scores with it. From several instances of this behaviour, the child learns to blame not his way of walking but the very objects that show him his immature steps. The child grows up with this mentality and exhibits it as an adult too. And lo and behold, you have the US of A setting everything right in the universe except its wrong conduct and attitude that are the true reasons for its hurt and pain.
Just before the US started seeing its opportunity to be a world heavyweight, the UK had done it and seen it all. That has made the UK mature about its place in the world—closer to the reality of one among many nations instead of its earlier conceited stand of the only one among many that fuelled its drive to be a world power at the expense of others. I read a news report some time back about the mindsets of US and UK soldiers fighting together in Iraq. US soldiers were very gung-ho about their job, believing that the violence they were giving back to a violent adversary was just the right approach and that they and their country had been chosen by fate to set things right on the planet. UK soldiers, on the other hand, were reticent about their job. They did not believe they were the chosen ones and were not very sure that violence was the right way to counter violence. They were much closer to equipoise than the US soldiers.
Some lines of poet and film lyricist Sahir ludhianvi show the transience in the realms of not just superstars but superpowers too. Someone who has seen the dreamlike passage of his supremacy in his world would be more awake to the realities of life than someone whose dream run is not yet over. Portions of this poem were very poignantly recited by Hindi cinema icon Rajesh Khanna after receiving a lifetime achievement award. Just like the cases of Rajesh Khanna and Britain, these lines often make sense only to those whose prime is past and present is commonplace.
The lines are: “... Izzatein shohratein chahatein ulfatein / koi bhi cheez duniya main rahti nahi / aaj main hoon jahan kal koi aur tha / ye bhi ek daur hai woh bhi ek daur tha / aaj itni mohabbat na do doston / ki mere kal ki khatir na kuch bhi rahe / aaj ka pyar thoda bacha kar rakho / mere kal ke liye / kal – kal jo gumnaam hai ... kal jo sunsaan hai ... kal jo anjaan hai ... kal jo veeran hai. Main to kuch bhi nahi hoon ... main to kuch bhi nahi.” (Respect, fame, adoration, love, nothing lasts in the world. Somebody else was there where I am today, this is an era, that too was an era. Don’t give me so much love [read respect in the context of America today] today friends that there’s nothing left for my tomorrow. Save today’s love [or respect] a bit for my tomorrow. Tomorrow that is nameless, tomorrow that is deserted, tomorrow that is unknown, tomorrow that is desolate. I am nothing ... I am nothing.)
These lines would not make sense to the America bent on thumping its superiority all over the world. Machismo and violence would, as seen in the justice America keeps meting out to the rest of the world. It is the same as Islamic justice: life for life, eye for eye, nose for nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth and wounds equal for equal. There is no let-go, no relaxation, no contentment, no grace in America’s response to injustice against it. It has resulted in redoubtable security for Americans on American soil but unjustly drenched in blood many areas of the world. Not just time but space too catches up with everyone. From outer space, the demarcations of your space and my space cannot be seen. In the smaller frames, someone may win and someone else may lose, but in the bigger picture we win and lose together as one people and one planet.
America spearheads the war on terror it began after 9/11. It wants to justify its violence in this war on the ground that it is a victim of terror. But those who committed 9/11 have their own grounds for justifying it. Victimhood didn’t start in the world with America. It’s a frightening scenario but the way of the world’s lone superpower is not the way of wisdom. It is the way of the ego, the arch enemy of wisdom. If America’s war on terror is a reaction, so is 9/11. If America does not wake up to the faults in its violence, nature will have to jolt it out of its partial slumber that shuts its eyes to its own injustices.
Passing judgement on who is fair and who unfair in a war can be a conundrum. As the epical Kurukshetra war of the Mahabharat shows, the righteousness or adherence to dharma of the two sides in a war is crucial for its outcome. In the Mahabharat, the Pandavas won because they were on the side of dharma, something that brought Krishna (God or truth) to their flanks. The Kauravas lost because they sided with adharma, the opposite of dharma. Dharma does not have a single word translation in English as it has acquired many meanings over millennia. But one meaning of dharma is right way of living. Is there or can there be a universal and timeless right way of livingIJ
I find an answer in Tao, the ancient Chinese wisdom tradition. Tao stands for the way or path of the universe and its constituents. The way of Tao is the way of nature. There is something relevant for powers that want to rule the universe in Tao Te Ching, a book written by Tao master lao Tzu. Says the book: “Whenever you advise a ruler in the way of Tao, counsel him not to use force to conquer the universe for this would only cause resistance. Thorn bushes spring up wherever the army has passed. lean years follow in the wake of a great war. Just do what needs to be done. Never take advantage of power. Achieve results, but never glory in them. Achieve results, but never boast. Achieve results, but never be proud. Achieve results, because this is the natural way. Achieve results, but not through violence. Force is followed by loss of strength. This is not the way of Tao. That which goes against Tao comes to an early end.”
Is America listeningIJ The price it will have to pay for not listening will only go up with time.