Daily Times

The Crown of the creature’s tag bestowed on humans is motivated by the distinguished characteristics they are blessed with. Sympathy and compassion are some of the mentions. However, as the heat of human extremism proliferated, the essence of sympathy, and compassion evaporated. With the evaporation of these emotions’ essence, humanity herself choked to death. The incident of mutilation of a camel in Sanghar, Sindh, hammered the last nail in its coffin. Transcending the bulwarks of barbarism, another camel’s legs were chopped below the knee, signing humanity’s death certificate.

Human beings, once the paragon of humaneness, have turned into beasts, seeking voiceless, helpless, and hapless creatures to prey on. Inhumane incidents taking place now have always been a tale of might-have-been’ – never happening thing. We have fallen prey to extremism, have been hijacked by hypocritical and materialistic means and are prone to cruelty over compassion. The prosthetic leg will be provided to that mutilated camel though, humanity, now a corpse, cannot be taken out of the coffin.

We are, by nature, pretenders and thus put the tag of sympathy on the forehead to imply we still have value for the creatures, we care about others’ miseries and are hallmarks of helpers. However, otherwise has been the case. Is foraging on the agricultural field by an animal an unforgivable sin? Does humanity teach us that lesson to amputate animals? The picture is clear how far we’ve come as human beings, how far we care about others’ miseries and where we’re headed.

Actions have consequences. Our brutal actions have resulted in the death of humanity, empathy and compassion among us.

As the kings in the mediaeval times manipulated the power of the crown in their heads, so do we as the crown of the creatures manipulate our tag and reign supreme on the rest of the creatures, brutalise, maim and amputate on our will regardless of consequences. What is more horrifying is that it’s an endless vicious cycle, countless have been harmed by the human wrath and innumerable are in queue. We have put on the skin of ‘humans’ to mask our atrocious actions, we, under the veneer of good-looking faces, camouflage the barbarian nature and deceive harm, and plunder voiceless, innocent and hapless creatures. We have transcended the bulwarks of humanism, and thus treated all other creatures; ‘worms’, harmful to us, to the environment and the world and made a mission to make all other creatures – sometimes, the same species – extinct.

“With great power, comes great responsibility” is a flawed idea or, perhaps, it has been moulded accordingly to giuse our real face and ergo originally might be called with great power, comes great brutality. Undoubtedly, regardless of era and species, ‘great power’ prestige has always been manipulated in one way or the other. The lion used its power to rule the jungle, the chameleon has been using its feat to remain unharmed in the worst possible circumstances, so do we, as humans, use our power to sideline species, make them extinct, and harm them physically, emotionally and psychologically. In hierarchical order, we do the same to our species too. We think it’s our ascribed feature to harm the surroundings, destroy habitats, and brutalise animals. The coalesce of all these feats makes us fit to be called monsters, or even worse.

The system has, in one way or the other, contributed to our feat of being called cannibals or beasts. In a way, the system has not backed the wherewithal which helps us think rationally, act sensibly and follow cautiously. On the other way, the system has exacerbated the situation by not deploying the true components of control, curbing and mitigating the harmful acts. For instance, if the rule of law was strongly practised in the region, the amputation of the camel would have been averted. The hierarchy and quid pro quo between higher tier and lower tier – political elements and feudal lords – has always helped make the state apparatus fail miserably. The sayings: where there is law, there is an exception and all are equal before law, but some are more equal. So, these elements fall in exception or in more equal.

The rotten society with no means available to earn the survival essentialities is destined to take the routes otherwise of law or do today’s most lucrative and rewarding acts: sycophancy and brown-nosing. Both actions earn one financial assistance, political affiliation and social status. Pseudo though these may seem as or look like, these are today’s most seeking pursuits.

Now that humanity has breathed its last breaths, requiem is necessary so the message be conveyed it is no more with us and, a lesson would spread that since humanity is no longer with us, these brutalities should not shock us. Requiem for the departed soul is carried away to apprise the surroundings of a great loss.

Actions have consequences. Our brutal actions have resulted in the death of humanity, empathy and compassion among us. Horrifyingly hollow and shockingly shallow from sympathy and compassion, we, the people are terrifyingly ugly, brutes and barbarians. God forbid, we are collapsing as the epitome of sympathy and collectivism.

The writer is a freelancer. He can be reached: insafalibangwar98@gmail.com