“Elephants have no feelings; they are made of rubber.” This was the quote that made my five-year-old laugh but, as in all great satires, the deep-seated message in the children’s animated movie Dumbo was not supposed to be funny. To the perceptive mind, it was a clobbering smack to the questionable patterns of human behaviour that have turned our hearts to stone and our feelings to rubber.
Man today is more concerned with a boastful display of his primal being even in its mediocrity, gyrates on an axis of overindulgence and turns a blind eye to the troubles of the masses. We would happily rescue a puppy from a shelter but will disregard the plight of a homeless child struggling to keep his embers alive. We talk for days about the New Year’s fireworks extravaganza in Dubai and, in that moment of fake elation, completely forget the impoverished children in underprivileged countries i.e. the kids in our own backyard.
Each year begins with fireworks, festivities that cater to late night parties and hefty resolutions. Add in the next month to the mix and we are ready to celebrate Valentine’s Day with cutout heart graffiti, glitter hearts, truffle chocolates and gifts unparalleled. In these times when this money could have been routed towards a useful end, we dine and wine for a certain notion of love that usually does not see the light of day after three months or is a messy divorce after a year.
This carousel of frivolity that we so willingly ride on is in sharp contrast to our surrounding reality. Economic struggles result in a Master’s degree holder landing behind a shop’s counter, young buds of our future are seen cleaning cars or begging by the side of the road and vendors hike up prices so that they can save enough to buy some warm fundamentals for their families. Our bogus notion of celebration renders us visionless to the actual plight of the many and we continue our downward spiral with no remorse in sight.
While we are busy trying to withstand the economic and cultural onslaughts, striving to be one of life’s lottery winners, have we lost ourselves to petty and cheap discounts along the way? We were supposed to learn the value of human life. Misdemeanours and crimes against adults or children, massacres arising out of religious disputes and genocides over issues that never see the light of the day are abundant in today’s world. The fiasco of Abel and Cain should have pushed us in attaining a better understanding of guilt and human perseverance, the wrath of society and the emotional backlash that comes with such heinous acts. But, putting it mildly, we are as dumb as it can get and as stubborn as a mule on crack.
We were supposed to be the pioneers of technology, to show that we were indeed the superior species with a heart and soul. We excelled no doubt but at the irreplaceable cost of tearing away at our planet. Environmentalists continue to battle for a fresh wisp of air and the industrialists keep on digging deep. It is a losing battle between perseverance and evolution with our planet as the biggest casualty of war.
We were supposed to set better examples for our generations. There should have been acts of valour, distinguished feats, works involving the highest standards, pointing to a healthy future. But we fell down the abyss of greed and barbarism, and now have pages upon pages of violence in the history that future players will only add to. Our present selves scrimmage over oil, revel in territorial advantages and nuke deals, shout a “Hail Mary” against political correctness and extend cooperation if it correlates to our interests. We did accomplish things, had our days of glory but with the ultimate sacrifice that we lost ourselves along the way.
Life is a slapstick comedy of errors and what makes it ironically hilarious is the way humans go about the wrong track again and again. We preach and teach but almost never follow. It is not anyone’s place to judge others but we are the dictators, preachers, critics, moderators, victims and the perpetrators. We live in a social loop and while mistakes may seem cute and silly at one point, our humanitarian decline is the only outcome.
This fall from grace, a ruination of our idealistic dogmas, our willingness to follow the crowd and end up like the proverbial “bird in borrowed feathers” is a testimony of our misfortune. It is not bad to be a follower or a patron of a cause but to let go of the fundamentals that eventually cost us our humanity is a tragedy of infinite proportions.
The writer is a professional freelance writer/contributor/editor/blogger and a translator