Precaution and the “turn-off button” is not the same thing. We are all afraid to feel, afraid to sympathize and afraid to be selfless. We call each other mindless, delusional tools for having emotions; we are all so stuck up on “suck-it-up”s that we are now out of breath.
We, as human beings, have failed to possess the one thing we are supposed to be capable of: humanity. We live in our own bubbles, we immediately shut ourselves out, we believe there is no one in the world who could possibly understand what’s going on around us. From that belief, we become the people unable to understand or feel for anyone but ourselves; every problem we face is nitpicked and personal, while the world outside is a vast land of chaos.
You are not me, hence, not my problem.
Our ears are so occupied from listening to the voices inside our heads that we cannot hear the cries of other people hurting a few steps ahead.
“When you are done venting”
I don’t understand why anyone is shocked or surprised at Priyanka Chopra’s reaction- or more accurately, lack thereof- to whatever’s happening in Kashmir, and her problematic tweet in support of the Indian army. Ayesha Mallik’s unjust public humiliation has raised many questions, surely, but considering how gruesomely we assume a moral hierarchy when it comes to our celebrities and public figures, it’s no surprise that the privilege remained where it was believed to belong.
Could she have chosen to not make that tweet? Perhaps. Could she have answered appropriately without gaslighting and creating a scene? Perhaps. Would that make her opinion any more acceptable or benefit the sufferers? If you look at it this way, Priyanka will have the backing of nationalist media and pro-Indians, so the privilege remains as deemed.
Humanitarianism?
Not everyone’s cup of tea, not even hers, who is a UNICEF ambassador and thus, along with all the ability to make things right, has also been given the opportunity of having freewill and free speech, which, for the mass of us, comes with a price. She might seem like a waste of position, space and voice right now, but her PR and her Prime Minister is proud of her, and we can’t say the same about ourselves.
It’s saddening, however, that she sought refuge from the very thing that she had broken to get to her position: the glass ceiling.
Two days later, the social media row will settle. Her net worth and fame will remain the same and we will once again be digging up her Instagram for outfit trends. That’s exactly how pathetic we are as a generation, because as long as we aren’t present at the scene, we talk, vent, share our opinions, and whenever it’s convenient, we move on.
Gravedigger’s accounts: keep it buried
We bang the doors of pre-partition walls now, seeking help from the “one party, one people” movement from 1945, but we are back where we started: is this a territorial war, or a war to wage religious dominance? Every time there’s even a slight chance of ethnic or religious minorities being harmed, we take sides, not with the victims, but whichever group we belong to. It seems as though our independence as separate nations is only a line waiting to be erased.
“To each their own” is a stupid argument to make, because we know exactly what is wrong with the world. We are a generation who have sat through Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, Syria getting wiped out for power; we have sat through ISIS, the Taliban, and the post-liberation cold war in the subcontinent. But that’s not our problem, it never was. Neither is this- not yet, that is. I wonder how it feels to be an educated fool, a sworn liar and an idealistic hypocrite; but I guess I have already tasted that.
The middle ground that she has claimed to be walking on, is the same one we have taken whenever a classmate was wrongfully jacked by the teachers or bullied by our fellow classmates. It’s the same one we have taken every time someone has come to us with the news of their heartbreak and we dismissed it with “you’ll get over it” and “stop being dramatic”; it’s the same one we take towards rape victims, minority groups, political discrepancies, mental health issues and every other problem that doesn’t affect us.
Her middle ground is her patriotism, no matter how problematic and fickle that makes her. The “middle ground” ironically doesn’t exist for the people of Kashmir, who have forever been torn between two territories, not knowing which to call home, and are under attack and blackout. Whether their home is theirs to claim, is unknown to them. Now that the invasion is not for the scenic enhancement of Bollywood movies, we see that a middle ground only exists in theory.
Who do we side with? The country that has massacred ours in 1971, or the country that is trying to wipe out democracy and secularism in the lieu of territorial dispute?
We side with what’s best for us: silence. We side with what’s going to help us survive, because that’s our goal right now: survival. We drink, smoke, wake up, get educated and get jobs, to survive. To live, feel and sympathise is to give in to weakness; to hope, is to become superficial. To love, is to give ourselves away. So we wait, till it’s our turn to choose.