Humanizing the Demigods

Many of the tragedies of life today seem to point at human inconsideration and callousness as their cause. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, or meteorites smashing onto the earth, maybe the exceptions. Even then who decided to build human settlements on volcanic mountainslopes, too close to the seashores etc. Human beings are still to be blamed, or rather the human demigods who control and manipulate human decisions by the powers that have been vested on them by other human beings.

These demigods take many shapes and forms. From elected or appointed high executives to enriched human entrepreneurs. They determined and sactioned what people can do or cannot do. Their action brings forth prosperity or disaster, thus giving them the feeling that they are ever so powerful, even mightier than God sometimes.

These demigods. pocket dictators, little Napoleans etc. are sometimes the saviors of human society or in other instances, the root cause of its insensitivities to human sufferings. People become disinterested and unconcerned with the welfare of their neighbours and fellowmen because the authorities are not concerned with their problems. Rubish dumps and oxidation ponds are left to exude sickening odours, perpetual traffic jams make people tensed and short-tempered, unchecked minor criminal activities lead to major and vicious crimes, playful bullying and ragging in schools lead to widespread indiscipline and juvenile social abberations. Crammed housing with narrow and unkempt streets will lead to the creation of squalid urban sprawls and sordid slumps. Under such conditions human being can easily loose their dignity and moral values, slumping down under the the pressure for survival and tolerence.

Under such circumstances the demigods must first be humanized before a new culture and concern for the common weal can be generated. The demigods themselves must not be activated by the pursuit for wealth and power only but be responsive to the more subtle requirements of maintaining human dignity and pride among both rich and poor. If they had never known poverty in their life, they should be exposed to its devastation and humility to understand how the poor feel. Their own moral values and ethical propensity must be retuned to conform to those of the middle and lower class society in order to regain their confidence.

Too many times the demigods of today's life show a heart that's ruled by their need to pursue and maintain power, wealth and all their worldly interests. Human beings becvome mere numbers and statistics in their deliberation. Ia a few must die to placate the majority, their deaths become a necessary evil. President Bush calls such death a "collateral damage". Such leaders are the first to need a lesson in humanization. But who can teach them? Osama ben Laden?