Monday | 13 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Monday | 13 January 2025 | Epaper

Demon of violence within!

Published : Thursday, 16 March, 2017 at 12:00 AM  Count : 182
Mahbubar Rahman

When rationality fails due to either provocation, direct or indirect assault on person, psychic disorder and or any other such causes, then the animality erupts like a sleeping volcano and opens the gate of hell causing violence and criminality. Violence takes place usually between two individuals, groups, clans, races, countries, and
societies in the form of direct assault, riot, war or any such similar act or nature

A widely spoken Bengali proverb says "Dhan baantey Shiver geet gawa". In dealing with my today's captioned piece I am writing below a prologue which may remind some discerning readers of the above proverb. But as a humble and non- circumspective writer enjoying widely talked about right of freedom of expression, I feel it pertinent to write a paragraph before taking a head long plunge into the topic of today's discussion, of course with great trepidation, foremost to save the piece from pedantic touch.
It goes without saying that like caterpillar, humans do not undergo a process of physical metamorphosis. But human mind-set often flickers like a candle-in the wind and does undergo a tectonic shift like unpredictable seismic jolt. Only through a long and enduring evolutionary process humans or homo-sapiens, as described in scientific term, have come to the present stage with mutations from their prehistoric ancestors. Human is a species evolved in this planet Earth from a genus whose root is still shrouded in mystery and is left for never ending scientific studies and investigations.
With the great influence of rationality, animality becomes only dormant and temporarily goes into the abyss of hibernation in human behaviour pattern without being totally eliminated from the metabolic system. Rationality makes humans achieving spectacular refinement in behaviour pattern and brings humans to the threshold of ultimate civilization we are longing for. Although the evolution of humans as a species began which dates back millions of years, the history of mankind, being evolved as rational being does not stretch back that long.
Anthropological studies suggest that it is only 8-10 thousand year since humans have domesticated animals like cows and horses for agricultural and other needs. Within the proximity of the above time frame, humans started living socially and developed family and marriage as an institution. Aristotle defined human being as 'social animal' because of human being's tendency to living together socially and raising family through marriage as an effective institution. Opposite to civilized behaviour pattern brewing from the characteristic feature of rationality which has made this world beautiful and worth living. Side by side a dormant animal and monstrous instinct in human trait often surfaces from the dark abyss through acts of violence, is endemic. Demon's propensity to violence that lies dormant within human psyche often raises its frenzied heads, is as old as civilization itself.
Violence may be defined as "intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person or against a group of community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal- development or deprivation". "The types of violence are self directed violence, interpersonal violence and collective violence, while the violence may be categorized as physical, sexual, psychological and involving deprivation or neglect." Whatsoever may be the types and nature of violence are, violence is an act which is generated broadly from the sleeping animal instinct that lies built-in, in human psyche. Rationality in human psyche tames and takes control of animal instinct in behaviour pattern.
When rationality fails due to either provocation, direct or indirect assault on person, psychic disorder and or any other such causes, then the animality erupts like a sleeping volcano and opens the gate of hell causing violence and criminality. Violence takes place usually between two individuals, groups, clans, races, countries, and societies in the form of direct assault, riot, war or any such similar act or nature. History stands witness to millions of episodes of violence causing annihilation of millions of beleaguered human being ever since the dawn of civilization. In the 20th century alone, in two great wars, over 60 million people perished out of cataclysmic collective violence. The 1200 years old lasting mighty Roman Empire had fallen due to violence not from without but from within. It took long 300 years for the great Roman Empire to fall due to conflicts, intrigues and acrimonious acts from within. Scores of other ancient civilization had the same fate from violence from within. Greek civilization had also suffered the same fate over the ages before it crumbled, Mankind still sing the song of elegy for the fallen heroes of Creek tragedies and other great tragedies caused by the violence from within. Contemporary world scenario depicts a grim picture of the degree of violence in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan that takes the toll of human life in dozens and hundreds every day. Poisons of violence is so festering that astronomically flows through the veins and arteries of societies from generation to generation, from the society to the societies, countries to the countries, from the family to the families to destroy the fabrics of civilization that carefully woven over the ages by the guardians of civilization emerged as beacon at the crucial hour of time. When the cauldron filled with poison is hot, its content boils; its loosely caped cover rattles violently and unleashes deadly steam and vapour of poison in the surroundings causing suffocation to the breathing system of the society.
A decade ago the world had witnessed with great shock and awe how a young prince of the kingdom of Nepal gunned down his parents-- the king and the Queen along with other inmates of the family in the great frenzy of violence inside the four walls of the royal palace. The fall of great Mogul Empire was accelerated due to feud and violence from within. The Mogul Emperor Aurongjab, after gruesome massacre of his brothers and loathsome incarceration of his father Emperor Shahjahan and sister Jahanara in the loneliness of Agra fort, ascended the throne of Delhi. The dark history of violence from within is unending and stretches longer and longer for the historians to put them in record in the history book of tomorrow.
In the house-hold of the contemporary world including Bangladesh, the insidious act of violence from within is festering a menacing. It is often observed with great pain and shock how young children inflict harm to their old parents by resorting to inexplicable violence in the family. It is often said that 'love is stronger than affection'. Affection cascading down the progeny from the parents is heavenly. If the love of the young couples is only carnal in nature with biological lust and greed, then such love is surely far from being heavenly and that at time abhorrently overrides the heavenly affection of the parents to the progeny. A couple of years ago a horrendous act of murder of a police officer and his wife by their reportedly derailed drug edict teen aged daughter named Oishi and her male cohorts clearly testifies that the heavenly affection of the parents towards their daughter couldn't stand to the test of time and suffered a total fiasco and defeat in the face of strong biological love of lust and greed of the young teen aged girls of obtuse mind walking silently into the path of crime hand in hand together with other cohorts of criminality. It is reported, to the wildest imagination, that when Oishi's mother was ceaselessly stabbed by the daughter and her accomplices of crime in the frenzy of killing, she (Mother) yelled "Are you not my child?".
A couple of years ago a mother engaged in illicit biological relation with her lover (!) strangled and suffocated by pillow her young son, who she thought stood on her way to illicit path, to death. These fiendish and hair- raising incidents portray a very dismal picture of the society and the world that we live in where even the children are not safe on mothers' lap. Social scientists and criminologist must storm their brains now to find out the reasons with effective remedy why and how these frightful crime trampling humanity under the jackboot; occur in the society caused by irresistible violence from within. 'Violence cannot be attributed to a single factor. It causes are complex and occur at different levels'. It is said that prevention is better than cure. The threat and enforcement of physical punishment has been a tried and tested method of preventing some violence since the civilization began. It is used in various degrees in most countries. The significant factor for reducing violence in a society is the guidance, discipline of children as they mature.
The effectiveness of physical punishment at this level is much debated, but if it is used, it should be as a last resort and never done in anger. More important preventive measures are showing children love and understanding'. The mindless incidence of double murder that has been referred above perpetrated by reportedly a drug edict teenage girl, now waiting to walk the gallows, who presumably did not become derailed and drug edict with her bad association over night; can be seen as failure as well on the part of the unfortunate slain parents to adequately instil guidance and discipline to the girl slowly indulging in intrigue and violence. Society that we live in, cannot equally shun its responsibility to guide the youngsters walking into the turbulent time of adolescence; when the psyche and the specific zone of the brain functions differently in their long journey of life.
Violence and gruesome murders that took place last year at Holey Artisan Bakery by a band of demons in human shape still haunts us and stand as living testament of violence in our collective psyche. As stated earlier, violence from within is an internecine act which had accelerated the pace of fall of the mighty Roman Empire of pomp and glory. Why don't we then say a big no to all kinds of violence and other such demonic act and be rational all the time by putting built-in animal instinct permanently into the unbreakable shackles and chains to build a better world of tomorrow worth living free from 'demon haunted world'?
Mahbubar Rahman is a former civil servant






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