Two news items attracted my attention lately. But what made me sit up and take notice was how people reacted to them. Of course, there are a million messages and a billion reactions on social media.
The first news was about the Uvalde shootings. Another bent mind had easy access to guns and bullets, and finally the inevitable news. He went after whoever he was upset about, and in the end, many were dead, injured, and martyred. Every event like this produces an antagonist, victim, and martyrs.
Let us look at how social media reacted to this. Mostly, silence. As if talking about this would evoke sharp reactions. Whoever reacted to this event, wished and prayed for the victims and praised the martyrs who put themselves at risk and sacrificed their lives to save more people from being hit.
One step away, I came across this article. How the USA fares on gun ownership against other nations globally. After the Second World War, when most nations were created due to decolonization, the new nations chose to take away gun ownership from ordinary citizens. One could get a gun ownership license, for example, in India, a chaotic, but large democracy, there are strong checks. Of course, corruption peeps in such an exercise, so if one really wants a gun and goes through the greasy path, he may get through.
Let’s get back to my point. In many countries, people hate guns. It means, culturally, people know that guns mean violence and crime. More than any weapon, guns catch people’s imagination and lower the bars for the crime.
The gun violence incidents are part of continuing spate. Yet, social media’s reaction is the same. Pray, wish, comment, and move on. Good for you. Until… until the incident happens somewhere or to someone close.
Let us now put it together. Guns breed violence. We abhor the thought of us being at the wrong end of the gun. So can we start from our homes? Our neighborhood? Remove guns. If somebody was so insecure about themselves, is there a saner way of keeping neighborhoods safe?
Can we do our little bit to remove guns from the equation? It is hard, but if you do that little bit today, it leads to a saner and safer tomorrow.
We could even use social media – local groups, events, pictures, and posts to drive this little bit of good. Yet, we are here – silent, praying, and wishing. Nothing more.
Can we do more than that? OUR LITTLE BIT OF GOOD?
***
The second piece of news came on my LinkedIn feed today. An article posted by a dear friend referred to an op-ed piece. There was this person, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, who rode about 30,000 km, on a high-end, gasoline-fueled motorcycle, meeting the powers-that-be in the European and Middle East countries to propagate the message of ‘Save the Soil’.
The op-ed had quoted the person as a ‘self-styled’ Godman, ‘selfish’, ‘propagating his global furtherance’. I read the comments. While some agreed with the message, some lamented about how publicity stunts work and how hypocritical the fossil-fueled rally about ‘save the soil’ is.
I was hit by nitpicking in particular. There were so many things wrong with the event. But I got to thinking –many in Europe, the Middle East, India, and elsewhere don’t appreciate how precious our soil is to us.
Soil is the very soul of Mother Nature. Yet we abuse the soil below our feet with impunity and are loaded with ignorance. How can climate change impact our soil? How rampant industrialization and agriculture have changed the nature of the soil? Where are the earthworms – the nature’s farmers? Sadhguru’s rally brought my focus to these issues.
My point – the social media. On the long thread filled with vitriolic criticism and hatred towards the person, if somebody had really added two cents on their knowledge of how the soil is important – a biologist, a soil scientist, a geologist, a climate change expert, a farmer, an urban planner – aren’t we these today?
The fact is that people read. People think. If there was a bit of good put up, it fuels somebody else’s thoughts. Could somebody have taken two minutes to think about the REAL issue and responded?
I was searching for that little bit of good in that post and comments.
***
As humans evolve, society is becoming more complex. Everybody has and is entitled to their opinions. But what matters is that in this mad chaotic world, can each of us find and do our bit of good?
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
There is no moral high ground here. There is no point to prove. But if we are interested in a topic or an issue, the only impact that we can create is that ‘little bit of good’ that we can do about that. Else, opinions remain.
Let us start doing our bit of good. It is all that matters.
