About the Author(s)
Adeeba Arshad is a meticulous student currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology, at Bahria University, Karachi campus. With an astounding academic journey side by side, she’s also a writer and the author of a Google-recognized book, “With a Cup of Chai,” a collection of philosophy and poetry.
The foreplay of class, race, gender and other elements, and how they all brimmed in creating an unequivocal flawless vice of society.
PART 1: THE BASIC QUESTION.
I will start with the most normal everyday question, are humans equal? I’m not asking while holding some condition like are they equal in terms of how much they contribute to society or are they equal as to how kind they’re or anything. Let’s say there is a room full of children that have just been born. Are they all equal? No, they’re not. Humans are known to prosper under societies. Simply, they are known to make connections and their values to everything including themselves depends on those connections. Those children, since they haven’t made any connection. Their importance would be questioned in terms of the families they have connection to. And the treatment towards them would be harnessed as such. So humans being equal or not equal depends on the perception as to how they’re been viewed. Humanity as a concept is equal. Every human is equal. But humans as an individual existence, being in reality, cannot be equal ever.
Now since we’re done with the basic question, we can move on to the other elements of the society. Society is made of tangible elements that compass each other and hollow one another with their limiting narratives. Whether to divide humans on the basis of creed, color, religion, ethnicity, finances, interests and other various elements. Each element can be taken as a metaphor for a box. And each one tries to fit one range of people into it. We, as humans, have always been the pinnacle of communities. We are bound to make interpersonal relationships and once we adhere to one community, our own intra-personal relationship is bound to be lowered. Once we distinguish ourselves with one class, creed, culture or religion, we will start distancing ourselves from the other types. Often believing that other elements might harbor disturbing intentions for our class. Such is the basis of the beginning of feuds. Once an astounding amount of different elements are built in society, they can be used against each other by unbalancing the truces within. And the one who picks all the strings gets to be in the power while the communities builded on elements become the puppets.
PART 2: THEORY OF POWER.
I will explain the theory of power over common masses in terms of society. Common people do not have extraordinary backgrounds, belonging to some royal or highly acclaimed family. So they do not have to think about how precious their blood or name is. They do not have a wealthy background and they don’t have some money in some forgotten land. They don’t possess extraordinary knowledge or intellect to change something and hence they don’t have anything significant that belongs to them. Now since they don’t possess anything significant, they try to make what they have significant. Now here, think of something that is common among the most common humans and it can become strong enough to become significant and fuel a change. That is religion. One of the most important and significant elements in Southeast Asian countries. An intelligent person can converse and try to change an opinion of some other intelligent human. But he cannot use that same knowledge to change the opinion of a person whose opinion’s basis lies in belief. Now here the intelligent people choose a medium that’s the same as common people to retaliate against them. Simply to start a fight on things that are common among them. In most cases, religion. Since religion is the only precious jewel common people have, they fight with everything they have, for it. And here they take the strings. One religion fights with another and they can always control it or let it loose in order to create drift. And that’s how the government works in most Southeast Asian countries. The commons are sworn together, thrown as piglets, fight to deaths, or come together again. Their belief is used as a strengthening analogy to keep them in control. And that is how the society is balanced, in such a way that the poor remain poor while the wealthy remain wealthy. The lines between each element remain clear. No matter how much a poor man thinks he can change about this world, he sorrowfully cannot.
PART 3: CONCLUSIONS OF SUCH SOCIETIES.
A lot of incidents can be equipped by throwing fuel between the elements of society. I will explain some kinds of horrors that are born due to interpersonal conflicts.
Group Conflict.
If you have ever thought, how a human can commit heinous crimes without feeling a bit of remorse. Humans have kindness inside them. So how come some humans end up doing monstrous horrors known to society and not feeling a hint of regret about it. How come the Nazis in world war 2 complied to perform such terrors and how come they never felt conflicted? How does the Israeli army never bat an eye as it committed such atrocities against the Palestinians people? How does an average person ends raping woman and doesn’t have an ounce of sadness in his eyes? The reasoning lies in a psychological relationship dogma among the people. The reasoning behind this is that they have never been taught to think that way. Surprising, right? They probably were never aware of the fact that the person they’re hurting is a human with emotions. From the moment they acknowledge this simple fact, there will be dissonance in their mind and they will feel regret, and so they never acknowledge such fact. Thus these kinds of humans aren’t just there. They’re programmed on a whole spectrum. They first think normally. When one group of people belongs to one community and they clash with some other community, they have disdain for the other community. Then they may create a bias that such a group is beneath us whether it be by creed or color or gender. And then they start to think it’s okay and normal to think of those beneath them in whatever manner they want. Then they pass jokes and statements about the exiled group. Once a group or community is filled with such people, everyone is confirmed that what they’re doing is okay since a number of people are doing it. The compliance has turned into conformity and the obedience will then soon follow. Here, the other group has become an animal or something as insignificant as ants to them. And here they can commit crimes without feeling an ounce of remorse and also here their only concern is regarding the consequences of laws. So if laws aren’t strict, a crime can be committed against the other community easily.
Individual Conflict.
Change is brimming in the places where it’s forbidden the most. What I’m trying to say is, the more there is commandment on not doing something, the more desire it gets to retaliate against it. This is another example about the conflict of one element such as religion is used in harnessing crimes.
For example in countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan etc where religion plays a dominant role, the religion forbids a lot of things. The most significant of them are drugs and affairs. And that’s the reason why the forbidden things are done mostly in the same countries. Just like how the children of the strictest parents turned out to be the best liars; rape cases, illegal drug uses are most common in these countries. Let’s first talk about people in the USA or Europe. Now the people living in these countries have no restrictions regarding such things. And even if they have, it isn’t that dominant the way it is, in countries like Pakistan. So there, those people know they can do whatever they want hence they don’t have any tension to retaliate against it. On the contrary, people in South East Asian countries have suppressed their desires and the urge to do the opposite has been there. And then after a certain period of time, that string breaks and they turn out to ravish their suppressed dogmas. They become heinous creatures. Then they feel no remorse of their own doings. Since in these countries, people don’t follow religion out of belief, love or respect, but follow it out of fear. That’s where it all goes wrong. I’m not saying religion is the reason for such events but the portrayal and reasoning for the religion is. And once again, such conflicts keep the commons struggling while the upper class enjoys the festives.
PART 4: THE CHERRY ON TOP.
Since there is no bottom ground as to who remains common and who ends up being wealthy, narratives are established among people such, so they never use their voice.
The unreachable ceiling.
Since the lines of distinctions have been created carefully, things need to be there in order to keep them clear. One of them lies in the mass differences in the classes. In old times, people could revolt. But the premise lies in being able to think about the revolution. In modern society, the line of differences has gotten so far that a normal person struggles to get scraps while the rich ones spend their whole life buying the luxuries they may never need.
Thinking belongs to the wealthy while the poor struggle for the scraps. It has been like that way before but now the problem is the difference has become way too huge. Before, the difference wasn’t that massive but now even a person who makes a perfectly normal amount of money struggles for everything. The reasoning lies in the economy, the paper money, capitalism, classism, corruption, socialism and more. Every element of society is on its way to eat the other element. Hence the laborers are increasing while the thinkers are decreasing. Also since humanity collectively believed as to what’s there to think about since we have figured almost everything. Since we have access to way too much info, it makes many think, nothing has to be thought about, everything has been thought about. In old times, everyone was their own compass so they thought for themselves. Now one can always buy one, so they just need to work for it. Such is the way of society.