We live in apocalyptic times

We live in apocalyptic times. We inhabit an era where impunity, in the internal politics of nations and in international relations, threatens the future of civilisation. We speak of human rights, of the rule of law but then are witness to their violation by governments, by non-state actors, even by our own narrowness of mind.

In these past many days we have helplessly observed Israeli missiles shattering lives in Tehran; and we have seen Iranian missiles rain down fire on Tel Aviv. We see little remorse in men who have made it their objective to destroy countries they do not happen to agree with. Netanyahu, who should have been a former prime minister by now owing to the corruption charges against him, has shown no qualms about his attacks on Iran. He has friends in the West.

We do not know if this war between Iran and Israel will end by the time this write-up appears in print. But we do know that much damage has been done, that when the Israeli regime decided to go after Iran, with encouragement from its powerful Western backers, it was once again a world getting caught up in the villainy of men intent on destroying lives beyond their territorial spaces. Such men speak of regime change in Iran, for they believe the ayatollahs have been fomenting trouble for and around them.

It is an age of darkness, of unmitigated fear we are living through. We have been sad witnesses to regime change in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria. And we know of the limits to which regime change can work. More importantly, it strikes us as rather crude this behaviour by the world's powerful men to arrogate to themselves the right to bomb governments into submission, all in the interest of bringing 'freedom' to the 'suppressed people' of the countries under assault.

We are often lectured by men and women in powerful global capitals of the need for a rules-based world. And yet these men and women have stayed silent, have looked away from the terror that has reduced Gaza to prehistory. Food is not permitted to reach people who have lost homes, have lost their compatriots and families --- close to 60,000 of them --- who do not have living space but only rubble where there used to be residences. But these powerful men and women do not call forth the moral courage to come down hard on those who have destroyed Gaza, have hollowed it out.

Civilisational order has crumbled around us. The war between Russia and Ukraine has gone on for three years. And yet no statesman has arisen to exercise influence on Kyiv and Moscow, to convince their leaders that life must get back on track. But have the roots of the conflict been gone into? Have NATO and the European Union (EU) gone for introspection about their role in pushing Ukraine into the crisis it cannot wriggle out of? The Russians did not want NATO reaching their borders, considered any such possibility a threat to their security. The West did not pay heed. The ramifications are now being felt. Vladimir Putin has ignored calls for a ceasefire. The future is clouded in thick mist.

Respect for international law has hit near rock bottom. The International Criminal Court (ICC), having charged murderous men with committing war crimes, comes under sanctions in Washington. Its chief prosecutor steps aside because a 'scandal' in which he has allegedly been involved must be resolved first. At the United Nations, there are loud echoes of the fate which befell the League of Nations in another era. Everyone speaks at the Security Council, every delegate of every member-state spews anger. All of them know the difference between right and wrong, between the aggressor and the aggressed against. But their 'politeness' has them lose the voice to speak out. And one of them lets fall the sword of the veto. Everything is then rendered meaningless.

It is the age when we recall the courage of conviction demonstrated by Nehru, Sukarno, Nasser, Tito, Arafat, Castro, Mandela and Chavez. There is today silence of a deafening sort in capitals where men and women holding power should be speaking out forcefully against the predatory instincts of elements today rampaging through the world looking for leaders of sovereign nations to hunt down and kill. Gazans die of hunger and disease; Iranians are under premeditated attack by a state that is in no mood to listen to reason. And yet governments in the Muslim world have carefully refrained from speaking up clearly in their defence. They feel no embarrassment.

When governments collectively lose the quality of feeling shame, it is a sign that the mediocre and the pusillanimous have taken over. In the Middle East, royalty stays quiet; dictators happy to pounce on home-grown protestors are afraid to condemn regimes out on sinister missions to wipe out life in countries not theirs. Settlers illegally build homes on land under occupation by the countries they demonstrate fealty to; they seize homes, drive out the owners and do not know of the wrath of God that might befall them. People die because their religious beliefs are anathema to people who do not see beyond their own faiths.

Intolerance defines these times. Men and women wracked by poverty in their home countries depart on rickety boats for happier shores. Many die on the high seas and those who reach land find they are not welcome. Not every politician today is an Angela Merkel, whose thoughts were centred on compassion. Migrants have a right to explore possibilities of happiness anywhere, for the planet is home to all. And yet racism, the colour of the skin, the sheen of faith, the skeletal signs of impoverishment prevent them from stepping into the happier regions of existence. In a world often cheerfully referred to as post-modern, with all the happiness it has on offer, it is a primitive mindset at work.

It is a darkening world. The graves of saints are desecrated. History is reduced to rubble. Women --- think of Afghanistan --- are pushed back into the suffocation of narrow huts by rulers who think divinity works in their favour. Presidents berate visiting Presidents in public and imagine countries beyond their frontiers as real estate to be claimed for themselves.

In this creeping, deepening and insidious darkness, we do not know if the sun and the moon will again generate poetry in our souls. And yet we live in hope, in the belief that future generations, untainted and unspoiled by the mendacious behaviour of their predecessors, will rebuild the planet in expansive light. As Oscar Wilde has a character note in one of his plays, 'We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.'

ahsan.syedbadrul@gmail.com