We often hear global leaders going full pitch to demonstrate their allegiance to core universal values that shape human civilisation on this planet.
They make huge noise when it comes to things like peace, harmony, prosperity, equality, and freedom. Among such high end postulates is the idea of mankind being a single family. We come across this idea in global declarations, in transnational conventions, and state constitutions.
We frequently find political leaders using this rhetoric to promote a soft image of their countries. But when it comes to actual working of global politics all this high talk about grand values amounts to very little; in fact, just nothing. A dismal failure of global leaders to consider people beyond their respective borders as members of one large family is a painful reminder of the gap between ideal and real.
This gap is so yawning that entire communities, ethnicities, classes, and even faiths can disappear in a single moment. A populist politics that feeds on self generated historic images, and consumes the fuel of hate and hostility, justifies bloody feuds within this single human family.
The alliance between great and middle powers, with weaker states acting as consumables, is a violent reminder of how we have divided this world into us and them. The soft talk about one single family is fed to dogs when it comes to pursuing the strategic ends of global powers. Humans turn into wild and wily in a mad competition to dominate others, and establish supremacy.
Present world, much like the earlier periods of human history, is rife with such hostility. The only difference is that of scale. We have taken economic exploitation to unimaginable heights. We have placed scheming and plotting against fellow humans across borders at the middle of the political sanctum sanctorum.
The arms that are in our kitty to bulldoze others are far too developed. It sends shivers down the spine if only a portion of these weapons are used against humans – fellow humans. The lines dividing us deadly – what a family we have become!