Of late, I have been seeing increasing instances of violence in various walks of life. I keep hearing about violence of various kinds, road rage, queue rage, etc. Depressingly, the list just goes on. What is happening? Why have we become like this? After millions of years of evolution from apes, it seems we are on the path to de-evolution back to apes - only that this time around, we are in the fast-forward mode.

Destruction of any sort is newsworthy. If anyone has a doubt regarding it, all one has to do is to turn on any of the news channels across the world. They are dominated by stories of death and destruction. If not that, they have news regarding corruption or other ills of society. While I do not believe in living away from the realities, I find it hard to believe that in today’s world, there isn’t a single good deed happening around the world. Then, the problem lies in the fact that whether that is newsworthy. No one understands the pulse of people like media. They know acutely what sells. They have realized what sells is not the news of good deeds or inspirational actions, but blood and gore.

Films too are increasingly becoming bloody and gory. While earlier we had heroes and heroines who were ambassadors of righteousness and were strictly against villains who wanted to destruct and destroy, this line has increasingly blurred to oblivion. Now, it is accepted that means to the end isn’t really important, so far as the end is achieved. The argument put forth in such situations is that films are but a mirror of what is happening currently in society. If that is the case, why do we almost always have a happy ending to movies? It is just that we want things to end perfectly and aren’t bothered much how that end is achieved. It reached a tragic climax when a Korean youth opened fire in one of the US universities after being pushed over the edge after watching one of these movies.

Recently, in Britain, there was a video game that was banned because of excessive gore. Being an active video games player for some time, I have been seeing an increase in the amount of shoot and kill games. While they all started as an assassin going for a target or some war game, the recent ones are rather descriptive with blood and body parts spilling all over. In such games, you score more by killing or destroying more. Death and destruction are glamorized, especially to a young generation who grow up thinking that is what is expected of them.

For a generation that is brought up on a fast-food culture, immediate gratification is what matters. In such a scenario, it is difficult for creation to get any news space. Creation is a very unglamorous thing. When you indulge in creating, most often that not, it would be the later generations which would enjoy the benefits of it. When you plant a tree, it would be your children who would reap the fruits. With creation, you start seeing the changes gradually. It is extremely time consuming, and you need to be dedicated for a good creation. Destruction, on the other hand, is quick, the results are immediate, and you get to see them all yourselves in most cases. You are talked about in TV, movies are made on you, novels are written about you, and you are, in general, treated as a celebrity. Monuments that have taken years to be built have been destroyed within hours. Legacies built over centuries have been destroyed over a few minutes of news time. Also, unlike in the case of creation which has to be politically correct, there is always a correct side to destruction. You are always appeasing some group of individuals when you destroy something.

All, though, is not lost still. A Bollywood movie, Lage Raho Munnabhai, which showed Gandhian methods to overcome the villains became a hit. For a short while, Gandhigiri, as it was termed in the movie, became the nation’s mantra. It showed a small ray of hope in this darkness, but for the time being that ray has been buried under more blood and even more gore. But it is a reminder to one and all that goodness is always better, creation is the better option. All it needs is better packaging, and I am hoping sincerely that such a packaging happens soon. I myself am becoming increasingly vocal (for probably the first time in my life) about something, how compassion is a better, how good is the right option. I am expecting an increase in support for this. We are enjoying the benefits of someone else’s efforts years before, let us pass on even more benefits to the coming generation. Let us work towards a better tomorrow.