Syed Wajid
ART, an expression of human emotions and desires, manifests in many forms: music, painting, literature, both fiction and nonfiction. Anger, greed, vanity and the will to power manifest themselves into vibrant colorful forms of physical and psychological violence. One must wonder why, despite being practiced and improved upon for centuries, violence is still denied its rightful place in the spectrum of fine art.
For centuries, the symphony of pain composed by violence has been used for the dance of dominance, subjugation and compliance. The underlying pleasure of winning rushes dopamine through barbaric and untutored minds, arousing thirst and hunger for more. With unmatched intellect, humans are spending billions to improve upon the art to invent more forms of expression. Love, peace, tolerance and sacrifice, boring and devoid of thrill, are mostly left for fictitious saints and writers to spend their precious time on.
An investigation into violence, manifesting its impact in both physical and nonphysical realms of souls, will reveal that it’s the only art with education starting from very early childhood. Poverty-stricken parents resort to violence for controlling a gang of eight to ten mischief-makers born out of their own doing. Pseudo-modern parents, offloading their responsibilities, resort to violence-based media, films, games and sports for basic education. Children gradually learn the value of this art and adopt it as their primary instinct to express their response of and to “The Will for Power and Control.” As it is said, “the first instinct of a man cannot be controlled and is original,” their first instinct becomes violence.
Collective consciousness not only accepts but appreciates the fine art of violence. Our heroes who can bounce a ball and rip off an eye or an ear of a batsman, violently knock down an opponent boxer left bleeding or slap an opponent on a live TV show become role models and are rewarded. Unsung heroes try their skills of violence at work and on the streets. Social and mainstream media broadcast stories of valiant and violent artists, garnering millions of likes and followers.
Every few years, a global stage for violence is set and a theatre is performed. Violence orchestrated by a few and played by hundreds in harmony with strings of death, massacres and genocides and sounds of cries, sighs and moans brings in a new order and peace in chaos, setting the stage for the next theatre where new players will perform and new hands will orchestrate.
It is said that an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind—and a blind world cannot aim. When everyone acquires the skill of violence, the same violence now begets peace; when everyone becomes a monster, everyone is safe. As Orwell in 1984 famously wrote, “War is peace.” We can say that “Violence is peace” addresses a more general audience, considering the democratization of violence.
Achieving peace matters. As the saying goes, the colour of the cat, white or black, does not matter so long as it catches the mice. With this spirit, global leaders, keeping in view this fine art for ultimate peace, may consider forming a new category: “The Nobel Violence Prize.” Many will get a chance to test their wits for this new award and above all, very few will be left to compete for the boring old “Nobel Peace Prize.”
—The writer is a regular writer and contributor.
