Violence in and around us- Say hello to your dark side

How many of us read articles/hear or watch a report of people going on rampage with guns, mowing down people indiscriminately, deranged people attacking innocents with acid and the like and just give a cynical shrug and continue with whatever else that we were doing before we got this nugget of information? I would count myself in without a moment's hesitation. We always tend to do that. Then there is the other set of people who act all offended and kick up a huge hue and cry, publicly denouncing these perpetrators, campaigning for their death sentences and the like. Oh, I almost forgot the other faction. Those that kick up a fuss saying that these individuals are not to be awarded capital punishment. Once the accused escapes the gallows, they go into hibernation till another is sentenced. The most common refrain however is "The gun-man was somebody else. " or "The victims were strangers." How are we connected anyway? We have enough things on our minds to keep us busy and we absolutely have no time to think about some loony guy going berserk with or without a gun. No thank you. If you, my nameless reader, for a single moment think that the purpose of this piece is to try and wake up your dead or dying conscience or to try and send you on a guilt trip, well, think again. I am only trying to show you (and myself, in the process) that these violent individuals are really not as far removed from ourselves as we imagine them to be.

For many of them, the violence they exhibit is not even premeditated. Its more of on the spot insanity, with maybe just a couple of hours of intense cooking of the brain before the final explosion. A software engineer with unrelenting work-related pressure, a teenager flushed with testosterone and frustrated with his lack of popularity with the opposite sex or an overburdened student have one thing in common. Intense rage. Rage that is often bottled up, leading to dangerously high levels of pent up stress. Rage that is just waiting for a triggering event. The fuse for the dynamite. How many of these walking dynamite sticks are around you? In your neighbourhood, at your workplace, across your cubicle, in your home? Are you one yourself? Do you feel the whole thing closing in on you now? Has it become closer than that distant person you heard about or read about, who killed someone in a moment's frenzy or killed himself over something seemingly trivial? Nothing is trivial. Not for the people it happens to. Not for the people who suffer its consequences. You, me and everybody around us face problems all the time, but while some of us can live with it, some just go over the edge. Some take it out on themselves, while others target others. We wouldn't want our parents, siblings, spouses or children falling to a bullet or a sudden unexpected spray of acid, or for that matter, becoming a perpetrator, would we? So, now that these people with problems are not so distant as they previously appeared to be, what can be done for them?

For starters, accept that everyone of us has his or her own dark side. The side that we try our hardest to hide. The pressure, the pent up emotions, the rage. It is a whole fraternity by itself. A fraternity that knows no barriers of any kind, be it race, region or economic status. Let us collectively take a pledge to identify these individuals and do our bit to bring them out of it before it is too late. 'The world has shrunk, thanks to the Internet era' is a commonly encountered cliche. Let it not hold true for our hearts also. It would do good for the lotus eaters who still think that violence is something that happens to others and not to themselves, to wake up to the reality, soon.