Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Human and Robot

|

Human and Robot

It was a mass social gathering. There were hundreds of smiling and happy faces and they were all waiting for the inauguration of the ceremony. A popular celebrity was invited as the chief guest and he was eagerly awaited by everyone. The arrival of journalists and media personnel had just begun and they had started preparing their cameras and mikes. Police had also made necessary arrangements for the occasion. When only a few moments had left, there was a huge explosion. The sound of explosion was heard in far areas and its tremors shook the large part of the city. 

On the spot, there was dust and smoke for a while accompanied with the cries that shook the skies and when the visibility was restored, wherever one looked, there were torn and mutilated bodies. The scene was horrible and soon the cries of the injured were overwhelmed by the sirens of ambulances and police vehicles. In the darkness of smoke and dust, people rushed here and there in frenzy as if they did not know what to do. Then people from surrounding started gathering on the spot, trying their best to carry the injured into the ambulances. The scene was so horrible that people with the hardest hearts could not help themselves from crying. Their eyes were filled with tears and the sight of every injured acted like a knife, piercing deep into their hearts, evoking pangs of pain and loss.

A reporter, who was covering the incident, said these words while crying, ‘people are carrying more and more dead bodies but they are not decreasing. Oh God, How can I see all these?’ In short, words are not enough to describe the feelings of people present on the spot.

 Unfortunately, last ten years brought to us the most brutal form of terrorism called ‘Suicide Bombing’ in which a bomber blows himself in a crowd leaving behind dozens of casualties. Most drastic aspect of such a bombing is the casualties of large number of innocent people who fall to victim to any such attack just because of the presence of a couple of targeted people. As any such incident is carried out without the discrimination of the people present on the spot so large number of children, women and elderly also become its victims and they pass away without knowing their mistake.

Any scene described above would not make any effect on any other animal but we, as humans, have been bestowed with a quality to feel the pains of others. This quality is such unique and worthy that mere words might not suffice to honor and appreciate its attributes. This is the quality that entices people to work for the whole of humanity. This is the feeling that fills your hearts with pain and eyes with tears. This unique quality differs and raises to distinction the humans from rest of the creatures.

Unfortunately, war and injustice is the biggest enemy of this quality. As war snatches away the feelings of empathy and care for others, so slowly and gradually hearts of people get emptied of the feelings and thus we witness the exhibitions of stone-heartedness. The view of blood and sufferings becomes so much normal that people get used to them and thus their feelings are no more moved by any such thing that might stir a blend of emotions in the normal circumstances.

In Afghanistan, it is not strange if you hear about a person who is still living and who has killed almost hundred people in three decades of civil war. We start trembling when we imagine of killing or injuring a single person but there were those who lost this quality and when you inquire how they could kill so many people, they give a fading smile, bend their heads down and say in a very low tone, ‘Those days were like these. You had no option except to kill or get killed.’

Same is true about the series killers of the world. Almost all of them were the victims of the cruelty of their family members or the society and they chose the way of killing others to avenge this injustice.

About this quality, there is one fact that can be termed to be scientific. According to science, a vacuum can never exist and it will immediately be filled by something. Same is the case with the feelings of empathy or stone-heartedness. Let’s try to clarify this idea with two different examples.

In a movie, a father takes his injured son to a hospital where his life can be saved only if he is given immediate medical treatment but doctors demand a heavy fee and refuse to start the treatment until their fee is not submitted. The poor and helpless person runs here and there to arrange the fee and the injured boy is left on a side and doctors are shown to be busy in chatting and laughing with each other. After an hour or two, the father is told that his son has expired and now he should collect his dead body. This cruelty leaves behind permanent marks on the man and a time comes when he is also sought to save the life of a person but then he refuses to help and in front of him, another person loses his life and the person sees his act even and just.

On another occasion, a small act of kindness to someone fills his heart with gratitude and he gets motivated to be kind to others and help them whenever it was possible.

Regarding the above fact, if we fail to deliberately cultivate the feelings of kindness in hearts of people, evil forces actively and steadily harden their hearts and thus they become stone-hearted, void of any kind of feelings towards the sufferings of others. When a bus reaches late to a city and people are worried and willing to reach home as soon as possible and the number of taxis available is also limited, taxi drivers charge unfairly as they see that people are having no other option and thus they accept their unfair charges. This single act of cruelty doesn’t end here. Let’s say that there was a shopkeeper in one of the passengers and next day, he sold something on a high price to his customers and when he was requested to show some mercy, he replied, ‘Why should I show mercy when I was not treated mercifully.’ In this way, this stone-heartedness keeps passing and growing in both size and intensity.

Now, when we come to the solution of this problem, there may be many strategies to inculcate sensitivity towards the feelings and sufferings of others but I would like to share one simple one that is used in Character Education Techniques in schools and educational institutes. The first requirement of this technique is to provide love and care for the others so when the fresh minds will experience these good feelings, they would feel good about them, keep them dear and would try to extend the same good feelings to the others and in this case, a good feeling would start a chain of acts that would soften the hearts and make us sensitive towards the others.

Mohammad Rasool Shah is the permanent writer of Daily Outlook. He can be reached at muhammadrasoolshah@gmail.com

Go Top