Being victors without victims

Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin, who said that life was worth nothing without victory, led an investigation into the causes of the Russian revolution. He had termed the revolution as a tragedy and explained that "the weak, damaged self-respect" of Russians had created mutual distrust and suspicion between the state and the people. The authorities and the nobility constantly misused their power, and they did so by subverting the unity of the people. Ivan then gave his startling conclusion. The revolution didn't happen due to inequality of people. It happened because the educated upper classes didn't give spiritual guidance to the uneducated lower classes, which was their duty.
In this month of victory, we have every reason to think that our lives are worth living. We are a proud nation that fought a war and liberated this country. But there is something about us that has been increasingly snapping. Nothing is wrong in being a politically divided nation that we are. Even the Americans were divided last month when they elected the next president for their country.
Mature nations get divided, but come back together as quickly. That hasn't been true for us. Our divisions have made us more divisive. The events of the last few days have proved that we are like Rumpelstiltskin. The character from a German fairy tale, in a rage, drove his right foot so far into the ground that it sank in up to his waist; then in a passion he seized the left foot with both hands and tore himself in two.
Many of us are worried if this country is heading for a similar climax. I would like to believe it's but an extreme view marinated in despondency. But one cannot deny that our differences are growing wider and deeper. The rift is getting bigger. We are fiercely drifting.
What this nation faces today is called the Spotter's Dilemma. Spotters are people who clean stains on clothes. They are eager to remove a stain, but they must be careful that they don't damage the fabric. Most stains can be removed if treated quickly, which become permanent if left untreated. If we talk about 41 years of victory and 42 years of independence, we must also talk about the stubborn stains of our misguided politics that have been festering like an open wound.
Last Sunday, that wound bled again. Ruling party activists hacked to death an innocent pedestrian because they thought he was an enemy. Frame by frame it showed how stubbornly political hatred has stained our conscience. The victim looked just like those who assaulted him, young of age and identical in features. The assailants and their victim resembled two sides in a feuding family. Yet the killers kept on hitting him with cleavers and sticks as if it was for them a fight to finish.
If the leaders were watching on television, we don't know what must have gone through their minds. Did they clap or did they roar as if it was an episode of the fighting game series Mortal Kombat? Were they trying to assess how their fighting machines were hitting targets like the American commanders do from their command centre when drones strike faraway scenes of engagement?
In the creepiest way possible, the killing was reminiscent of another day in our history. On October 28, 2006 we watched the horror of a similar madness when a man was beaten to death and his killers danced on his lifeless body. These may be sneak previews of a coming attraction. Spark to spark starts a conflagration.
Who is to blame for it? Not the farmers, workers, beggars or people on the street. Instead, able-bodied men and women, who have education, clout and money, those who need power and those who need positions, those who treat this country like a proprietary pie for their fidgeting fingers, are responsible for it. What Ivan found wrong with the upper classes of Russia is certainly showing through these privileged people.
In their speeches, interviews, analyses, discussions, seminars, workshops, roundtables, writings, presentations, sophistication and sophistry, the upper classes of this country are misguiding their countrymen. They are deceiving and dividing their fellow citizens, usurping this country's future to build their own. Certainly, a day of reckoning is long overdue.
In two days time we shall celebrate our 41st Victory Day. What are we going to celebrate? Is it the freedom from subjugation, or the freedom to subjugate? US politician Harriet Woods explains the difference. "You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims," she said.
Forty-one years later our victory rings hollow. The martyrs didn't give their lives so that nothing should change between victors and their victims except that they speak the same language.

The writer is Editor, First News, and an opinion writer for The Daily Star.
Email: [email protected]