The case which dominated headlines in the state and the country off late is the Pollachi sexual assault case. The horrific sex abuse case came to light, in February, after one of the women filed a police complaint. The four accused's modus operandi involved befriending women, luring them into secluded areas then raping them, making videos of their sexual assault and then using the same videos to exploit the women for sex and money by threatening them with making the videos public. The local media estimates the number of victims could be as high as 200.
How monstrous can the accused be? How horrific? They should be hanged, their private parts removed, should be subjected to the torture they imparted on others right? Well maybe, yet people overlook the equally monstrous and inconspicuous perpetrator.
Imagine if the first victim had opened up to her parents, reported this to the police. All of the rest could've been saved the cruelties they were subjected to. And yet here we are, with around 200 victims. Why though? Why did the countless women silently endure sexual abuse and give in to the demands made by the men who blackmailed them? Why were they so mortally afraid to speak up about these issues? Who are these equally vile iniquitous people responsible for such a hideous crime? Look no where for its Us, the society. It is because of our society's tendency to value appearance of morality over reality.
It is as though humans no more live in world made up of rocks, trees and physical reality but in a world full of insults, status, esteem, opinions and judgments even at the cost of our lives. The pain the victims went through was real, the mental agony they were subjected to existed in reality, haunting them incessantly. Yet even when the police identified one of earlier victims to come report the case, her family refused because it would tarnish their family's "image". Since when did we start caring more about our prestige than our daughter's/ sister's/ friend's torment. What is image/ prestige exactly but consensual hallucinations created by humans.. This threatened self-esteem/image acts as the invisible hand, facilitating, enabling countless such crimes. This combined with moral idealism of how women should be and what they ought and ought not to do would forever keep such issues hidden from justice in fear of society's branding of such victims.
To the naive realist, "everyone else is judgmental and an hypocrite, except me. I am free of all these accusations". But the shocking revelation would be that the victim, the perpetrator and the observer are not mutually exclusive. We are one and the same. How so you ask?
Haven't we ourselves condoned this practice of regarding esteem and image more than anything else, even above pain/ happiness or worse still practiced it ourselves. Remember the time your sister or your brother or your friend married a guy/girl of the "same caste" against their wishes because violating it was considered a dent to your family's "reputation" and you just stood by. Remember the time you just stood by, when your parents wanted you to learn a aforesaid course because other courses may tarnish their image among their peers. Or the time you judged and labelled a girl "slut" because she was seen laughing with many boys. Or when you gossiped about the moral failings of someone thereby trying to make yourself feel morally superior. It's this very nature existing at an individual level that translates into societal atrocity of brandishing people which then stops women from reporting their issues in fear of Us, the society (the omnipresent BS judge). This constant ever judgmental disposition is the hidden hypocrite partly responsible for such crimes.
To the naive realist, "everyone else is judgmental and an hypocrite, except me. I am free of all these accusations". But the shocking revelation would be that the victim, the perpetrator and the observer are not mutually exclusive. We are one and the same. How so you ask?
Haven't we ourselves condoned this practice of regarding esteem and image more than anything else, even above pain/ happiness or worse still practiced it ourselves. Remember the time your sister or your brother or your friend married a guy/girl of the "same caste" against their wishes because violating it was considered a dent to your family's "reputation" and you just stood by. Remember the time you just stood by, when your parents wanted you to learn a aforesaid course because other courses may tarnish their image among their peers. Or the time you judged and labelled a girl "slut" because she was seen laughing with many boys. Or when you gossiped about the moral failings of someone thereby trying to make yourself feel morally superior. It's this very nature existing at an individual level that translates into societal atrocity of brandishing people which then stops women from reporting their issues in fear of Us, the society (the omnipresent BS judge). This constant ever judgmental disposition is the hidden hypocrite partly responsible for such crimes.
The very ignorance of our moral hypocrisy makes sure we hide these inconvenient truths and believe that we are on the side of pure virtue (the society) in battle with pure vice (the rapists). The greatest myth of pure evil is that evil comes from outside. As long as we are predisposed to hypocrisy, judgementalism and moral idealism (at an individual level) no women will open up, the suffering will continue and the best we can do is translate our anger into memes/posts in social media or as tik tok videos, the effectiveness of which can be compared to a dog's barking: one with no end and no sense.
To summarize the two biggest cause of evil are two that we think are good: high self esteem and moral idealism
And as for finding the great way, it starts with being aware of our moral shortcomings first.
We see the speck in other's eyes yet do not notice the log in our own eye.
PS: The writer is at fault too. For aren't we all mostly HYPOCRITES?To summarize the two biggest cause of evil are two that we think are good: high self esteem and moral idealism
And as for finding the great way, it starts with being aware of our moral shortcomings first.
We see the speck in other's eyes yet do not notice the log in our own eye.
Very sensible post!
ReplyDeleteA brilliant write-up!
ReplyDeleteMeticulous eye-opener of the cause!!
ReplyDelete