Not only action but also inaction can hurt. Violent action is direct and has obvious forms like killing, injuring, beating, taunting, mocking, and insulting whereas violent inaction can be subtle and indirect. Violent inaction can be both intentional, I call it Manipulative Passivity and it can be unintentional which may be termed as Ignorant Passivity. Both can hurt significantly and sometimes more than the direct action of hurting.
Manipulative Passivity can take different forms. One of which as an example is ignoring a person. When a person tries to befriend me, or communicate with me and I intentionally do not respond and rather ignore him/her, I am being passively manipulative. In general parlance, ‘turning a cold shoulder’ is one example of manipulative passivity. The question is – ‘are we aware that we are manipulating?’ Are we aware that our mind is secretly measuring the gains and losses and eliciting such passive behavior that will work for our own profits alone? If we are aware of this then we better accept firstly that we are violent people. Acceptance is the first step towards being non-violent. Practicing non-violence may not help as much as accepting that one is violent. Of course what precedes this acceptance is the fact that we see for ourselves how our mind functions in manipulative ways. Sometimes the practitioner of non-violence with all good intent may be very benevolent, generous etc but he may not be aware of the subtle ways in which violence functions in him/her. In that case his/her compassion remains very superficial.
Watching the mind, acceptance of its ways and then disallowing manipulation can make you an unpretentious person who can be called ‘simple’. One who with awareness does not manipulate and to whom this quality of non-pretence has become natural is a simple man.
We may be far from being simple but it is important to begin to watch how violence is ingrained in us and how the mind can fake itself as non-violent. It is significant to introspect deeply into our mind to become simple. Violence has larger implications upon our life and on the society. Our incessant demand for more is nothing but a form of violence. We hurt numerous people to get more, possess more. The environmental degradation and ecological imbalance are an outcome of violence. We destroy species, creatures, vegetation to have more, consume more. The implication of this essay is not to promote anti materialism, or vegetarianism or spiritualism. The idea is to go to the root of violence which is in our mind. The violence that is conspicuous like that of killing, murdering is also engendered from the mind. In this case the violence is based on being brain washed, either by oneself or by others. If an ideology or a cause becomes more important to us than life itself then we will be ready to die or kill for it. If I am exposed to a particular ideology over and over again and given strong grounds (valid or invalid), I will gamble everything and anything for it.
Terrorism, war etc are all an outcome of such a rigid, fanatic mind. The fundamental question to raise is – ‘is an ideology ever greater than life itself?’ If the answer is affirmative, you already have the dormant seeds of violence. It may only need a stimulating climate to become active.
Ignorant Passivity as a form of violence arises out of narrowness. When a person’s life revolves around only ‘me’ or ‘me and my family’ he/she tends to not understand the larger implications of indirect violence of his/her selfish activities. An example is a man involved merely in amassing more and more wealth lifelong. In his act the man is completely oblivious of how he exploits, extorts, hoards, hurts, encroaches and enslaves others for selfish gains. He justifies his action by calling it a duty. Passive ignorance can be seen in people’s complete indifference to social evils, political evils, value deterioration etc. A selfish person does not move until the wild beast is in his/her house. Such indifference is passive ignorant violence.
Ignorant because he/she does not even know that his/her outlook and actions affect adversely the lives of innumerables that live right with him/her. The motive of this essay is not to propagate non-violence but rather to ask for introspection. To ask if anyone’s life (life of an anonymous child, woman, creature etc) is more significant than the ideology we stand for? To ask, “Am I manipulative?” To ask if one’s action is limited by selfish gains alone? The idea is to closely watch the beginning of violence in our mind. Because only when we ask such fundamental questions and watch the mind with alertness that we really look at the potent violence inourselves and thereby can be free from it. Assuming that we are non-violent is one thing and actually interrogating ourselves through relevant questions is quite another.
Nilesh P Megnani is a professor of philosophy who teaches not just the academics of his subject but the purpose of it to his students. He writes whenever he feel inspired and believes life is workable hypothesis and love, the elusive potion that might transform humanity Connect with on neelvijayalaxmi@gmail.com