Can we talk?

If you have got it, flaunt it

Rage - defined as violent anger, frenzy, fury, ire, wrath - is a significant energy source. It fueled the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, and is powering the ongoing protests in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. People in the Arab world are raging at corruption, deprivation, economic mismanagement, human rights abuses, poverty, unemployment and want.

There is no shortage of causes to fume about. If the powers that be control the power that is impermanent, the people have the renewable energy resource of rage.

Research has shown that the human species has experienced rage since the initial stages of evolution. Rage is a mental state that is one extreme of the intensity spectrum of anger. When a person experiences rage, it usually lasts until a threat is removed or the person under rage is incapacitated.

The fight-or-flight response to threatening stimuli shows this. The threats faced in modern society have evolved since the origin of the human race but the fight or flight response remains the same.

Rage can sometimes lead to a state of mind where the individual experiencing it believes, and often is capable of doing things that may normally seem physically impossible.

Anyone in a state of rage is motivated by emotions rather than personal goal. Rage is a positive force when used not for personal gain but for the good of all. That is why, peoples in rage create history.

Rage

Call it what you may - insurgency, rebellion, revolt, revolution, uprising - all takes place as a result of rage. From the French revolution to all what we are witnessing today in the Arab world, is the consequence of rage.

Rage is, and will remain, the common denominator - the motivating factor - for action, for change, for a new beginning.

But, what and when arouses rage? When a people are squeezed into poverty; when the laws of a land is not for all; when some are more equal than most; when a level playing ground is not there for the common man; when the means to a livelihood is by favour; when justice is biased; when crime pays; when honourable men and chaste women have to cringe for crumbs; when the corrupt are amongst the cream of society; when values are debased; when fools rule and the arrogant reign; then will arise rage.

But, this is Sri Lanka - the land of serendipity. Here - even if all of the cause to rage exists - we do not rage. We have replaced rage with bum sucking. We simply try to achieve our aims by copying others. We like to achieve by imitation.

We profess to possess the values of a democratic society, pretend circumspection; but think naught of circumventing the rule of law for profit - monetary or otherwise. Gain is our motive and the means to it is irrelevant. Hypocrisy is our manners.

The search for wealth is our pursuit of happiness. Yet, we lay claim to contain all practitioners of all the great religions of the world - the religions that teach the vanity of worldly wealth.

Values

If we are to truly become the nation that we hypocritically and falsely claim to be; if as a people, we are to lay claim to the real greatness that we as a people once exhibited and possessed; then I would suggest to all our young and old alike: start raging. Do not waste your valuable time by raging against the scum of the earth whose livelihood is the last resort of the scoundrels.

Nature, in its time, will take care of them. But rage against the false and hypocritical values that your near and dear try to impose upon you - the values that, though had a meaning in the time and space of your forefathers, has no real value in the present context.

Rage against the hypocrisy that is perpetrated in the name of religion and by the self appointed saviours of religions. Rage against the denial of your freedom - not the freedom of the wild ass nor that of a lunatic; but that which is your birth right as a Sri Lankan.

Rage against the seeker and payer of bribes; rage against being humiliated by those who are the servants of the public; rage when he who is paid from the moneys you pay as tax, behaves as though he is your lord and master; rage when you see truth being suppressed and falsehood perpetrated; rage when philanderers profess to be philanthropists; rage when men of god behave as beasts. Rage, rage and rage. Rage against all evil.

Then one day, depending upon the intensity of your rage, this lovable land of ours will truly become the livable land - a country where all its people live in peace and harmony; where love and loving kindness rules.

It may seem like a dream to realize this goal. But do remember that dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s problems. Hence, go as far as you can, with your rage. When you get there, you will be able to see further and decide whether to rage or not. Rage: If You Have Got it, Flaunt it.

Until then, keep thinking, keep laughing. Life is mostly about these two activities. See you this day next week.

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