True Stories – Victory
I think the more we read about history and what was done by people in the past, the more we realise that we humans are a very cruel species. But thats not just it. What surprised me more that some stories of cruelty and discrimination did not happen that far back in time, it was just covered up. Covered up neatly so that only one only side of history is highlighted. Only the bad deeds of one side is known to all, propagated by all, condemned by all. There does exist a selective criticism, selective anguish and selective propagation of history and we are responsible for it, we are all victims of it.
today I heard 2 stories. I googled them and verified the facts. First is the Tuskegee syphilis study. Here they were trying penicillin for syphillis in a randomised fashion. For their control arm they took 300 african-americans, gave them syphillis and then did not treat with penicillin. Not one white was enrolled in the control arm. The African Americans were scarred for life with untreated syphillis to the extent that it was transmitted vertically to future generations who get congenital syphillis. This is not in the era of Genghis Khan or Asoka. This is done by the Leader of the Free world, the United states, in the early 1900s. I was so sad hearing it. How can somebody give somebody a disease and watch them suffer from it, while purposefully withholding the drug to treat it. Men women and children, exploited because of the colour of their skin. Just 100 years back we were doing it and thinking it was the correct thing to do, its ok to do that to African Americans.
The second was about the Willowbrooks Hepatitis study. Mentally retarded children housed at the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York, were intentionally given hepatitis in an attempt to track the development of the viral infection. The study began in 1956 and lasted for 14 years. 14 years - they gave mentally retarded children hepatitis and watched them suffer. This is just 50 years back.
The Shiva Trilogy book has a dialogue. " The Devas and Asuras fought each other and the Devas won. Do you think it will the same version of history that you will read had the Asuras won? " - I think that is a very relevant dialogue for the human civilisation. Everybody knows about the Nazi human experimentation, Joseph Mengele and about Hitlers concentration camps and Ghettos. Even the movies propagate it blatantly. But very few people know about blacks being given syphilis and left to die or mentally retarded children given hepatitis to study the behaviour of the disease? Is this because the Germans lost? Are all the history/everything that we read a skewed version propagated by the winner of the situation? Is the American president or the community that allowed children to be tortured, blamed or condemned equally like the Germans or Genghis Khan? I really don’t think so.
It happens today also. Tipu sultan, who raided many a kingdom, who killed his opponents mercilessly, tortured the Hindus, stealing wealth from all temples of Kerala is projected as a Hero by one government because of his extraordinarily valiant efforts against the British while the next Government will change textbooks and cancel holidays claiming he is a tyrant himself. This shows that the history that we read, perceive and believe is what the Government, the people who won and the people in power, wants to propagate. What we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.
Then I came to a knee jerk and biased conclusion that it is not about Germans or Nazis or RSS or Mughals. It is a human thing. Mans never ending thirst for power and dominance will make him do any amount of torture and any amount of murder to whomsoever he pleases, If he is given the opportunity. People might say Hitler was crueller. I think that’s stupid. At a certain level there is no more or less. People who gave even a single innocent mentally retarded child hepatitis virus is as bad as Hitler who led to the murder of millions. There is no more bad, less bad. everyone is equally worse.
This information woke me to the reality of ignorance. We should all keep reading and enrich ourselves. The knowledge we pass along should be that you can very rarely take sides in an ideological battle. you can just take issues one by one and ask your conscience what is right and what is wrong. All establishments, all parties, all countries and all religions have un-removable statins of blood and torture in their hands. Because establishments parties, countries and religion are run by people. And people have agendas. Agendas of power and dominance and nepotism. Conscience compassion and service to the fellow human being, those come much much later.
Happy Dussehra – The celebration of the victory of “Good” over “Evil”
I think the more we read about history and what was done by people in the past, the more we realise that we humans are a very cruel species. But thats not just it. What surprised me more that some stories of cruelty and discrimination did not happen that far back in time, it was just covered up. Covered up neatly so that only one only side of history is highlighted. Only the bad deeds of one side is known to all, propagated by all, condemned by all. There does exist a selective criticism, selective anguish and selective propagation of history and we are responsible for it, we are all victims of it.
today I heard 2 stories. I googled them and verified the facts. First is the Tuskegee syphilis study. Here they were trying penicillin for syphillis in a randomised fashion. For their control arm they took 300 african-americans, gave them syphillis and then did not treat with penicillin. Not one white was enrolled in the control arm. The African Americans were scarred for life with untreated syphillis to the extent that it was transmitted vertically to future generations who get congenital syphillis. This is not in the era of Genghis Khan or Asoka. This is done by the Leader of the Free world, the United states, in the early 1900s. I was so sad hearing it. How can somebody give somebody a disease and watch them suffer from it, while purposefully withholding the drug to treat it. Men women and children, exploited because of the colour of their skin. Just 100 years back we were doing it and thinking it was the correct thing to do, its ok to do that to African Americans.
The second was about the Willowbrooks Hepatitis study. Mentally retarded children housed at the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York, were intentionally given hepatitis in an attempt to track the development of the viral infection. The study began in 1956 and lasted for 14 years. 14 years - they gave mentally retarded children hepatitis and watched them suffer. This is just 50 years back.
The Shiva Trilogy book has a dialogue. " The Devas and Asuras fought each other and the Devas won. Do you think it will the same version of history that you will read had the Asuras won? " - I think that is a very relevant dialogue for the human civilisation. Everybody knows about the Nazi human experimentation, Joseph Mengele and about Hitlers concentration camps and Ghettos. Even the movies propagate it blatantly. But very few people know about blacks being given syphilis and left to die or mentally retarded children given hepatitis to study the behaviour of the disease? Is this because the Germans lost? Are all the history/everything that we read a skewed version propagated by the winner of the situation? Is the American president or the community that allowed children to be tortured, blamed or condemned equally like the Germans or Genghis Khan? I really don’t think so.
It happens today also. Tipu sultan, who raided many a kingdom, who killed his opponents mercilessly, tortured the Hindus, stealing wealth from all temples of Kerala is projected as a Hero by one government because of his extraordinarily valiant efforts against the British while the next Government will change textbooks and cancel holidays claiming he is a tyrant himself. This shows that the history that we read, perceive and believe is what the Government, the people who won and the people in power, wants to propagate. What we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.
Then I came to a knee jerk and biased conclusion that it is not about Germans or Nazis or RSS or Mughals. It is a human thing. Mans never ending thirst for power and dominance will make him do any amount of torture and any amount of murder to whomsoever he pleases, If he is given the opportunity. People might say Hitler was crueller. I think that’s stupid. At a certain level there is no more or less. People who gave even a single innocent mentally retarded child hepatitis virus is as bad as Hitler who led to the murder of millions. There is no more bad, less bad. everyone is equally worse.
This information woke me to the reality of ignorance. We should all keep reading and enrich ourselves. The knowledge we pass along should be that you can very rarely take sides in an ideological battle. you can just take issues one by one and ask your conscience what is right and what is wrong. All establishments, all parties, all countries and all religions have un-removable statins of blood and torture in their hands. Because establishments parties, countries and religion are run by people. And people have agendas. Agendas of power and dominance and nepotism. Conscience compassion and service to the fellow human being, those come much much later.
Happy Dussehra – The celebration of the victory of “Good” over “Evil”
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