World War III ? [by Sharada]

Wars are fought to establish power and re-instantiate supremacy. During times of uncertainty, a sense of insecurity descends on the people caused due to anarchy or due to perceived depletion of resources. This results in sudden upsurge of rebellion against the “enemy”. It gives way to two or more opposing sides. Once the tension mounts among these sides, a small trigger point, sometimes totally irrelevant to either of the sides gives rise to a full-fledge war.

When the war involves a large number of people and is widespread across vast geographies, it is designated as a World War. So far we have survived two wretched world wars.

There are a lot of prophecies being written on occurrence of a third world war. Each has its own version of the war in terms of how it would be fought or which countries would be involved on which side.

As we live in the fear of eventuality, carefully looking out for any serious tension between two countries and keeping track of every movement of arch rivals, there is a silent movement going on all around us. If we do not pay attention, we might miss it entirely or might underestimate its strength or dismiss it altogether as a passing phase.

This is the silent revolt of the poor against the rich; of the have-nots against the have-alls. With the population of the world rising to an unfathomable number, with the majority of this population struggling to survive due shortage of basic resources on one hand and with the supreme control of resources being handled by a handful of people, with the enormous amount of wealth being enjoyed by a few on the other hand, we have already created an un-bridgeable divide between these two sides.

This is not very different from how the world has been ruled so far. In the past too there have been power-thirsty emperors who have amassed wealth at the cost of their subjects; there have been countries greedy for resources invading their neighbours. However, this time the equations are slightly different. The entire humanity of “Common men” is up against major power houses called “Corporates”. The very corporates whom they had invited whole heartedly into their lives, to whom they had been loyal all their lives have broken their faith. The people are feeling “let down” and “betrayed”.

The corporates have surpassed their boundaries within which they used to operate and are now beginning to control Government policies. They are fast expanding and are controlling every move of the Government and are turning it against its own people.

The anger is all around us to see. The gathering at New York Times Square was a clear warning of the impending war. And this time, it is not localized to any geography or race of people. It is world-wide and there are only two sides – the minority population of ultra-rich and the vast majority of the not-so-rich.

The rebellion has already started. Every regular man is targeting his richer next door neighbor who has been zipping in his expensive fleet of cars while the regular man worked overtime to meet his basic needs. The same regular man who has been looking up to the rich neighbor so far and hoping he would be there one day has different emotions now when he looks at his neighbor. The emotions are getting bolder each day as he starts realizing the futility of his dreams. He starts connecting his lost job to his neighbor’s new chopper; he starts connecting his failed marriage to his neighbor’s flawless botox-ed looks. He silently plots for his revenge.

There is no clear demarcation of good and the bad or the righteous and the evil in this war. This is purely driven by deep, ingrained disparity and bottled-up human vices – that of envy, jealousy, anger, resentment. All this gives rise to intolerance leading to frustration.

We already see the death of tolerance, love and peace in this world. The grossly rich have no empathy towards the poorer countrymen and have no shame in displaying their vanity. The not-so-rich have lost patience and tolerance they had for their fellow countrymen. They have started taking their frustration out against any richer person they come across. This is clearly evident in the recent news of a Belgian man vandalizing expensive cars in his city, not because of any political motive but only out of sheer resentment.

Of course, the rich have power, though small in number, they have control of resources and this can easily curb the rebellion. But the not-so-rich have numbers on their side; they are currently the majority in terms of sheer numbers. Imagine if they all decide to join hands and organize themselves in a war, the effects can be catastrophic.