United Religions Peace-Keeping Organization
17 Oct 2024 15:26:23
‘There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.’ - Oscar Wilde
We are living in a dangerous world and dangerous times
This is an understatement. Today the world is at war with itself. People are not sure what will happen tomorrow. We are living daily in several parts of the world- one day at a time. And we don’t even know why we are fighting and with, whom we are fighting. Most of the trouble is being created by political leaders who are all the time-twisting, creating and painting narratives that suit them. They exploit a common man and fool him into believing what he is being told to do. All this is to remain in power- through votes- get the legitimacy of the people so that no one can question you. With power, they have very powerful state-of-the-art tools. They poison the tip of the arrow with religion- the most potent one at that. Use it or diffuse it with technology, and social media and you have a readymade Molotov cocktail in hand.
In recent times new concepts and scary ideas have popped up. Deep state, mind manipulations, fact-checkers, crowd psychology, mass influence, Deep Web and the Dark Web.
Approximately 90% of all websites are on the deep web, and many are used by entities such as corporations, government agencies, and nonprofits. It is like the ‘Iceberg’ which has most of its mass below water- hence dangerous. What's known as the dark web exists within the deep web; it's an area of the internet that is only accessible by users who have a Tor browser installed. In general, most average internet users will never need to access content on the dark web, although it is perfectly legal to use Tor. Tor is a web browser that lets users access a network that anonymizes web traffic to provide private web browsing. These are also used to communicate stealthily between the agencies trying to fuel the fire.
A common man is therefore getting information and disinformation, news and fake news at such a pace, rapidity and volume that he can be easily confused or moulded in a way you want. From puppet regimes, it is puppetry of Lilliput pigmy people. Social media has tools and algorithms to influence your mind by repeatedly showing you what you want.
What influences the human mind the maximum?
Religion. Yes, religion is something that binds people- it is unconditional faith in one supreme power and people follow it from womb to tomb. Yes, there are occasional shifts or crossovers due to conversions. Religion is something which people are ready to die for and commit any crime against others when there is a religious mob going amok. And then there is no reasoning, no logic and inhumanity hit the ceiling! Crowds often create a sense of anonymity, leading to a loss of personal responsibility. Every man or woman gets emboldened and is ready even to kill in the most gruesome manner.
When a mob mentality takes over there is no looking back at humanity- might is right.
‘Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.’
Friedrich Nietzsche
The bottom line
Man has killed a man in the name of God which no one has seen. Humans kill animals to reach God. Are we crazy? ‘Jannat’ or heaven is a creation of our imagination. I am sure a lion or a wolf does not kill others to go to Jannat. Shangri la is in your mind. With so much ‘convenience’ and comfort that we have created for ourselves, are we not living in heaven already? Which other heaven do you want to go to? This is a moot question. Where is your Shangri la?
A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war, is a war and conflict which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion and beliefs. People of a religion gang up against more tolerant ones to obliterate them.
The mobs in minority
The strength of a mob is in its numbers. When an overwhelming crowd gets at a single person or say a handful of people they can be easily butchered. That is exactly what is happening in Bangladesh. Happened in the Greek War of Independence, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and Pakistan and India.
Certain faiths by design and positioning have evolved on ‘tolerance’ and respect for all. It is their stated position and they say it loud and clear on every platform that they are peace-loving, yet there are who say they are not. Their stand is of convenience. The world knows who is peaceful and who is not- through powerful propaganda by vested interests inside and outside a nation-state some peace-loving religions also get tarnished. Yet net-net the whole world knows and this is discussed widely behind closed doors.
The current situation
Look at Bangladesh, which got freedom from Pakistan due to the Indian Army, air force and Navy backed by Indian government, which by the way is an 80% Hindu state. The fight was between Punjabi Muslims and Bengali Muslims of East Pakistan now Bangladesh.
Now suddenly- of course, engineered thinking- all Muslims (around 90%) are ganging up against Hindus, Christians and Buddhist Bangladeshi citizens who are totally outnumbered. Governments cannot effectively interfere and minorities are left to the wolves. In such situations, even the local law and order machinery breaks down.
A way out
There is a need to create a worldwide organization of religions that declare themselves as ‘peaceful’ and who are ready to live and let live with others. Religious practices remain intact, and you can do what you like but if there is trouble in any part of the world where members of this group being in the minority are attacked by those who are not part of this group a collective action and help will be provided in the area or country impacted. United Religions Peace Keeping Organization or URPKO.
This should be purely an administrative body without involving monks, priests pundits or religious leaders. Keep the idea simple and practical and let it be headquartered in India a secular and peaceful nation with the stated goal of development and harmony. The collective strength of such a group will be a deterrence for rogue mobs which thrive on the strength of numbers.
Operational modalities and nitty-gritty can be worked out
Red cross for minorities in distress
It is good to learn from organizations like ‘The Red Cross’. This also started as a ‘thought’ or an ‘idea’ by a person called Henry Dunant, a Swiss humanitarian, businessman, social activist, and co-founder of the Red Cross. His humanitarian efforts won him the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, there were no organized or well-established army nursing systems for casualties, nor safe or protected institutions, to accommodate and treat those who were wounded on the battlefield. Dunant wrote a book on this shortcoming and approached governments to ask for support and rest as they say is history. The Red Cross is a very respected organization which has chipped in every crisis and provided medical assistance to people in distress.
Today they stand proud as a worldwide organisation with Employees 180,000 employees and 16.4 million volunteers. Dunant got a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in 1901.
The Red Cross has figured four times in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize (1917, 1944, and 1963), as well as in the award to Henri Dunant (1901)
An idea whose time has come- can India do it?
Prime Minister Modi is a respected man across the world and he heads a nation with 1.4 billion people and he has enormous clout with the most powerful leaders. Red Cross was started by a single man, an individual who had little locus standi and in its hundred years of existence it has become a big humanitarian giant. The headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross is located in Geneva and supports its delegations around the world.
India is the ‘Vishwa guru’ and always promotes peace and is synonymous with Hinduism which is synonymous to tolerance and peace. We could be the best bet for starting URPKO which could be housed in Delhi with Indian culture at its heart and soul.
‘There are many wonderful things that won’t be done if you don’t do them’
– Charles D. Gill
We are living in a dangerous world and dangerous times
This is an understatement. Today the world is at war with itself. People are not sure what will happen tomorrow. We are living daily in several parts of the world- one day at a time. And we don’t even know why we are fighting and with, whom we are fighting. Most of the trouble is being created by political leaders who are all the time-twisting, creating and painting narratives that suit them. They exploit a common man and fool him into believing what he is being told to do. All this is to remain in power- through votes- get the legitimacy of the people so that no one can question you. With power, they have very powerful state-of-the-art tools. They poison the tip of the arrow with religion- the most potent one at that. Use it or diffuse it with technology, and social media and you have a readymade Molotov cocktail in hand.
In recent times new concepts and scary ideas have popped up. Deep state, mind manipulations, fact-checkers, crowd psychology, mass influence, Deep Web and the Dark Web.
Approximately 90% of all websites are on the deep web, and many are used by entities such as corporations, government agencies, and nonprofits. It is like the ‘Iceberg’ which has most of its mass below water- hence dangerous. What's known as the dark web exists within the deep web; it's an area of the internet that is only accessible by users who have a Tor browser installed. In general, most average internet users will never need to access content on the dark web, although it is perfectly legal to use Tor. Tor is a web browser that lets users access a network that anonymizes web traffic to provide private web browsing. These are also used to communicate stealthily between the agencies trying to fuel the fire.
A common man is therefore getting information and disinformation, news and fake news at such a pace, rapidity and volume that he can be easily confused or moulded in a way you want. From puppet regimes, it is puppetry of Lilliput pigmy people. Social media has tools and algorithms to influence your mind by repeatedly showing you what you want.
What influences the human mind the maximum?
Religion. Yes, religion is something that binds people- it is unconditional faith in one supreme power and people follow it from womb to tomb. Yes, there are occasional shifts or crossovers due to conversions. Religion is something which people are ready to die for and commit any crime against others when there is a religious mob going amok. And then there is no reasoning, no logic and inhumanity hit the ceiling! Crowds often create a sense of anonymity, leading to a loss of personal responsibility. Every man or woman gets emboldened and is ready even to kill in the most gruesome manner.
When a mob mentality takes over there is no looking back at humanity- might is right.
‘Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.’
Friedrich Nietzsche
The bottom line
Man has killed a man in the name of God which no one has seen. Humans kill animals to reach God. Are we crazy? ‘Jannat’ or heaven is a creation of our imagination. I am sure a lion or a wolf does not kill others to go to Jannat. Shangri la is in your mind. With so much ‘convenience’ and comfort that we have created for ourselves, are we not living in heaven already? Which other heaven do you want to go to? This is a moot question. Where is your Shangri la?
A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war, is a war and conflict which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion and beliefs. People of a religion gang up against more tolerant ones to obliterate them.
The mobs in minority
The strength of a mob is in its numbers. When an overwhelming crowd gets at a single person or say a handful of people they can be easily butchered. That is exactly what is happening in Bangladesh. Happened in the Greek War of Independence, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and Pakistan and India.
Certain faiths by design and positioning have evolved on ‘tolerance’ and respect for all. It is their stated position and they say it loud and clear on every platform that they are peace-loving, yet there are who say they are not. Their stand is of convenience. The world knows who is peaceful and who is not- through powerful propaganda by vested interests inside and outside a nation-state some peace-loving religions also get tarnished. Yet net-net the whole world knows and this is discussed widely behind closed doors.
The current situation
Look at Bangladesh, which got freedom from Pakistan due to the Indian Army, air force and Navy backed by Indian government, which by the way is an 80% Hindu state. The fight was between Punjabi Muslims and Bengali Muslims of East Pakistan now Bangladesh.
Now suddenly- of course, engineered thinking- all Muslims (around 90%) are ganging up against Hindus, Christians and Buddhist Bangladeshi citizens who are totally outnumbered. Governments cannot effectively interfere and minorities are left to the wolves. In such situations, even the local law and order machinery breaks down.
A way out
There is a need to create a worldwide organization of religions that declare themselves as ‘peaceful’ and who are ready to live and let live with others. Religious practices remain intact, and you can do what you like but if there is trouble in any part of the world where members of this group being in the minority are attacked by those who are not part of this group a collective action and help will be provided in the area or country impacted. United Religions Peace Keeping Organization or URPKO.
This should be purely an administrative body without involving monks, priests pundits or religious leaders. Keep the idea simple and practical and let it be headquartered in India a secular and peaceful nation with the stated goal of development and harmony. The collective strength of such a group will be a deterrence for rogue mobs which thrive on the strength of numbers.
Operational modalities and nitty-gritty can be worked out
Red cross for minorities in distress
It is good to learn from organizations like ‘The Red Cross’. This also started as a ‘thought’ or an ‘idea’ by a person called Henry Dunant, a Swiss humanitarian, businessman, social activist, and co-founder of the Red Cross. His humanitarian efforts won him the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, there were no organized or well-established army nursing systems for casualties, nor safe or protected institutions, to accommodate and treat those who were wounded on the battlefield. Dunant wrote a book on this shortcoming and approached governments to ask for support and rest as they say is history. The Red Cross is a very respected organization which has chipped in every crisis and provided medical assistance to people in distress.
Today they stand proud as a worldwide organisation with Employees 180,000 employees and 16.4 million volunteers. Dunant got a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in 1901.
The Red Cross has figured four times in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize (1917, 1944, and 1963), as well as in the award to Henri Dunant (1901)
An idea whose time has come- can India do it?
Prime Minister Modi is a respected man across the world and he heads a nation with 1.4 billion people and he has enormous clout with the most powerful leaders. Red Cross was started by a single man, an individual who had little locus standi and in its hundred years of existence it has become a big humanitarian giant. The headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross is located in Geneva and supports its delegations around the world.
India is the ‘Vishwa guru’ and always promotes peace and is synonymous with Hinduism which is synonymous to tolerance and peace. We could be the best bet for starting URPKO which could be housed in Delhi with Indian culture at its heart and soul.
‘There are many wonderful things that won’t be done if you don’t do them’
– Charles D. Gill