Letter: Controlling others

Krishna Govender of Fairbreeze writes about fear of the unknown: DJ Reed missed out an important point in his last column (November 23) where he spoke about pain being a part of life.

The reality is that most of the pain and suffering in this world is caused by our fellow human beings, sometimes unintentionally.

I think I have found the root of the problem: fear of the unknown.

At first glance we may attribute our cruel behaviour to the love of money and power, but these are merely symptoms of the disease. Since ancient times we have been afraid of uncertainty, because it usually meant death.

So we compensated by taking control of our destiny.

We grew crops and herded animals so that we never ran out of food. We claimed land for our descendants. We constructed grand places of worship and performed elaborate rituals to secure our fate in the afterlife.

However, all was not perfect since we did compete for the same resources.

Things took a particularly nasty turn when we decided to control the destiny of others. We used violence to force others to obey us, slavery and prostitution to turn humans into a commodity.

We turned societies against each other so that entire countries would be easier to control. This concept of control has evolved into the beast that we now live in.

Bullying, assault, rape and murder are all examples of one person being in control of another’s destiny.

Even those of us who think we are innocent are unintentionally supporting companies and governments that exploit workers and the environment.

People have become dependent on an economic model which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, for money and power gives these leaders the ultimate form of control.

Except that it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter how much money and power you have, or how many people you have hurt and intimidated. Death is the great equalizer.

And in our last minutes, we will reflect upon how we have changed the world for the better, or how we have destroyed it along with humanity.