By Fr Chryso Pieris –

Fr Chryso Pieris SJ

The Soul of a Nation

That a nation has a soul was introduced by Plato in the Republic, in which he stated that the state is infused with a soul that resembles the soul of an individual person. “Must we not acknowledge,” he said, “that in each of us there are the same principles and habits which there are in the State; and that from the individual they pass into the State?” (435E) These principles, he maintained, are reason, will, and appetite.

According to Plato, in a healthy individual, reason directs the soul by orchestrating cooperation between the passions and the will. Accordingly, the healthy individual must possess (1) temperance (rational constraint over the appetites), (2) wisdom (knowledge and prudence), and (3) courage (not being afraid to do what is right).

The healthy state resembles a healthy individual, for in such a state the leader, who leads by reason, is wise. This means that he is knowledgeable and prudent in statecraft, making decisions promoting the welfare of the state and its citizens. The citizens, who represent the passions, are temperate. This means they exercise rational self-control including over destructive impulses such as ones motivated by hatred and blind rage. The military and police, who represent the will, are, in turn, courageous. This includes exercising force to the extent necessary, but no more than necessary. Courage does not mean blind obedience at the expense of endangering national security. Plato intended courage of the military to “exclude mere uninstructed courage, such as that of a wild beast or of a slave. This, he said, “is not the courage which the law ordains, and ought to have another name.” (430B) (Grateful to, Elliot D. Cohen)

The Soul of Sri Lanka

With the above introduction let us engage in a self-knowledge exercise. Did the four centuries and more of subjugation by colonial powers kill off the soul of Sri Lanka? If it did; did Independence recover it? Free Sri Lanka did try to recover its soul. The early leaders of the country, with the meandering journey of a nation, either knowingly or unknowingly, did begin to recover it and showed that it’s not really dead. But by the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties the firm pillars of the Soul of the Nation became shaky. The Platonic Temperance, Wisdom and Courage were getting tampered with. They were becoming weaker and weaker for more than forty years. Finally, the people had had enough, especially the younger citizens with many seniors supporting them. And we have the famous Aragalaya. Aragalaya was the conscience of the nation screaming for the redemption of the Soul of the Nation before it is too late. The happy result is the present dispensation. Is the Soul of our Nation saved?

Clean Sri Lanka

Clean Sri Lanka project is nothing less than the recovery of our Nation’s Soul. It is the rebirth of the Soul of our Nation. This is the deepest meaning of AKD’s project. Clean environment is only the beginning, the Montessori of this project. Citizens must not rest there; they must pass on to clean hands. Hands that do not steal or rob, hands that do not take or give bribes; hands that do not harm or hurt anybody but rather help generously the less privileged; hands that extend brotherhood and peace to each and every citizen of the country and even to the refugee and the foreigner; hands that comfort; hands that heal. And so, we must reach clean minds; minds that do not entertain any racial, religious or linguistic bias and divisions but respect the humanity of everyone; minds that seek truth and protect it; minds that can separate the fake from the real; minds that cannot be deceived easily; minds that are free. Finally, we come to clean hearts; hearts that are not greedy and selfish; hearts that are brave, full of compassion and open to all; hearts that love people, our flora and fauna, every bit of our soil and every drop of our water in this paradise island; hearts that sincerely love Sri Lanka.

Palestinians

Now we come to the first part of this article’s title. There is nobody in the world today suffering more than the Palestinians. The whole world is looking on the tragic erasure of Palestine from the world map. And the world is doing nothing. The people of Palestine are suffering genocide openly and publicly on the global stage. Everybody is watching and not doing anything to stop it. The murderous Israeli vermin, the hatchet men of the USA, go on killing like maniacs, the children and women of Palestine. Their evil aim is that there should not be a next generation of Palestinians.

Every nation in the world has to confront this Grand Obscene International Crime of the century and take a stand. It is a matter of the Soul of that Nation. Either you are on the side of the Israeli mad, murderous monster or on the side of the brave and resilient Palestinians. There are no absentees. Silence is allowing the genocide to continue.

Kudos to South Africa for standing up to the hypocrisy of the West in defense of the battered Palestinians and their destroyed homes and farmlands. Nelson Mandela, their great liberator and leader has given them not only freedom and a nation but also love of the oppressed where ever in the world they are. One is reminded of Che, the lovable revolutionist. While the Israeli Defense Forces were supported and egged on by the Zionist politicians and justified their aggression by their chauvinist intelligentsia; the brilliant exposition by South Africa of their case against the occupation and the genocide perpetrated by the IDF on Palestinians is a remarkable achievement. The West was squirming in their seats in the Hague courts. We proudly salute you South Africa, we are grateful to you for standing up for a sense of justice and humanity in a rotten hypocritical world. You stood by the values and the esteem of the noble Soul of South Africa.

It is shameful to see what Sri Lanka has done in this tragic matter. Ranil Wickremesinghe is a beggar and a bootlicker of the West. He should have at least recalled our ambassador in Tel Aviv in condemnation of the Israeli crimes against Palestinians and against humanity. The laborers from Sri Lanka going to Israel to work for the killers of the Palestinians are indirectly taking part in the genocide. South Africa saved its noble Soul while we seem to be selling our Soul for a mess of pottage, a few low-grade jobs. We are waiting to see what the NPP government is deciding to do about the genocide in Palestine. Will it save the Soul of our Nation? Or were all the pro Palestine rhetoric mere words blowing in the wind?