{"id":71453,"date":"2013-01-29T09:53:48","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T09:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=71453"},"modified":"2013-02-02T18:45:54","modified_gmt":"2013-02-02T18:45:54","slug":"the-bigger-thing-is-to-keep-matchstick-in-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-bigger-thing-is-to-keep-matchstick-in-box\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bigger Thing Is To Keep Matchstick In Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span> –<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

It is easy to see ominous signs where there are none.\u00a0 Molehills, after all, are frequently made into mountains.\u00a0 On the other hand, if atom can be made into bomb, we must acknowledge that society is a tinder box and people matchsticks.\u00a0 Few things inspire collective umbrage as assaults on collective identity, perceived or real.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka has enough collectives to make anyone given to rabble rousing on identity-account salivate.\u00a0 It does not take the entire collective to feel wronged.\u00a0 It does not take even a single individual to feel affronted on account of identity.\u00a0 It can take either, but it would also suffice for a few shrew (misguided or otherwise) individuals who know that spark can make a bonfire to gather enough tinder or create it if necessary and put match to it.<\/p>\n

It is glib to say \u2018communities have always lived in harmony\u2019.\u00a0 There have been long periods of peaceful co-existence, but no two communities can claim to have been \u2018always at peace\u2019 except in situations of subjugation, where the \u2018peace\u2019 is obtained at a price and resentment and humiliation go from raging fire to subdued flame to smoldering ember.\u00a0 The truth is that identity matters.\u00a0 It is primary source of meaning, for human beings are cultural creatures; they have language, customs and subscribes to cosmologies.\u00a0 They are frail and therefore vulnerable.\u00a0 Those vulnerabilities are preyed on by identity \u2018others\u2019 as well as identity exploiters.<\/p>\n

In short we are a nation where there are enough red flags around to upset anyone whose identity fixation is capable of transforming him\/her into the proverbial bull.\u00a0 Indeed even a pink flag waved can be seen as \u2018red\u2019 or read as being flaunted in face.\u00a0 That is the downside of identity-fixation and I am not even sure if there\u2019s an \u2018up\u2019 side to it.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t have to be identity either.\u00a0 The smart identity-abuser can dress non-identity issues in ethnic and religious clothes.\u00a0 Bogeymen can be conjured at will.\u00a0 You talk to representatives of either of the \u2018aggrieved\u2019 camps and they would come up with excellent arguments to back their fears and objections.\u00a0 One would think that the articulators are all unblemished on all counts and the \u2018other\u2019 they contend with are pretty odious creatures.<\/p>\n

One thing is clear.\u00a0 The law cannot differentiate among collectives.\u00a0 One thing is clear: no group has the right to take the law into their hands.\u00a0 One thing is clear.\u00a0 If you insult, you hurt and some among the hurt will be angry and of those who are angry there will be some who will retire reason in favor of passion.\u00a0 One thing is clear.\u00a0 It is easy to set fire to things it is a hundred times more difficult to douse the flames.\u00a0 One thing is clear.\u00a0 Pyromaniacs love each other.<\/p>\n

The true test of character and civic responsibility, however, is to desist from making statements and asking questions that could provoke irritation (irritation is spark, first spark; anger is fire).\u00a0 The true challenge is to sift message from messenger, obtain word without letting its religious coloring blur vision. The true responsibility is to ignore the obvious political motivation (it is political, let us not be na\u00efve here) and do what is prescribed in the faith-texts of your choice.<\/p>\n

I am a Buddhist so I will speak as one.\u00a0 Buddhists<\/a><\/span>, since they are the most frequently vilified (we have seen ridiculous and utterly pernicious blanket extrapolation to collective the act of a single or a few individuals), if they feel \u2018wronged\u2019 (on account of sense of identity rather than philosophical conviction, obviously), would do well to take refuge in the twin notions relevant to all engagement: wisdom and compassion.\u00a0 They would do well to reflect on the sathara agathi<\/em> (the four pathways to destruction), namely greed (lobha<\/em>), hatred (dosa<\/em>), delusion (moha<\/em>) and fear (bhaya<\/em>) because they make the vast majority of the population.\u00a0 For when a weak man is afflicted, only a small circle of people are harmed, but when a leader is arrogant, delusional, hateful etc., nations can perish.<\/p>\n

No one can prescribe ways of being to others.\u00a0 We can only self-prescribe.\u00a0 If we are wise and compassionate, there\u2019s less chance of causing harm.\u00a0 We are the atoms that make the bomb.\u00a0 All of us.\u00a0 One explosion can take out the entire nation.\u00a0 One can stop oneself, not anyone else.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation<\/a>\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a>\u00a0.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":44732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Bigger Thing Is To Keep Matchstick In Box - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-bigger-thing-is-to-keep-matchstick-in-box\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Bigger Thing Is To Keep Matchstick In Box - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-bigger-thing-is-to-keep-matchstick-in-box\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-29T09:53:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-02T18:45:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Malinda.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"413\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-bigger-thing-is-to-keep-matchstick-in-box\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-bigger-thing-is-to-keep-matchstick-in-box\/\",\"name\":\"The Bigger Thing Is To Keep Matchstick In Box - 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