What to do with Political Suffering: Solidarity Amid US-Israel-Iran War | Jatin Mathur

 

What to do with Political Suffering: Solidarity Amid US-Israel-Iran War

By: Jatin Mathur

As the world heads towards wars with the US and Israel attacking Iran, humanitarians would certainly be concerned about peace and humanity. Recent geopolitical actions have been depressing to humanitarians, whether it is bombings targeted at civilians in Gaza, not leaving children and sexual exploitation of children by cultural and political elites in the Epstein files or political imprisonment of people across nations. We all have to face this question of what to do with this political sadness? To me (as a sociologist), these incidents might lead to an awareness of the oppressive structures and exploitation of human agency by elites; however, as a human being with empathy, it leaves me with helplessness and hopelessness. I would not say I do not have probable answers or solutions to these concerns, part of the problem lies in the inability to prepare conditions for a solution to work. In my view, the change in social conditions and eventual liberation from political suffering requires a social transformation. The oppressive structures of inequality, the monopoly of capitalism as an organizing logic of the economy, the hegemony of identities (national and religious) on the conscience of society and imperial control of the world's resources must be challenged and changed. Perhaps to some this might come as too rebellious or revolutionary, while others might question the possibility of the same and pose subsequent questions of how it can be achieved.  To those who think that it is too rebellious, I think the disease of indifference has made them numb to pain, and the parasite of consumerism has infected their conscience wholly. The latter if they are not pessimistic and nihilist, who perceive the extent to which humanity has been enslaved by ideological states and market and acknowledge the difficulty of the task, they would agree we are in critical times and need to act. 

Solidarity Against Suffering 

The political and social revolution that I call for seems a distant dream, and geopolitical upheavals leave me with no choice except condemnation of the imperial acts of violence. At the root of this helplessness is the inability to organise people, which I think emanates from the ignorance of people to the structures of oppression. Salar Mohandesi, while pondering over ‘organising in the heart of empire’ asks us who stand against both imperialism and repressive states. But we cannot do everything, and we are now in the midst of war, so what should be prioritised? The answer provided is to create an internationalist movement to which I agree; however, I am yet to come to an agreement on the axis of such internationalist organising. 

I am of the opinion that we must organise ourselves against all forms of oppression. I often spend my time pondering over finding an axis where all egalitarians, humanists and progressives could organise themselves, and it is hard to prioritise one particular political and social goal. This is a herculean task when humanity remains divided into nationalities, religious identities, hierarchy and diverse political goals. I find suffering can be an axis around which we can organise; we must strive to create a world free from suffering.

I do acknowledge that humans beyond formal institutions of inquiry may not have a perspective that an academic enjoys; the cause of their ignorance lies in their surrender to structures rather than access to university. When I say structures, I do not only point towards the macrostructures which work at the level of systems, but rather precede the microstructures of social relationships and how we act in our everyday personal lives. For example, the macrostructure of capitalism may work through large multinational organisations, but it thrives on consumerism and emanates from the desire to own and greed to accumulate, eventually moving towards monopoly. Hence, abolition of such a system precedes an eradication of social relations which reproduces this macrostructure, and this mandates a mental revolution of its kind. It is the ignorance or absence of awareness that reduces reflexive agents into social agents, keeping them slaves of structures. Hence, any contemplation on liberation from political suffering must deal with the psychological realm where it affects an individual, along with the socio-political structures that produce it. The latter might cause oppression, but it's the former that sustains it. Humanists are often misdirected towards this helplessness to act, as they remain oriented to cause, which precedes organisation, rather than efforts at preparing individuals who can actually organise. It is this misorientation that materialises into inaction, leaving us in despair. I would not deny the organising efforts that the civil sphere has produced through social movements, which in some cases also enjoyed electoral power but soon were also neutralised by inadequate leadership and limited political goals. I often wonder why every organising effort against oppression eventually ends up in a despotic leadership or dogmatic philosophy, whether it's revolutionary ideas caught up in individual interests or reflexive philosophies reduced to identities. I think the failure lies in the neglect of consciousness in socio-political struggles and social conditions in individual liberation efforts. Being an advocate for social transformation, I have often complemented it with philosophic insights from Buddha. However, I often find it hard to convince people in social struggles to take up individual reflexive practices like meditation and people engaged in individual efforts of liberation to engage in social struggles. 

Reclaiming the Humanness

I am not the only one who feels this restlessness caused by this political anxiety, but I am also left with suffering when I observe the helplessness. There are ways of feeling unrelated to each other through identities and choosing to ignore; however, that is exactly why the world has become apathetic to suffering. In my view, we must navigate this upsurge of emotions, this anxiety, into agentic efforts of changing ourselves, at one point, we must strive to change socio-political conditions, and at other times, try to find inner peace. Our goal of world peace remains distant until individuals generate inner peace. An individual in socio-political struggle must not be moved by retaliation but compassion for the oppressed. The extent of my despair increases when I see people unmoved or taking exit rather than voicing against injustice. How have we lost our public conscience? I remember while studying social stratification, I came across an association of injustice and dehumanisation, whether it's the minorities across the world, ‘untouchables’ in India or blacks in the global north. One could observe how some individuals are deprived of human dignity, and I remember Paulo Freire when he mentions how the oppressor, too, is dehumanised when it deprives the ‘other’ of equality. I am of the opinion that we have entered into the age where we are dehumanised as a global mass, our public conscience has deteriorated, and we have stopped feeling pain and suffering. Hence till the time we are helpless to materially alleviate the suffering, we must preserve humanness. In these times of crises, where most humans are becoming apathetic to pain and suffering, striving to save humanness is a radical political act. 

I think we must define humanness, or it might also lead to the risk of arbitrary appropriation without a singular meaning. Humanity, I think, must be constituted of (1) Judgemental rationality, which is our ability to differentiate between appropriate and inappropriate, (2) Reflexive conduct, our agential ability to guide our actions and  (3) Compassion, acts of kindness. If it seems complex or abstract, remember the qualities of ‘Prajna’, ‘Shila’ and ‘Karuna’ as constitutive of humanness. Some might consider these qualities as innate, but I consider humans as capable of developing these qualities through practice and insight. We may have the potential to be wise, reflexive or compassionate; however, to materialise those potentials we need learning. 

The Odd Angle 

Systemic suffering can not be reduced to abstract structures; we must see it as fueled by greed, ignorance, hatred and injustice and sustained by limiting an objective insight into suffering. Hence, we need aware and enlightened individuals who can truly transform society without becoming oppressors. The political effort must be substantiated with inner transformation, so that we become someone who resists harm instead of contributing to it. The inner peace helps to keep your conscience from hardening into hate and rage; your concern should flow from compassion.  

This becomes a fundamental shift in the strategy for organising, in my opinion, as individuals are largely reduced to ideological mobs and eventually numbers with a certain political identity. The political suffering we face today, though, is directed by structures of oppression and is conditioned by neglect of individuals in collective struggle. So far, the personal transformation in political struggle is mostly incidental without any conscious effort or transformed individuals who participate a priori in political struggle against oppression. To summarize we not only need personal development of humanness for inner peace, but also it becomes a political tool in a world where organised effort is made to dehumanise. In the end, I would invoke Martin Luther King Jr., for he says, “Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war”.    

(Author is a postgraduate in Sociology and Anthropology from University of Delhi, posts on X:@thejatinmathur)

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