The New Order of Hate

SITTING HERE IN New York and looking around me, I can only say one thing: America has changed, and I don’t know if this change is for better or worse. And it’s not about Donald J Trump’s tariffs. It’s a lot more. In all these years of coming to America, I have never seen a country more polarised.

When one heard the news of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, one was amazed how disagreement could transform into such hatred, which caused an assassination. But then, that is what the world has become.

What is the solution? Humanity must pause and reflect on the kind of world we are becoming. Identity is an issue and will remain so, but can identity be more overpowering than basic humanity? Should we allow cultural isolation and insulation to be the defining idea? In the same week, London witnessed massive protests by those who were for immigration and those who weren’t. The irony was not lost when anti-immigration protesters visited the stalls selling Turkish and Indian food.

Can we actually build a world that is no longer borderless? Can we create societies that are harmonious? Or will we now plunge into despair when we see around us people erecting fences, both in their souls and in their communities?

The world doesn’t have a Nelson Mandela or a Mahatma Gandhi today. We have powerful leaders who, for electoral reasons, have decided that they must carve for themselves and their nations an identity that will not welcome so-called outsiders. Remember that America was created by immigrants.

Earlier, we never talked about religion or cultural identity in public, and we certainly didn’t have the kind of angst we have today.

What has really changed? The truth is that hate has overtaken humanity. Love has been replaced by anger and compassion by greed.

In this churning of humanity, we might see more violence. We saw how Israel bombed Qatar in search of Hamas leaders, and in the process, civilians died. Today, civilian casualties are no longer being discussed, be it in Ukraine or in Gaza, because what we are seeing instead is a justification of violence.

What Pakistan did in Pahalgam was no less of a crime against humanity, but then has Pakistan suffered? The answer is no. It did suffer irreparable losses during Operation Sindoor, but that too has passed. To invite a despot field marshal for lunch to the White House was the first sign of a new world order. For Donald Trump, to sup with the devil was, in itself, an indication that there are no rules left in today’s world.

So, when we sit back and look at ourselves as global citizens, the one question that we need to answer is: Do we have a harmonised world left? A world where we celebrate disparities, where we celebrate dissent, and where we celebrate diversity?

We cannot have leaders who fan hatred to the extent that it leads to the deaths of innocent civilians, and as we march along to this so-called new world, we will experience more pain, but that pain will not be only for those families who lose loved ones. It will be felt by us all.

How will you justify the violence that was unleashed and the hatred that was caused to infiltrate every nook of our society? That is something that we need to address with alacrity, because if we don’t do this now, we never will.

This is not a world that is going to heal so easily if we don’t take steps right away.

AmericaDonald TrumpgeopoliticsMahatma GandhiNelson Mandelapolarised world