Humans sway with the slightest hint of emotionalism whichever way they sympathize. When we watch people put inside the coffin or in a tiny box to suffer in films or videos, we go through the same trauma or claustrophobia like the intended victim.
I am talking about the heroine of Kill Bill buried alive in a coffin and the other scene is from The Bridge On The River Kwai where the hero is captured and put in a tiny cell which is like the coffin. The observer also goes through the same kind of trauma, albeit a smaller one.
But imagine going through such stuff in real life and how you would cope with it? The human spirit is much stronger than imagined. People have survived worst case scenarios too. Wars, concentration camps, killing fields, gas chambers, physical torture, ice slabs, solitary confinement and what not. The case of the three women held by the maniac for many years in a farm house speaks volumes.
When we are faced with worst case scenarios we tend to come out stronger and wiser. You can become sympathetic with the cause of the perpetrator too. Just like the killing of Israeli athletics and subsequent kidnap and becoming one with the group called Black Friday in the Berlin Olympics by the young kidnapped victim. The terror groups can brainwash them into their philosophy by citing stories of their own struggle which they can then identify with.
From being a victim, the person can identify with the cause too. Even the story doing the rounds of the internet written by a New York based woman who writes how she now loves her husband dominating her and she being completely submissive enjoys the physical torture and loves being married to such a torturer.
Religion is also responsible to a very great extent in making people believe in their own causes. Religious leaders push down propaganda on to the common man with devastating effect. We tend to identify with the cause and believe in the suppression these religions have undergone.
Hardly corresponding to any of the material worldly truth, it is a biased view of a suffering group of people. We then tend to sympathize and follow their edicts. It’s easy for the opportunist to exploit such a situation and turn you into a greatest weapon for their cause.
So in conclusion, read the signals and don’t fall into the trap of extremism. Be alert at every given point in time. Be neutral and observe just like a witness. Never be a victim.
