𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝘿𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙨

Human beings are naturally adaptive. Our brains are adaptation machines. We can get used to anything. That is our greatest strength, and maybe our most terrifying flaw.

Take Jazz, for example. You hate it. You find it chaotic. But your car breaks down, and for a week, you’re carpooling with a colleague who plays nothing but… Jazz. By Wednesday, you’re tapping your feet. By Friday, you’re humming it in the shower. So much for hating jazz. You didn’t choose to like it; your brain just decided it was the “new normal”.

It also goes the other way. When we are oppressed upon, treated badly, we are supposed to have our amygdala give a ‘fight or flight’ response. But in a world of constant overstimulation, we do the exact opposite. We adapt to mistreatment and oppression.

A 16-year-old caught trying to pickpocket on the bus by the people. You’re sitting and trying to make sense of the chaos. People are arguing over what they should do to him. Some of the good samaritans are advising to hand him over to the police; others are finding a chance to deliver a ‘mob justice’. Looking at the kid, he has a lot of scars on his face and body, concluding this is not his first time. It’s a routine for him, even the beatings. None of this will help this kid. Even if he is to be put in a beautiful mansion and provided with whatever he needs, he’ll prefer this. It’s just another job gone wrong; it’s like the same thing you go through in your boss’s room after you messed up the monthly report, just more violent. To him, the violence is normal.

As a community, we’ve seen so much: hammerings, boulders, stabbing, and unthinkable brutality in broad daylight. We, as Bangladeshi people, have gone through such traumatic experiences; common laws don’t really prevent a lot of people from doing horrendous things to others. We’re barbaric, and moreover, we Bangladeshi people can adapt to almost anything. If the punishment for ignoring traffic laws became 100 lashes tomorrow, we’ll talk about it for a day or two. By a week? It would just be “the way things are,” and you’ll see automotive drivers taking it just fine. It’ll be okay.

So what stops us? What makes us retain?? What daunts???