Breaking the cycle

“Weak men create hard times!

Hard times create strong men,
Strong men create good times,

Good times create weak men,
Weak men create hard times.”

The phrase from a post-apocalyptic novel Those Who Remain by the author G. Michael Hopf sums up a stunningly pervasive cyclical vision of history. No, it may not necessarily be historically accurate or literally true but it sure does make one take lessons. It may be considered as an allegory, conveying meanings on various levels that the reader can understand through an interpretive process. Much like the traditional Ao Naga archetypal generation cycle, Hopf’s phrase is not a sequence but a cycle. After the generation of weak men created ‘hard times’, there will come a generation of strong men who will change the state of affairs. In the Ao Naga generation cycle, it is said that society experiences peace and unity in one generation (Medemsanger) leading to progress and prosperity in the next (Mejensanger) and so on until the cycle is complete, just like in the phrase above. The common denominator here is time. Generations come and go but time remains, dictating the terms and state of affairs. It is this constancy of time that makes or breaks men and will continue to do so as long as the world exists. Time will do the inevitable. Time is beyond and above us. We cannot capture time. The only thing that we can do is learn from history and take corrective measures at epoch making levels. Unfortunately, history suggests that humans across civilizations refused to learn from history that ultimately led to their downfall and demise.

Life has always been hard for us but in the parlance of the above phrase, we can say that life was most difficult during the 1950s. We have had a generation of strong men that braved the adversary against overwhelming odds. They were strong, determined and always fought for creating a better world for generations to come. These strong men sacrificed their all so that their children could reap the benefits and did they reap. Then came the good times. People now had the cushion to sit on and think of other advancements of the society which their ancestors couldn’t even think of. The economic and overall living conditions improved. Modernity dawned. But, this was the time where the generation slowly forgot the struggles their elders and parents had to go through for decades so that their generation could have the luxury to live in “good times.” Quite understandably, the children of that generation – the current generation – are made to go through hard times. We are the most educated generation than any other generation has ever been in our history, but very little do we have to be proud of. We are all living in a time of ‘weak men’. Hard times have befallen upon us. We are a feeble generation that is going to perish very soon, bringing down everything that our ancestors have ever built, paving the way for a very bleak future. Hopefully, these hard times will create strong men who will rise up and create good times all over again, strong men who will wake up from their slumber and build a better world for all generations to come. Strong men rising up – that is the only way we can cheat the ‘code of time’ and break the cycle.