Let’s go back to our childhood nursery rhymes. “Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses, A pocket full of posies; A-tishoo, A-tishoo, We all fall down”. And again, “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again”.
This second rhyme is commonly associated with the defeat in battle of English King Richard III. That was a long time ago. Are there lessons to be learnt from these falls? Can a shattered egg be restored to its pristine form? This is not possible in nature. What about different falls in history?
The most recent are the impeachment and fall from grace of South Korean President Yoon Suu Yeol, who, after his ill-conceived declaration of martial law in the country, was impeached on 14th December in the National Assembly by a vote of 204 to 85.
Just a week earlier, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria had to abandon his opulent palace in Damascus and flee to the protection of his godfather in Russia. The very next day, on 9th December, the long suppressed Syrians raided his palace taking whatever they could lay their hands on.
The scenes were reminiscent of what happened in Sri Lanka as a culmination of the 2022 Aragalaya revolt. In Sinhalese it means “The Struggle”. It was a struggle against the despotic and dictatorial rule of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who then fled to Singapore on 14th July 2022. That’s when his palace too was raided. In due course he was replaced by left winger Anura Kumara Dissanayanke. Subsequently, on 14/11/2024 his National People’s Power party won the parliamentary elections with a 61% vote share.
Earlier, in what was described as the Arab Spring in 2010, a wave of pro-democracy protests swept across North Africa and the Middle East; toppling regimes in Tunisia and the 30-year reign of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt.
Closer to home Bangladeshi President Sheikh Hasina fled to New Delhi on this 5th August after a students’ revolt, with 5 million citizens marching towards Shahbag Square in Dhaka. Notably, in all these revolts, the military establishment chose to side with the people rather than with their leaders.
In contrast, where the military supported the dictators, no movement to bring down the dictators succeeded; as in China, North Korea, Russia and Myanmar. The last has been under the rule of the Military Junta, headed by Gen Min Aung Hlaing, who had detained Aung Sau Su Kyi and usurped power in 2021.
To what extent these uprisings and resultant falls were supported or engineered by outside forces is also something that warrants attention. For example, Libyan dictator Muammar al Qaddafi was killed in October 2011 by NATO forces.
After chasing out Assad, Syria has been pounded on all sides. Perennial bad boy Israel moved swiftly to capture the Golan Heights and destroy the Syrian navy. U.S. and Turkish forces also joined the party! They probably believe in the dictum – kick a man when he is down, so that he may not rise again.
The ignominious fall of despotic dictators is always welcome; though there is also the danger of complete chaos if a viable alternative doesn’t emerge. In that sense Sri Lanka has had a smooth transition while Bangladesh is still in the throes of fundamentalist anarchy.
Going further back in time we come to the greatest “fall” of all, that of our first parents, Adam and Eve, as recounted in Genesis 3:1-7. Though an allegorical account, it is nevertheless rich in meaning. The incident ends with the words “their eyes were opened” (v 7). There is a Hindi saying “Thokar khane se aankhein khulti hai” (when we stumble and fall our eyes are opened).
So how far have these past and recent events opened our eyes to reality and human limitations? Scanning the New Testament I found that the word “fall” in different forms is used 88 times. Of these I found these two of greater significance. “Behold this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel” (Lk 2:34). And again, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12:24).
So a fall is not an end in itself, provided that we learn the lessons from it and bear fruit many times over. For those who are humble and open (not a forte of dictators) a fall can actually be an occasion to rise again to newness of life. So let us take falls and failures as an opportunity for growth. Even the great fall of Adam and Eve is described in the Easter liturgy as Felix Culpa – Oh happy fault that wrought us such a saviour.
One could end with the adage “Pride comes before a fall”. This saying has been inconclusively attributed to King Solomon the Wise, in the 9th century BC. This is debatable, because the “Wise” Solomon became two proud and had to bite the dust like King Richard III.
We may not be children playing in the market place (cf Mat 11:16) but we could learn the lessons from those nursery rhymes. They have great meaning for us. It reminds one of the lines from William Wordsworth’s 1802 poem – the child is father of the man. I end with a responsorial from the old Latin liturgy – Flectamus Genua – Levate (kneel or genuflect, and then arise”.
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