ROOSTING CHICKENS
Violence is, by and large, a learnt trait. Unlike some of us who are predestined to be aggressive due to certain genetic markers, we are not born violent. The trouble begins when a society rewards violence. Whether it is in the name of justice, us versus them, war on terror or terror after war, skewed version of religion or language, ethnicity, institutional need, patriotism, tribal law, an eye for an eye, Qisas and Diyat or honor, all forms of violence are justified, instead of punishing the criminal. The guilty become the proud cornerstone of history of a mohallah, generation and nation, instead of becoming a reprehensible footnote. The lesson is simple: it’s good to be bad.
The chaos that engulfs Pakistan today is not the invention of a single party or institution, not even the judicial or bureaucratic bourgeois. We did this to ourselves. Or rather, we were never allowed to rise above the myopic, mundane and ruthless. We have been kept ignorant, illiterate, poor, emotional and angry. This is the only way the powers-that-be could remain in control. If we were not told to hate, to suspect and to separate ourselves from The Other, we would never have existed in the first place. And that same arrow was aimed at everyone who was considered a threat to the status quo - a state of affairs decided by an elitist few. So instead of focussing on improving the quality of life of citizens, rooting out cultural evils, investing in the financial autonomy of common people, we were told that lack of constitution was the problem, Bengalis were the problem, military was the problem, so was democracy, socialism, rich-poor divide, India, America, women, larger provinces, Balochis, then Sindhis, then Punjabis, Pushtuns, Urdu-speakers, then Afghans, non-Muslims, lack of values, lack of Islamic laws, madressahs, good Taliban-bad Taliban, clash of civilizations, war in Muslim countries, lack of taxes, abundance of taxes, criminal gangs of political parties, media, corruption, etc. etc. The noise is absolutely mind-numbing, making us nothing more than zombies living a semblance of a life not of our choice, being told that the grass is greener on this or that side, and that good days will come if we believe in the status quo - and the people running it. We begin each new decade with a new theory about nationhood, threats and budgetary concerns. Each year, we are taxed more than the year before, we pay more on bills, we get more frustrated. We keep killing each other. We keep hating each other. And we take that all over the world. No one can say that we are better off than we were seventy years ago. Is the law and order any better? Do we have social justice? Financial equality? Common sense?
We could have been so wonderful. We could have made inroads within the tribal thinking of indigenous populations by making bad cultural truths part of the syllabus and making basic education free for all. Right now, a kid reads one thing and sees quite another in his or her village, tribe, class, gender - and so they do what their elders have done for centuries. We could have focussed on enforcing punishments for crimes - irrespective of whether that crime was done by a rich man or poor, a military man or feudal, a mullah or Ahmedi - and built a sense of fairness where none exists now. Infrastructure and facilities would exist from the Arabian Sea to Hindu Kush and not just a mall road or Cantt. People would be treated with respect in administrative departments that are supposed to serve them. Religion would have been the source of sympathy and personal growth as opposed to fear and intolerance. Muslim scholars would also work as scientists, medical professionals, philosophers, researchers and modern development experts. Artists and literary figures would be cheered upon and allowed to flourish. Had the elitist few really cared about us, they would have invested in the majority of the people instead of pocketing funds for their institutions, ministries, governments. Guess what? We were never a priority. What we could do for them was - not us, not our life or well-being or success. We were never told that quality of life is a right, not a privilege. And we never rose to the challenge.
And so it goes in most of the Muslim World.
So when a young man from an unsettled, under-developed part of the Muslim World massacres citizens of a Western country, he’s snuffing out a life and comfort he never knew. He was simply told that the blame for the weakness of his nation lay outside, not within. True power always stands on the calibre of citizens - the knowledge, empathy and prosperity of the collective majority. Who has time, patience or desire for all that work?
The chaos that engulfs Pakistan today is not the invention of a single party or institution, not even the judicial or bureaucratic bourgeois. We did this to ourselves. Or rather, we were never allowed to rise above the myopic, mundane and ruthless. We have been kept ignorant, illiterate, poor, emotional and angry. This is the only way the powers-that-be could remain in control. If we were not told to hate, to suspect and to separate ourselves from The Other, we would never have existed in the first place. And that same arrow was aimed at everyone who was considered a threat to the status quo - a state of affairs decided by an elitist few. So instead of focussing on improving the quality of life of citizens, rooting out cultural evils, investing in the financial autonomy of common people, we were told that lack of constitution was the problem, Bengalis were the problem, military was the problem, so was democracy, socialism, rich-poor divide, India, America, women, larger provinces, Balochis, then Sindhis, then Punjabis, Pushtuns, Urdu-speakers, then Afghans, non-Muslims, lack of values, lack of Islamic laws, madressahs, good Taliban-bad Taliban, clash of civilizations, war in Muslim countries, lack of taxes, abundance of taxes, criminal gangs of political parties, media, corruption, etc. etc. The noise is absolutely mind-numbing, making us nothing more than zombies living a semblance of a life not of our choice, being told that the grass is greener on this or that side, and that good days will come if we believe in the status quo - and the people running it. We begin each new decade with a new theory about nationhood, threats and budgetary concerns. Each year, we are taxed more than the year before, we pay more on bills, we get more frustrated. We keep killing each other. We keep hating each other. And we take that all over the world. No one can say that we are better off than we were seventy years ago. Is the law and order any better? Do we have social justice? Financial equality? Common sense?
We could have been so wonderful. We could have made inroads within the tribal thinking of indigenous populations by making bad cultural truths part of the syllabus and making basic education free for all. Right now, a kid reads one thing and sees quite another in his or her village, tribe, class, gender - and so they do what their elders have done for centuries. We could have focussed on enforcing punishments for crimes - irrespective of whether that crime was done by a rich man or poor, a military man or feudal, a mullah or Ahmedi - and built a sense of fairness where none exists now. Infrastructure and facilities would exist from the Arabian Sea to Hindu Kush and not just a mall road or Cantt. People would be treated with respect in administrative departments that are supposed to serve them. Religion would have been the source of sympathy and personal growth as opposed to fear and intolerance. Muslim scholars would also work as scientists, medical professionals, philosophers, researchers and modern development experts. Artists and literary figures would be cheered upon and allowed to flourish. Had the elitist few really cared about us, they would have invested in the majority of the people instead of pocketing funds for their institutions, ministries, governments. Guess what? We were never a priority. What we could do for them was - not us, not our life or well-being or success. We were never told that quality of life is a right, not a privilege. And we never rose to the challenge.
And so it goes in most of the Muslim World.
So when a young man from an unsettled, under-developed part of the Muslim World massacres citizens of a Western country, he’s snuffing out a life and comfort he never knew. He was simply told that the blame for the weakness of his nation lay outside, not within. True power always stands on the calibre of citizens - the knowledge, empathy and prosperity of the collective majority. Who has time, patience or desire for all that work?
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