No Time To Gloat
I have some things to be happy about. The strike is over (and yes there was some violence and destruction of property in Karachi because, apparently, the MQM feel that refugees in Swat don’t deserve aid from Karachi, despite all of the power given them, a party founded by refugees!). After experiencing the hottest May, probably the hottest month, in my life, I now have workable air-conditioning once again in my bedroom. This week there was also a carnival at a beach near my house, so I actually had somewhere fun, close by, and inexpensive to go to at night.
But that’s not why I feel satisfied. I feel vindicated because this recent article in Time (Asia edition): www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1898251,00.html has validated my observations, pin-pointing the problematic mentality itself instead of just laying out another general laundry list of the country’s overall problems. It mentions Dr. Houdboy, a man I deeply respect (I have not talked to him, but I have conversed with his brother at length). And going by what the Pakistani ambassador, after some gentle but well-executed prodding by Jon Stewart, seemed to imply as a guest on the Daily Show last week, it seems that the need for earnest self-criticism may be getting through to some. I’m tempted to gloat, but that won’t solve anything. Instead, I’d like to illustrate my feelings with a parable -
Somewhere, in an isolated kingdom, something strange happened to the water. It contained an undetected chemical that, when ingested, made the drinker gradually lose their sanity. At first it only affected a few people near the well, whom everyone dismissed as village idiots. Then the poor were affected, who were dismissed as lunatics due to starvation. Then the whole kingdom, save for the king, who had his own private water, started going mad. The king warned them not to drink the water, but everyone dismissed him, wondering if he was insane because he was not acting like them or saying the kinds of things they were. Eventually the kingdom totally ignored the king because they decided that he in fact was the crazy one, and they were all sane. Tired of uselessly warning them, having his edicts ignored, and having his sanity called into question, he decided to drink the poisoned water himself. When he eventually became like them, they said: “Ah, the King has finally come back to his senses!”
The obvious meaning is that when you can’t beat them, you join them. Not that you should do this, but simply that this is what people typically end up doing when facing extreme social pressure to conform and not be judged wrong simply because you are different. It means, in a sense, that one’s reality is at least in part socially constructed. And while your senses might be working just fine, and your logic in order, it makes no difference if the majority routinely distort their own reason when it comes to politics (owing much more to psychological and emotional factors, rather than a lack of intelligence or even access to education).
To wit, the ideology of Pakistan has always been very skewed. Thus it’s not a big surprise that the creation of this state has been, overall, a disaster for most people involved (including those it was supposed to help). Zia-ul-Haqq was not entirely to blame, but the seeds his regime planted were so destructive that over 20 years after he was killed Pakistan has not fully recovered, and will likely continue to reap this bitter harvest for decades to come.
Nothing short of a major overhaul of the entire education system is likely to produce long-term results, which is as likely to happen in this country as going a full week without rolling blackouts.
