- Some snippets from last year to help us pretend to be sane in a mad, mad world
Last year we’ve been to hell and back, dear reader. And as we prepare for another trip back let us sit back and savour some snippets we’ve culled from our last journey.
Things rotten, Scenarios Bleak
Shakespeare is eternal. Those who read him know this for a fact and those who don’t, believe this as a gospel truth. ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,’ says a character as Shakespeare’s play Hamlet begins. The line by great Bard sets the stage for one of the most intriguing, most thought provoking, most nuanced drama of all times.
And since all good literature is universal. Many of us would have to fight the craving to ‘localise’ the line by replacing Denmark with Pakistan and sum up all that ails our beloved, blighted land.
Let us restrain ourselves from doing that, dear reader, for the hell of it all.
Even in his secular philosophy, Hegel imagines a perfect idea, Marx prophesied a classless utopia, and Nietzsche was of the view that mankind is zilch but a transitory phase before the rule and reign of superman
The ‘E’ factor
Who has seen ‘Establishment’? I, like many others, haven’t. Yet we, the grown folks of Pakistan have heard about its doings, undoings, misdoings all our lives day in, day out. We’ve heard its name in whispers of our elders. We’ve read about its acts in columns of pundits. We know whatever moves is moved by it. Whatever comes to a halt, is because of it and whatever, whoever and whenever something perishes.
We know it exists. And that is it, we only know the ‘who’ bit. What we don’t know are multiple things like its remaining 4Ws (What, Where, When and Why) and 1H (How). We are in the complete, utter dark about where it is, what exactly it is, why it is so mighty and powerful, and how it came to become the enigma it presently is.
The most learned among us say that ‘Establishment’ is a permanent ragtag alliance whose members hail primarily from military and civilian bureaucracy high ups with some elite business magnates, media moguls, select few intellectuals, influential individuals from Pakistani diaspora thrown in the mix as supporting actors.
Let us leave them to their ulterior designs, massive plots, mind-boggling schemes, future planning and intricate war-gaming. And why would we do that? Just for the hell of it all, dear reader, that’s why.
The reign of overly watchful watchmen
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches the watchmen?) asked the Roman satirist Juvenal rhetorically two millennia back. The answer alludes us still. Luckily, the federation of Islamic Republic of Pakistan has constitutionally appointed watchmen. Their Lordships of Big Marble Palace are the highest forum to interpret the law of the land and parcel out justice according to the dictates of the law. Of late, our esteemed watchmen have made it loud and clear that they will take to task those who dared to censure them.
The once silent, solemn and meek Supreme Court, famous for being the second fiddle to the person in power and approver of every incoming dictator, died the moment when CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry raised the banner of defiance against Mush. Chaudhry slayed the monster called Musharraf and, no surprise here, became the monster in his place. Chaudhary’s adrenaline-driven judicial activism remained issueless for three years and found its heir in the shape and guise of CJ Nisar.
And in what has become their signature pick and choose style, they condemn the fall guy while being cowered by the holy cows.
Their reign continues. The hell ablazed.
Some of the mighty special snowflakes
Those who ride the tide of time prosper and ascend. Those who fail to tame it, wither away. And then, as is the case with most things, there is a third category. They are the gentlemen and grand ladies who believe that they have what it takes to turn the tide of time around.
They, dearest sirs and ma’ams, are the special snowflakes. They come in all sizes and colours. There is no bar of religion, ethnicity, or geography. However, they all share a set of trait; belief in their own infallibility and inevitability of their existence for the greater good of their countries.
Hell hath no snowflakes, dear reader.
The sad, bitter visionaries sans vision
Those who predict the future, dearest sirs and ma’ams, are known as seers and sibyls. They know (or pretend to know) how future will unfold, what wars will be fought, who’ll win them, who’ll perish, who’ll triumph and what course humanity and history at large will take.
Every mythology, every religion, every cult, every movement have their seers, in one shape or the other. Even in his secular philosophy, Hegel imagines a perfect idea, Marx prophesied a classless utopia, and Nietzsche was of the view that mankind is zilch but a transitory phase before the rule and reign of superman.
The sad, bitter visionaries know as a gospel truth that the economy is in the gutter, the politicians are either crooks pretending to be saints or sex symbols convincing us that they have mended their ways as they preach us that all that is old is rotten to the core, and the society has turned itself into a dog-devouring-dog cage. The dolled up anchors yell their lungs, evening in, evening out so as to convince us that things are beyond redemption and no matter what we do, they are simply beyond repair.
Hell hath no fury like a people condemned by visionaries sans vision.
