- Things we are good at
The impact lies not in your throat but in your argument. However, this fact is surely an overstatement for denizens of the Indian subcontinent, in general, and Pakistan, in particular. This mindset is reflected not only in our politics but also in our people. Given that verbosity and circumlocution have become our national traits and rhetoric, our overall attitude, all the realms that employ these tools have been affected adversely, religion, politics and journalism being three such examples.
“Brevity is the soul of wit.” While wit is mistaken for sole context of shrewdness and never that of discernment and wisdom, brevity is a concept unknown to many. We cannot expect such a nation to be aware of what brevity is which believes in listening to only those who are gifted with lofty oratory skills and are well-versed in using as many adjectives as possible to describe each phenomenon. And we find it to be completely normal. Before raising any objection to this claim one should peek into the three aforementioned domains as these three completely encapsulate our moral, social and cultural values. Another important point is to acknowledge that generalisations are made on the basis of attitudes and opinions of the masses, not a single social stratum or religious faction.
Let’s begin with religion. Dharna in Faizabad is a recent example and manifestation of what we really expect of our religious scholars and leaders, how we want them to behave and present religion, what we actually demand of religion. It is said in some parts of the world that overemphasis on words results in the loss of seriousness of matter, but this gospel does not find any standing here in Pakistan. We have seen people responding to curses and foul language with SubhanAllah. We have witnessed certain situations in which bearded ardent acolytes jump high to catch their honourable cleric’s cloak. Our remorseful eyes have witnessed a self-proclaimed religious scholar transforming himself, within no time, into a news anchor, game-show host, political analyst, model, and what not. Furthermore, we jump not only vertically but also to conclusions and firmly believe in lynching anyone suspected of committing blasphemy by castigating any of these unreasonable practices in the past or even distant future. It is not that our religion has prescribed us to do all this; no religion can be this irrational. It is all about what we think of and what we want from our religion, or its denominations in the form of sectarianism, to set matters straight. The only question that can arise from the given state of affairs is: Are those sitting on pulpits cognisant of their responsibilities or has the religion been rendered to lengthy one-way sermons, sit-ins and garrulity?
Politics, the next thing we believe we are good at, is basically a barometer to gauge our civic and social sense. But in Pakistan we have caused this discipline to become nothing more than traditional village fairs more commonly known as melas. Just like rural melas provide people with eateries, entertainment activities, shops and games, the political rallies and assemblages organised in our country facilitate party workers and audiences in all these manners; DJs and sound systems that play musical anthems provide adequate entertainment to public while they get amused with highly malfunctioned distribution of meals post-event that feed their bellies on the basis of which our wise voters decide whom to vote for. And how can we forget to mention the main source of entertainment – the speeches. Starting with Oye and ending with Oye Hoye, the speeches delivered by our prominent leaders and other politicians are inventories of all imaginable isomers and variants of all dynamics of politics. Not only that, these pearls of wisdom are manufactories of repetition, redundancy, and needless derision which our people enjoy to the fullest. No one asks “Why is he saying that?”, “What did he do during his incumbency?”, “How serious is he in fulfilling his promises?” because the entire focus is on “Wah! Wah! Kia style hai!”. Our politics has hardly ever been based on substance. It has always been about leaders’ gift of the gab; the one who is better at delivering rhetoric and gesticulating is the winner of hearts. And this does not seem to end anytime soon because it is the fundamental element of instinct that has to undergo the process of evolution so that we could think beyond our short-term, self-serving interests, a plate of biryani and a blue Pakistani currency note to quote two.
The most problematic aspect of this dilemma is that it has become a part of our innate nature, our attitude, our mindset. It does not pest us at all
Finally yet importantly is the fourth pillar of state – media. Its fundamental principle of operation, freedom of speech, is its biggest tool of exploitation as our media houses and personnel have been highly unsuccessful in formulating a practicable constitution for meticulous and responsible functioning. From reporting biasedly to making every twaddle a breaking news, journalism has draped a new definition in Pakistan and that is to repeat and iterate and reiterate an unwarranted claim until it is fully memorised by listeners or is debunked by a rival news channel. Credibility of analysts and reporters is not at all an issue as one channel after the other is ready with open arms to accept the controversial ones because controversy is what wins channels their TRPs. The sole function of many senior as well as junior journalists is to mediate a talk show with a panel of four or five politicians who quarrel and ramble on for an hour; more interesting the feud, the better the show. Why? Because it is public demand. Either people have been trained to watch this or it is what they have always wanted to watch, the truth is the unfortunate reality of disregarding the importance of choosing words wisely.
The most problematic aspect of this dilemma is that it has become a part of our innate nature, our attitude, our mindset. It does not pest us at all. “Brevity is the soul of wit” should not be read as a quotation and forgotten as a saying. As George Burns, a renowned American comedian and writer, says: “The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible.”
