Strategic depth that counts

Even our founding fathers identified Pakistan's strategic location as single-most important feature of our existence

Have you ever played any city-building game on your computer or smartphone? There is something addictive about such pursuits because the ultimate kick you get is in the shape of the sense of unlimited power and the god complex. Here you build and destroy lives of countless sims or virtual persons without much regard for their individuality. Imagine now for a second what would happen if almost like the main character of Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World, a faceless, nameless entity escaped the realm of imagination and in your case, reached out to accost you for the reckless decisions you made in the game. Not a very original plot-point I grant you but you will soon see where I am going with this.

The point is that when in power, you often lose sight of your charges’ individuality, often treating them as nothing more than sims or simulated characters. That is where things go horribly wrong. You simply cannot underestimate the potential of human spirit nor overlook the consequences of your actions when you sit in the sanctum sanctorum of power. I am loath to such power and hence will never truly enjoy the idea of politics.

Then there is the problem of ideation. Altitudes of power are not much known for the originality of thought. Creation of ideas takes place at a much lower level. Let us call it the sim level. That is why olden kings used to have commoners and intellectuals in their courts. But when you cannot break the programme of your god-mode and get access to the sim level, you often lose touch with the realities on the ground. Democracy and bureaucracy both exist to make sure that this doesn’t happen. So in theory with a country like ours which is now a democracy and has an elaborate bureaucracy, the creation of ideas and their upward flow should be guaranteed, right? Sadly, no.

There are two reasons why that is not happening. First, because we have never truly invested in creating a critical mass for ideas. What is the quality of scholarship in this country? Where do you go to publish new ideas where they can easily stand out and are not buried deep in the run-of-the-mill stuff? Do our educational institutions just impart knowledge or do they build capacity to think originally? Where the system is broken, attempts to create hopeless romantics give birth to a class of useless snobs. I have not yet quite grasped the efficacy of teaching English literature in our colleges and varsities. What use are the works of Browning, Pope and Chaucer in the Pakistani setting? How will they help me earn a living? And conversely, our attempts to create a class of pragmatists end up in the birth of shallow moneymen, brokers and mindless wheelers and dealers who look down upon the thinking men and women. That actually brings us to the second reason. The struggle between mind and matter in our country was lost and won at the very start. Idea lost, matter won. Consequently, we are a nation of realtors. Even our founding fathers identified our country’s strategic location as the singular most important feature of our existence. In other words, it is the prime property we own. So it was natural then for us to think only of physical attributes when we came across the term ‘strategic depth’. Demolish the wall between your house and your neighbour’s and use his place as a solution for the lack of space in your own. In theory. Since then, you have imported his demons and housed three to four million members of his household.

No, we need strategic depth of another kind. Where intellectual capacity meets prudent opportunity. Where thinking men and women are not wary of dirt under their nails. Where intellect is not bought and sold in the commodity markets at cheap rates, but where intellect is so revered and influential that it can own commodity markets on its own. Like IQ tests, we need some measure of a fascination quotient in this country.

So, you will ask, why now? How can we do this after failing to see its need for our entire life? Simple. Countless opportunities and riches are knocking at our door. And I just had a refresher course in hope as I was pleasantly surprised recently to find thinking men and women in the inner sanctum of Pakistani power with a refreshingly new outlook on life. I say, we have the right set of means and ends at last.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2016.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.