On despondency and frustration

Make as many warnings as you like. Pass as many laws and injunctions as you wish. Outside of science fiction, more often than not dystopian, there is not much those in power can do to control what people think and feel. Sadly for the common citizen, this is not for lack of trying.

The present government cuts an exasperated figure. Faced with criticism that seems to never go away, it has issued what it would like us to think is a word of caution. “Certain inimical forces are hell-bent on spreading dependency and frustration among the people but we will counter this propaganda aggressively,” the government’s top spokesperson announced at a recent news conference. “A fifth-generation war is under way and … [the nation] will rise above political affiliations to counter this aggression,” he declared. Ironically enough, he did so while presenting the government’s two-year performance to the ‘public’ to uphold the ‘essence of democracy’. Readers may draw their own conclusions about that.

Let us return to this talk of despondency. Of late, among many Pakistanis across class differences, there does seem to be an imperceptible sense of dread. Much of it has to do with life post-pandemic as we wish to return to the life we knew. In that Pakistanis are not alone in the world. At least some of it, however, already existed before Covid-19. This year and last have not been kind on many Pakistanis, for one reason or another. Even if we subscribe to all this talk about propaganda and ‘fifth-generation warfare’, despondency can only take root among people if there is reason to be despondent. Governments can try, as many parents in our culture do, to get people to keep depressing chatter to themselves. But all of us ought to know by now that our problems don’t vanish if we bury our heads in the sand.

Perhaps then the government ought to consider a change of approach. Instead of issuing warnings that will inevitably increase frustration, it would be better to examine the conditions and policies that allow despondency to take root. As the cliché goes, treat the illness not the symptoms.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2020.

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