Haven’t we become mere objects!

Tolstoy believed there had been moral progress over the past two centuries, but governments had proven to be grossly immoral. Therefore, according to him, the only solution to the problems of the oppressed people of the world is to develop moral courage within them to fight exploitation of the oppressors through non-violence. He says this world is not a laughing place; and neither is the valley of gallows and cord, hanging, nor is it a forerunner of an eternal world — it is itself an eternal reality. This world is beautiful and fascinating. We should make it more beautiful and attractive for those who live with us and for those who will live after us.

In September 1860, great English Novelist Charles Dickens suddenly decided that he must cut all ties with his past, and burnt all letters and other papers. Dickens had an extraordinary sense of the times. The models of human nature, which Dickens presented after struggle of his life, are not found in any English writer other than Shakespeare. His novel, Great Expectation, is a story of people who isolated themselves from society and make their lives a torment. Miss Havisham wants to take revenge from society for her deprivations, but the result is that she is left alone and damnification becomes her nature. In the era of Dickens, the ancient tradition was disappearing a bit faster and people were not only starting to be displaced from the ancient settlements, but men, women and children were becoming non-human due to the industrial revolution and machines of civilisation. In this environment human was becoming a thing. The main feature of the characters in this novel is that they are forced to live in this strange world. They do not talk to each other, but survive through self-talk. Distraught and desperate people live in their own little worlds. Houses rise and fall on their own. No one cares about anyone. Dickens, after a deep study of his society, came to the conclusion that war between people for wealth is the root of all destruction; if lust for money has given wealth and freedom to the upper class, it has provided a source of suffocation, loneliness and anxiety for the poor. Interestingly, even the wealthy are not immune to struggle to accumulate wealth and their life itself becomes a torment.

Shakespeare shows in his play King Lear, that the King does not understand the meaning of life until he goes mad and Gloucester doesn’t see the truth of life until he goes blind. Great philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre calls life a sticky filth that flows and freezes. While Kirk says I was never a child; I never got young; I have never lived; I have never been able to love a human being; how hollow and empty life is? How long will the age of 70 years last? Why should this life be ended immediately?

Isn’t it true that 95% of the Pakistanis today have the same feelings? Isn’t it true that today 95% of the Pakistanis are thinking the same way? Isn’t it true that today we are no longer the characters of the novel Great Expectation? Wouldn’t it be correct to say that today 95% of the Pakistanis agree with Sartre? Save for a few thousand fortunate souls, we in Pakistan barely laugh heartily, have no sorrow and eat to our heart’s content.

When the rich among us, sitting in big chairs, make the bogus claim that the country is developing, inflation is coming down, people are prospering, they should be taken around the dirty settlements in the country where people are yearning and dying. You dear rulers are totally different from us! How can you and we be one! You cannot feel our sorrows and sufferings. You don’t know what poverty and hunger mean. You and we are not the same separate, so please stop this drama. This hypocrisy is now beyond tolerance. Your Pakistan is different from our Pakistan; the colour of your blood is different from ours. You are responsible for all our tragedies, sufferings and hassles; we have become merely objects because of you.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2022.

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