Politics of immortality
The writer is a public policy analyst based in Lahore. She tweets @durdananajam
When I sit down to see a morning show or a chat show on a news channel, I want to be amused, know about the personal lives of the characters called upon to attend the shows, learn something about societal changes, and get a pulse of new trends people are following — be it in the fashion industry, sports, cinema or technology. I want a break from the never-ending melodrama surrounding wannabe saviours of the nation. So why do we think that a morning show on a news channel is supposed to be newsy in the typical sense of politics? I remember how editors would love to have human stories amidst the political verbiage of a newspaper.
Unless a politician, a scientist, an industrialist, a professor or a mother is a robot, their lives are bound to be dotted with ebbs and flows, a loss of faith or renewal of new commitments, an awakening to a new realisation, a subliminal understanding of a complex theory, a meeting halfway in life with a completely new emotion, the rawness of which cuts through the fibre of life, tossing one to a new world, to a new context and a lifetime of new learning. Haven’t we become political talkies? Converse with anyone, and in a few minutes, the angle of the discussion changes to a political humdrum. What follows is an onslaught of abuse and accusations for those not on our side of ‘right.’
Even our talk shows are not about the debate on issues.
The job of a journalist is to question. A journalist is on a watch, looking closely at the gaps between the words and deeds of the policymakers, the bureaucracy, and all those who have pledged to take care of the country in return for power ceded to them. It is not easy to be completely unbiased. It is challenging to balance one’s private views with those the public holds, especially when questions are raised about the parties we hold close to our hearts, and for some strange reasons, their problem areas least bother us.
When Ronald Reagan was shot outside the Washington Hilton in 1981, lying on the table, wounded, he chuckled to the medical staff treating him, and said “I hope you’re all Republicans.” Dr Joseph Giordano replied, “Today, we are all Republicans.” Though he was not Republican, he thought, “for this one day I could be one.” Without this spirit to look beyond personal interest, no one can benefit his surroundings, leaving alone the country or the nation. However, in popular politics, wherein lines of likes and dislikes are drawn, the political atmosphere becomes too stifling. It is either my party or not. The ‘otherness’ of politics has taken from us the spectacle of wisdom — the only sight that could delve into the grey areas, which to our dismay are usually many.
In recent years Hollywood movies have shifted away from a hardcore description of brutal realities on earth, on mars or under the water. It is not just shark versus a human being, superman versus a weakling, a tiger versus Tarzan or a fairy tale versus demons. These facts of life are present but around a compassionate and soft heart. The sympathetic shark of Avatar: Way Of Water, the transformation of superman into a protector in Black Adam, and the unwavering faith in the family unit in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania made the otherwise tech-fiction topics live and kicking.
Humans have a strange habit of becoming avatars, messiahs, or even prophets. Some of them have an equally strange habit of creating a messiah, a God, an avatar from others around them. Adam also wanted to outlive his life in heaven. He wanted to be immortal. We all, somewhere in our hearts, do not want an end to this life. That explains the proliferation of anti-ageing cosmetics and medicines and the race against time.
Donald Trump was a failure because he was all about politics. He lacked the finesse of a human being. He wanted to be immortal. Likewise, Pakistan’s politicians fail because they want to be immortal in the power ring. They want to be the supermen and not the protectors.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2023.
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