Politics isn't my thing

Donald Trump's kidnapping of Venezuela's president, a la Tamil movie, adds exponentially to the uncertainty of world politics. The precedent will serve as an alibi for other countries like China in Taiwan. The US hasn't still recovered from the backwash of US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan that it commits another misstep. The ruins of the invaded lands are archaeological evidence of American carte blanche.

I usually shy away from writing on politics. Simply put, politics isn't my thing. And there are reasons for it. One I alluded to in the first paragraph — uncertainty. Belief has to be suspended willingly. After all, politics has ended up becoming nightmarish attacks and coups. Privacy trespassed. Safety and security breached whether it is of an individual, community or country. Why would one write certainly on something uncertain? And why should one, when politics is poly tricks?

The facade, the persona, is all that politics builds and blinds us with. What is seen is not there, and what is there is not seen. Jugglery, gimmickry, camouflage. Puppets, puppeteers. Democracy is kakistocracy. Democracy: far the people, off the people, buy the people.

Words, words and words. Form, not content. Content, not meaning. All moonshine. Generalisations. Palmists and politicians talk in future tense. Past is past. Personal opinion versus party statement. Narratives versus gaslighting. Demagogues. Hell is other people. Naani versus pinky peerni. Roosi tractor. Charsi. Patwari. Youthia. Security threat. Leaks: water leak, gas leak and Dawn leaks. Tum hotay kon ho versus you will be sent to the Stone Age! Press conference is to press the conference. 804 is 408.

Benazir Bhutto, Hakeem Saeed, Sultan Rahi, Arshad Sharif dead but their killers deathless. Traitors. Anti-state. Conspiracies. Wordsmith Mohsin Naqvi versus all-rounder Mohsin Naqvi. Dhella corruption. You scratch my name, I scratch yours. Tax the untaxable, and untax the taxable. Barcoded kites versus culture kites. Whine thine, never mine. Fair election, an election fair.

All systems of governance stand politicised. Students don't take interest in studies, as interest is forbidden. Self-interest is the best interest. A political spoon is full of spoonerisms. Vote ko izzat doe, voter ko zillat. Cricketers in politics, politicians in cricket. Roti, kapra, on dukaan. Mujhay kyun nikaala (from country) versus mujhay kyun nahi nikaala (from prison).

Mulki maeeshat patang ki tarah urr rahi hey, only in Lahore, as kite flying is allowed only in Lahore, and that too for a week only. Otherwise, kite flying is banned, so economy is banned too. Hakoomat is haq-ooo-mat. Ooo, ooo!!! Beggars can't be choosers. Choosers become beggars: Pakistani awaam when they choose their rulers. The Nobel Prize for Trump, bestowed by Pakistan. Faustian bargains: Maulana Diesel, Mr 10%, Tosha Khana, Panama Leaks.

Is this the politics one should write about? Do you think you can write what you want? Writing is imprisoned, muffled and stifled when writers write under the fear of being McCarthyismed. Fear — the mantra of "good governance" in Machiavelli's The Prince — dictators' bible. Thucydides defined politics in History of the Peloponnesian War: "The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." Ephemerality of politics is no rival to the permanence of art and beauty or gravity of human misery and pain. Yeats prefers beauty to politics in his poem Politics — a critique of Thomas Mann's 'In our time the destiny of man presents its meanings in political terms.'

Should writing on political subjects be prioritised over writing on social issues, education, language or literature?

CS Lewis, in his essay Learning in Wartime, declares the first enemy of a scholar is excitement — "the tendency to think and feel about the war when we had intended to think about our work." He doesn't imply to bury one's head in the sand amidst the crises. One must complete one's artistic venture, not to be distracted by the surrounding political upheavals. He asserts: "Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun. Life has never been normal."