Violent insularity

Quite bluntly, people do not give a damn as long as violence doesn’t personally affect them, close family/friends.

As one atrocity after another gains prominence at an increasingly frenetic pace, it is profoundly disturbing to note not only an overall lack of interest, but a total absence of any reaction, from the general public at large. This in its own peculiar way is a dangerous symptom of the potentially terminal sickness afflicting Pakistani society, from the ‘highest’ in the land all the way down to the ranks of the poor. Quite bluntly, all, except a minute section of the populace, no longer give a damn as long as it doesn’t personally affect them or their close families/friends. If they ever cared then why would so many innocent people be murdered, raped, kidnapped, robbed, have acid thrown on their faces, or be horrifically burnt or tortured in countless inventive ways? This speaks volumes about the destructively-selfish psyche that has manifested itself over this part of the world in the last couple of decades.

It is easy to blame this disturbing scenario on the sheer volume of ‘incidences’ which occur on a daily basis in one part of the country or another. Still easier is to blame it on whatever circumstances happen to be prevalent at the time. Yet, there is absolutely no denying the fact that ‘man’s inhumanity to man’ is now taken with the proverbial pinch of salt, a shrug of the shoulders and a ‘So what? The victims were strangers to us so it’s none of our business or concern’.

That the victims were Mohajirs, Sindhis, Punjabis, Baloch, Pathans or Kashmiri etc is always pointed out as if someone’s ethnicity is the root cause of whatever unfortunate occurrence has brought them, dead or alive, to public attention –– the fact that they were/are Pakistani citizens rarely enters the equation at all. This underlines just how selfish and unpatriotically insular our society has become. It could well be a multifaceted, highly contagious case of ‘follow my leader’, in that people have blindly followed the bad examples of the endless parade of self-serving, insatiably greedy, corrupt and ridiculously arrogant so-called politicians they have allowed –– yes ‘allowed’ –– to hold the reins of power over the last few years. Or, maybe they learnt this behaviour elsewhere but it came to manifest itself as it is indisputably present and thriving.

Violence begets violence, corruption begets corruption and so on down the line until, as in all ‘civilisations’ they get so afflicted that they get lost in the annals of history or of more recent ilk, they either implode or explode with the same result. Provinces or countries as a whole, fragment into oblivion with, perhaps, just a few tattered remains blowing in the winds of time to indicate that they were once real and not a figment of collective imagination.

If this is what the Pakistanis want, and given the way they are acting, day in and day out, their wish is going to come true –– sooner rather than later.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2012.