Our wonderful world of delusions

There is something seriously wrong with a society which just can’t bear to be honest with itself. Is that the case with us?

The evidence is overwhelming. All you have to do is to look closely at the discourse, debate and discussion that we have amongst ourselves. Yes we shout and scream, yes we gesticulate wildly and fling accusations, and yes we make for an animated, opinionated lot, but the points of contention usually stay away from the fundamentals of what makes Pakistan, well, Pakistan.

And what does indeed make Pakistan? The ideological debate has raged in books, speeches and even in the courts. Who hasn’t heard of the Jinnah’s Pakistan versus Zia’s Pakistan debate? The good thing is that we have had this debate. The not-so-good thing is that we still have not settled it.

And the worst thing is that now — more than ever — it is not an academic debate. When blood is spilled and citizens are killed; when twisted laws are enacted and millions of lives are impacted; when ideologies are re-manufactured to fit changed political priorities — when all this takes place and a nation is re-branded in an alien image, then clearly the debate has spilled out of the realm of academia and morphed into a grim and grotesque reality.

This reality, in turn, has fathered a new political class. Baked in an oven of intolerance and political turmoil and nurtured in a culture of skin-deep democracy, the politician of today is incapable of controlling the beast that he has made us. He may not have made the mess, but he is unable to clean it up. He would rather ride the wave, than steer it.

And so he lies. He lies because he has been lied to. And when he lies, we lie because truth has come to have dreadful consequences. We all lie to feel comfortable in the bigger lie till we reach a stage where we begin to believe our own lies. And that is when we formally enter the world of delusion.

Delusion becomes us. A delusion that we are the chosen one and the world is out to get us; a delusion that if we just become righteous and good Muslims all our problems will be solved; a delusion that we can progress only if we reject the rest of the world and fight our way to the top; and a delusion that ultimately, we will prevail against the world. And how shall we prevail? Not by our skill and knowledge, not by our economic prowess and cultural strength, not by our empowered citizenry and its progressive leadership — no sir, not by any of these, but by the flame of our faith and the muzzle of our gun.

Delusion-peddling is now a growth industry. It is fanned and nurtured by right-wing nutjobs and their brainwashed minions. Groupthink reigns supreme. Fed on a curriculum that feeds our delusions, children are never taught the power of critical thinking and objective analysis. They thus become cannon fodder for delusion-mongers who lead political outfits and dominate discourse on the media. Lies beget lies and the delusion grows bigger and stronger.

A cruel ambience floats within this delusional world. This ambience encourages us to embrace those who kill us and kill those who embrace us; it prods us to love those who hate us, and hate those who love us. Like zombies, we shuffle along aimlessly, mouths open, eyes open and minds shut. On and on we march behind the delusion-peddlers, reveling in their poisonous rhetoric and drinking from their toxic cups. Like sheep we follow them because we cannot question them. We cannot question them because our minds have not been trained to think critically. Our minds have not been trained to think critically because we have been nourished on lies, and the strength of lies holds true as long as it is not questioned.

So here we are — a society carved in Jinnah’s image and mutated into something delusional, teetering onto the edge of darkness. The lesson cannot be clearer: bred on lies, fed on lies — dead on lies.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2013.

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