All history is a palimpsest, scraped clean and re-inscribed as often is necessary. Everything fades away into a shadow world in which finally the truth intertwines with the ocean of myths and fantasies. Astronomical figures are plugged in, wherever necessary. The chosen lie passes through an arduous, well thought-out process to enter permanent records and become truth. Humble readers, this is not George Orwell’s dystopian 1984 society, it is Pakistan.
From Muhammad bin Qasims to Ertugrals, this society has no identity. When they get bored of one fantasy, they concoct another one. All it takes is a little direction and guidance, tacit or explicit, from the junta. If you talk about self-righteousness and religious fanaticism, they top the list. If you talk about violence and rape, they top the list, and if you talk about logic, they will burn you on the stake for heresy. All is pure in this paradise of fools. Never have I seen a society so content with its slavery iron neck collar.
How come, religious myths are still a point of contention for us, while the world competes to explore the extraterrestrial. Why is it that Abdus Salams and Eqbal Ahmads are not the role models? Why is it that Rizvis and Jamils, the mullah who sell religion for personal gains, or become part and parcel of junta’s master strategy are our knights in shining armor?
Behold the eyes of the Junta, for they are responsible. Junta, whose primary job is not to reconstruct the past, but to provide people with basic amenities of life, to fulfill constitutional promises with the people, and to uphold the principles laid down in the sacred book of the land. It’s inbuilt righteousness and over-zealousness led us to perhaps the only instance in history, where a majority separated from a minority. Despite the checkered past, it stands tall and proud, making sure that the proletariat never awakens. During my lifetime, the state has constantly waged war against its own people, impoverished people mostly, living in inhumane conditions.
From supplying the citizens with newspapers, information, books, to controlling electronic as well as digital media, from writing the script of every kind of conceivable entertainment to providing lists of good and bad journalists, from selection of songs, slogans and statues to editing of children’s books, they are everywhere, except, perhaps one place they should be. This reminds me of Noam Chomsky’s talk where he lamented that the key element of social control is the strategy of distraction, that is to divert public attention from important issues and changes decided by political and economic elites, through the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information. They have utilized the abuse of technology and social media, a common example of which is a coordinated disinformation and fake information campaign. From Trump to Modi to Khan, this control of media has helped them tighten the noose around our necks.
A polite reminder that big media is owned by the wealthy, who only want us to access certain things. Have you ever come across strong criticism of corporations and military-industrial complex? There is rarely a useful discussion on environmental catastrophes, which by now have become irreversible. The public is not educated about deterioration of democracy worldwide, how autocrats and demagogues have captured the thrones, and how the doomsday clock (for the termination of our species) has already been set into motion. It is simply not profitable to talk about the confluence of crisis under the neo-liberal plague.
If you want to look at how profits govern their strategy, look no further. Study how junta and their cronies have mismanaged the on-going pandemic. By January 2020, they had information of what was going on in China. They downplayed the threat, and countered science with populist myths. Big propaganda media inundated the public. At one point, the government informed the public that it cannot do anything.
As long as the people are apathetic and diverted to the hatred of the vulnerable, and the capitalist policies of the elite, the powerful will do as they please. In face of such vileness, there is nothing more inspiring than to see the struggle of the poor and suffering people, who quietly endure all of this with courage, and a commitment to stand for struggle for justice and human dignity.
But despite all denunciation of the powerful, credit is due where deserved. Somewhere, in the land of pure, a master strategist has played his cards right. People are so entangled in overload of useless and irrelevant information; they cannot even think that they cannot event think. It is an excellent, well- thought out plan to limit the spectrum of thinking of the people. Within the narrow range of permissible thought; ideas, science and innovation are a talk of the mad. And as for those, who would dare sneak out the jail or blast their way, through the iron clad doors, a special kind of hell is reserved. In the words of Eric Blair, “thought crime does not entail death, thought crime is death”
The problems we face do have a solution. Good human decisions can change this. But it requires something from the general population as well. Rather than enjoying a drink from the fountain of purity erected in the power corridors of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, and following the Big Boss’s mantra “don’t question, don’t think,” people need to think that they cannot even think. Truth and reconciliation is needed to rectify mistakes and move forward with a new social contract between the junta and the people. The powerful need to come to terms with the fact that they are the transgressors. Until then, dissent is on the rise with no end in sight.
Global Matters 