Original Article: Daily Times
Date Published: September 27, 2012
Original link: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\09\27\story_27-9-2012_pg3_3
The irony cannot get any greater than this. Trying to establish a system of ‘justice’ by suggesting ‘injustice’ to some, and that too all in the name of a revolution. Kill a few to create a better society. Ignore the basis of law and order by enforcing ‘vigilante justice’ and hope that when your lust for blood is over, the society takes a 180-degree turn out of admiration for your ‘justice doctrine’. There are many who peddle this garbage and it is extremely ironic that perhaps a significant majority believes in this.
When you ask about the ones who will be impacted by such speedy justice and their loved ones, you get the typical childish response: “They deserved it.” From that point onwards, a utopian world is envisioned where everyone would have respect for the law. It reminds me of a jungle, I often say. But the eyebrows are raised and the usual stares follow when I say that human civilisation has evolved and the ‘jungle law’ will backfire too. The stares get uglier. You cannot have a ‘totally clean slate’, where you start anew and make people compliant with whatever ‘norms’ you perceive as ‘right and just’. Societies that justify violence fail to create an appropriate order, no matter what.
A nation so full of rage, incensed and inflamed by any and everything, is truly lost in some wilderness. One can easily deduce that anger and negative energy is pretty much the prevailing commodity in our land of the pure. It can be easily mobilised and geared towards whatever direction is the need of the moment. We are ready, willing and able like robots to charge and discharge that negative energy. Death and destruction is our ultimate goal.
Incidentally, this week, I was going to propose a solution related to the negativity of our nation. Before I could even jot anything down, Friday, September 21, 2012 happened. It was a day full of rage, mayhem, chaos and destruction, sadly very much reflective of our nation’s future. The readers may assume that as a scribe, I have lost my marbles, but I am only reading the handwriting on the wall. It pains me immensely to see and say that we are slipping down the cliff rather rapidly.
Following my thought process of the last few weeks, I had a solution to propose, but with due respect to the readers, I will refrain. Many would laugh at me, a few would be disappointed and I am sure a lot would be relieved as they would not have to see their ugly souls in the mirror. The death and destruction caused on Friday, all in the name of the holiest of the Holy Prophets, Mohammad (PBUH), should give anyone with an ounce of shame left in his body, many shudders. But sadly people are unaffected. Looting, rioting, arson and killing were glorified as an act of rage towards those who insulted our Prophet (PBUH). Need I say more than what a bunch of infants we are?
No amount of anger management therapy can fix our terminal illness. It has seeped into our DNA. The lost generation is glorifying violence and displaying their weaponry as a show of the strength of their faith. One has to be on a different planet to rationalise and justify any form of violence. This is a clear indication we are headed towards a point of no return. So disgusted and ashamed I am that, honestly, I do not have adequate words to display my true feelings.
I ask the learned revolutionaries and the enlightened how do you plan to make a model society based on the goodness of our faith, when people are heavily armed, highly dangerous and utterly illogical? When we are hell bent on the path of self-destruction, how do you invoke any sense in the rowdy and the insane? How do you calm the boiling rage of years of failure? I will repeat: a nation fed on fairytales and imaginary lullabies is bound to fail. We are on the incline and headed towards our ultimate destination of oblivion.
That ‘day of rage’ has truly enraged this scribe from within. I felt that our ideology was on a life alert. Let me correct myself: we as a nation are on a life alert, dead from within, on a high of a lethal superiority complex of the unseen world commonly termed as the hereafter. I said it once before, I will repeat it again. The test of the hereafter begins with this world and the life and legacy we leave behind right here. I would like to ask the people on the throne of the mighty capital what they were thinking. Has any protest related to faith ever been peaceful in our land in the past?
Let me leave those on that throne with a few parting thoughts. Next time around, when you face a situation like this, ask this nation to pray on that day. Fast like your Prophet (PBUH) did. Feed a hungry person. Pay some extra charity. Smile at your fellow neighbour and offer them something to eat. Load some naats on YouTube. Send some Durood and salam to the Holy Messenger (PBUH). Donate a book about him to libraries around the world. Teach our children his virtues of kindness, patience and steadfastness. But maybe it’s all my fault. I am expecting ‘infants’ to act like grownups, which I believe is my utter stupidity, to begin with. We do not need any solutions. We need miracles and I am afraid, I do not have the power to offer some.
(Concluded)
Date Published: September 27, 2012
Original link: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\09\27\story_27-9-2012_pg3_3
The irony cannot get any greater than this. Trying to establish a system of ‘justice’ by suggesting ‘injustice’ to some, and that too all in the name of a revolution. Kill a few to create a better society. Ignore the basis of law and order by enforcing ‘vigilante justice’ and hope that when your lust for blood is over, the society takes a 180-degree turn out of admiration for your ‘justice doctrine’. There are many who peddle this garbage and it is extremely ironic that perhaps a significant majority believes in this.
When you ask about the ones who will be impacted by such speedy justice and their loved ones, you get the typical childish response: “They deserved it.” From that point onwards, a utopian world is envisioned where everyone would have respect for the law. It reminds me of a jungle, I often say. But the eyebrows are raised and the usual stares follow when I say that human civilisation has evolved and the ‘jungle law’ will backfire too. The stares get uglier. You cannot have a ‘totally clean slate’, where you start anew and make people compliant with whatever ‘norms’ you perceive as ‘right and just’. Societies that justify violence fail to create an appropriate order, no matter what.
A nation so full of rage, incensed and inflamed by any and everything, is truly lost in some wilderness. One can easily deduce that anger and negative energy is pretty much the prevailing commodity in our land of the pure. It can be easily mobilised and geared towards whatever direction is the need of the moment. We are ready, willing and able like robots to charge and discharge that negative energy. Death and destruction is our ultimate goal.
Incidentally, this week, I was going to propose a solution related to the negativity of our nation. Before I could even jot anything down, Friday, September 21, 2012 happened. It was a day full of rage, mayhem, chaos and destruction, sadly very much reflective of our nation’s future. The readers may assume that as a scribe, I have lost my marbles, but I am only reading the handwriting on the wall. It pains me immensely to see and say that we are slipping down the cliff rather rapidly.
Following my thought process of the last few weeks, I had a solution to propose, but with due respect to the readers, I will refrain. Many would laugh at me, a few would be disappointed and I am sure a lot would be relieved as they would not have to see their ugly souls in the mirror. The death and destruction caused on Friday, all in the name of the holiest of the Holy Prophets, Mohammad (PBUH), should give anyone with an ounce of shame left in his body, many shudders. But sadly people are unaffected. Looting, rioting, arson and killing were glorified as an act of rage towards those who insulted our Prophet (PBUH). Need I say more than what a bunch of infants we are?
No amount of anger management therapy can fix our terminal illness. It has seeped into our DNA. The lost generation is glorifying violence and displaying their weaponry as a show of the strength of their faith. One has to be on a different planet to rationalise and justify any form of violence. This is a clear indication we are headed towards a point of no return. So disgusted and ashamed I am that, honestly, I do not have adequate words to display my true feelings.
I ask the learned revolutionaries and the enlightened how do you plan to make a model society based on the goodness of our faith, when people are heavily armed, highly dangerous and utterly illogical? When we are hell bent on the path of self-destruction, how do you invoke any sense in the rowdy and the insane? How do you calm the boiling rage of years of failure? I will repeat: a nation fed on fairytales and imaginary lullabies is bound to fail. We are on the incline and headed towards our ultimate destination of oblivion.
That ‘day of rage’ has truly enraged this scribe from within. I felt that our ideology was on a life alert. Let me correct myself: we as a nation are on a life alert, dead from within, on a high of a lethal superiority complex of the unseen world commonly termed as the hereafter. I said it once before, I will repeat it again. The test of the hereafter begins with this world and the life and legacy we leave behind right here. I would like to ask the people on the throne of the mighty capital what they were thinking. Has any protest related to faith ever been peaceful in our land in the past?
Let me leave those on that throne with a few parting thoughts. Next time around, when you face a situation like this, ask this nation to pray on that day. Fast like your Prophet (PBUH) did. Feed a hungry person. Pay some extra charity. Smile at your fellow neighbour and offer them something to eat. Load some naats on YouTube. Send some Durood and salam to the Holy Messenger (PBUH). Donate a book about him to libraries around the world. Teach our children his virtues of kindness, patience and steadfastness. But maybe it’s all my fault. I am expecting ‘infants’ to act like grownups, which I believe is my utter stupidity, to begin with. We do not need any solutions. We need miracles and I am afraid, I do not have the power to offer some.
(Concluded)
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