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The gentler perspective

October 31st, 2011 | 4 Comments

Political apathy

By Farahnaz Zahidi Moazzam

Farahnaz Zahidi Moazzam is a freelance writer and editor with a passion for writing. Her focus is human rights, gender issues and reproductive health. She loves blogging, traveling, is a chaai person and a wannabe photographer. Her pet peeve is marginalization on any grounds. She lives in Karachi & blogs here.

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Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy and Gluttony – the 7 Deadly Sins, all found in abundance in the land of the Pure. But while the other six get due, or often undue, attention in our conversations, it is poor little SLOTH that is ignored.

So what is this “Sloth” all about? Laziness and indifference is basically what sloth is all about. Neglect. Apathy. Listlessness. It is closely related to despair….loss of hope, giving up, and disillusionment to the point of indifference. It is about not utilizing one’s talents and true potential. Dante, in his Purgatorio, gives the suggestive portrayal of the penance for sloth (or acedia) as running continuously at top speed. And when a nation plummets into social or political sloth, then the laws of the universe make them run at top speed in any case, but by then it is too late.

Pakistanis are disappointed, rightly so, in the leadership. Corruption, power hungry and selfish leadership, and dishonesty has made us disillusioned. But over time, this disappointment slowly turned into sloth – complacency, which is coupled with futile criticisms but a refusal to do anything about it.

The “Thinkers” in particular have the “abb kuch naheen ho sakta” attitude. We are so disappointed and are so sad about politics being such a dirty game (and there is no denying that it is) that we decide it is better to sit at the sidelines and pass disgruntled statements and patronizing comments about those who still dare to have political leanings.

The easiest thing to do, therefore, is to put EVERYBODY who is into politics under the umbrella term of “corrupt politician” and feel a strange judgmental piety for not being involved with politics ourselves.

It is also connected to being skeptical and being a cynic. But while caution is an intelligent attitude, it amounts to stupidity when we stop believing in anything and anyone at all; worst of all, even in ourselves and the difference we can and should make.

What is dangerous about this attitude is that it does not remain restricted to the people who are in a state of sloth themselves…..it is a contagious illness, and in Pakistan political sloth especially amongst the educated and the intelligentsia has assumed almost epidemic proportions. And those with a still-alive willingness to struggle are made to feel like hopeless idealists who have no connection with reality. The “good luck to you all” is so undermining and dismissive that hope and political leaning seems like the 8^th deadly sin!

The irony of it all is that the most downtrodden sufferers at the hands of political corruption in this country are the masses. Yet, they still go and vote. It is us who are too indifferent to do so. Or maybe too lazy?

If Pakistan’s collective political attitude continues to be punctuated by indifference and laziness, we will become a nation of perpetual complainers. While the elite enjoy hors d’oeuvres and declare at every get together that “this country can never change for the better”, this attitude WILL eventually trickle down from the top of the social pyramid downwards. The educated, the bold and the beautiful from among us can still afford to be apathetic and hopeless, because if not us, then at least our kids can leave this Godforsaken country, right?

But while we sit and ridicule the dumb-witted stupid masses for voting for the same faces each time, give them the credit that so much poverty and suffering has still not made them completely dead and complacent. They still want to and choose to hope. They still do go and cast their vote. We don’t even do that!

If we must do something, then maybe we should help the political process that will give them better choices, then. Be part of a political change and help them make better choices. But don’t just sit on the sidelines and crib about how bleak Pakistan’s future is.

US educational philosopher Robert Maynard Hutchins aptly said that the “death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”

Whatever your political leaning is and whichever leader you vote for, whether it is a rightist or a leftist or a moderate, make a choice. For in making that choice, you would have thought. And you would have argued. And you would have disagreed. Disagreement, argument and thinking – these are signs that something is alive and worth salvaging, whether in a relationship or a country. And Pakistan is so definitely worth salvaging.

Written by Editor

Filed under: Opinion, Politics · Tags: gentler perspective column, PMLN, political gatherings, politics in pakistan, PTI

4 Responses to "The gentler perspective"

BJ Kumar says:

October 31, 2011 at 4:21 am

Writer, you are being too hard on yourself (and indirectly, on all of us!).

Being slothful goes with being desi – it is the way things have been for ages in the subcontinent. We should never forget what we are – like the old saying goes – the kawwa has his way and the swan has his and it works well not if neither tries to emulate the other.

A case can be made that it is not such a bad thing to be lazy. I mean, we have tried the alternative and realized that the lazy way is the better way! I sometimes think that we should not be jealous of Americans and we should not discount the possibility that Americans are (secretly) jealous of us!!

We even invented the game of chess and the most powerful piece is the one which moves the least!

The poets have captured the essence of wisdom in the following phrases:

Kis-kis ko tarasiyegaa, kis-kis ko roiyay>!
Aaaram baDee cheese hai – munh Dhak ke soiyay!

Poets are wise folks! And just imagine – what defines a poet the best? It is not doing things the way of the routine. Not getting up early morning – not working like a dog! (Sadly, for many of us, it is not practical – unless we marry a rich woman!) Some of the best poetry in this world would never have come about unless there were some lazy poets working at it. Good poetry, like good wine, cannot be rushed! And guess what, the subcontinent has produced some fine poets! (Ghalib sahib, Faiz sahib and a few other names jump to the mind – or would have jumped to the mind if they were not poets – poets are not really into that jumping stuff!)

Look at this way – why do people work so hard? It is supposedly to make a lot of dough – for what?

So one does not have to work after that!

Guess what, some of us short circuit the process – we have already reached the end objective!
lady Guinevere says:

October 31, 2011 at 7:09 pm

It would seem that you Pakistani’s didn’t take very long to find out what it took us here in the U.S. much longer to find out; thus…….politics and corruptness go hand in hand. Unfortunately, power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts! We have a wonderful, although not perfect Constitution here. Our First Amendment, the first part being freedom of speech allows the other amendments to exist. The second part of our First Amendment is freedom of religious worship or more importantly, FREEDOM NOT TO WORSHIP, which makes our government secular and therefore not under the chains or influence of a constant changing interpretation of any religious thought.

I am including a quote from the article posted here as it is quite pertinent to many things besides politics. Anything, be it government, a business or even a marriage will suffer and become a loss if it is not nurtured: “US educational philosopher Robert Maynard Hutchins aptly said that the “death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”

People become apathetic when hope is seen to slip away, bit by bit. Unfortunately, most people do not take personal responsibility for their own part in the “loss”, and they cry foul when their house of cards comes crashing down.

Lady Guinevere
rex minor says:

November 1, 2011 at 2:57 pm

Miss Zahidi definitely has a creative style in her writing; too acadamic perhaps. In this article she is addressing the educated and intellectual elites of Pakistan to become pro-active in politics and rescue the democracy in Pakistan in terms of domestic affairs or its relations with others. Her quotes of Robert Hutchins is unnecessary since Pakistan is not yet a full grown democracy in any sense, atleast this is the perception of a foreign observer. Her call to a selected elites of Pakistan minus the political leaders is too little and too late for the restoration of unity among the masses of 180 million heads.

Islam is the stregnth of the Pakistani people and this the author did not refer to. The intellectuals could utilise the knowledge derived from Quraan in order to develope and recommend a new democratic form of administration in the country. Knowledge of the arabic language and arab culture therefore becomes a pre-requisite to understand and research the world of philosophy and science which is contained in Quraan. Not to forget that the prophet of Islam was an arab and the only prophet(pbuh) who before his demise addressed God almighty in an open sermon declaring that he has fully completed his mission assigned to him.
This is not the time to unduly glorify the American democracy which it is not; nor one should overplay the card of corruption and greed for power against politicians which is a common feature of all democracies in the world. Pakistan needs institutions and perhaps the author has in mind to form one from the union of educated and intellectual elites, writers, philosophers and researchers to mobile their their will for the country. May I suggest that Pakistan also needs an healthy media and therefore should not be ignored which is a necessary nourishment for democracy if it is not biased and controlled by the shadowy people of the underworld.

Rex Minor
Can Pakistanis afford to be politically indifferent? – Column in Pak Tea House « chaaidaani says:

March 6, 2012 at 2:50 pm

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