The lull before the storm? …. Aftab Ahmed Khanzada
Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko says: “When the truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.” While Canadian psychiatrist Jordan Peterson writes: “When you have something to say, silence is a lie. We tend to ignore the power of the words because we use them all the time for both meaningful and meaningless things. For example, if you keep silent when something bad happens in front of you, then wrongness becomes part of yourself. Being alive involves being brave so do speak your mind, but also mind your words because they are more powerful than we are taught to believe”.
Today we all are silent and liars, and seem to be dead; everything seems to be dead as though the entire country has turned into a graveyard, where eerie silence reigns supreme.
Horace, while subscribing to the aforementioned situation, says: “Forests change their leaves at the end of the season, making the worn-outs fall.” Perhaps the same is happening with us these days. The real words, the forceful ones have left us forever and what has remained, after the departure of meanings from our life, is noise — the inanities of hollow words. We should accept that our life is ruined, because of the play of certain forces that after polarizing us, have taken away our words, leaving us clueless.
Unfortunately, we can’t revert to our active ways, owing to aging. We have to make do with the existing reality anyhow. And what stages in front of us is nothing but a parade of naked lies and falsehood. As a result, the absurdity is reigning here, creating silence. Because, living beings, without a cause, could only go to the dump of empty words; therefore, to seek meanings in the deafening din is not justified in any way. However, despite the given situation, we need something to rally around so that we can have a change in our lives. Or else, our ruling elite is unable to understand what the majority of people have to encounter for bread and butter in life; they will stay ignorant of the predicament of their poor countrymen because they are inefficient and morally inadequate, and by dint of chance they have had resources and positions. Their days of glory are momentary, and like their predecessors, they are to be consigned to the graves. So before long, they should think over the atrocities being committed against the helpless people of the land.
Will Durant, a great philosopher of our times, writes: “Only one thing is certain in history and that is the fall from the climax. While in life, death is sure to come to every human being and when the inevitable happens, it makes him cry. From his feeble cries emanates the pleas for another chance to rectify his wrongs, done to people during his days of glory. But, another opportunity is not accorded by the divinity that wants him to go to the unknown destination. After that what remains is the album of memories, which are recalled sporadically by people, for whom the departed soul had left no stone unturned in his life. Here it would be pertinent if the lines, inscribed on the epitaph of Alexander the Great, are reflected. Here is lying the man, to whom, once the world was not enough; but now this grave is more than enough.”
In the life of a nation, a decisive moment comes forth, in which, it has to look forward to throwing away the backpack to move ahead that long-awaited moment. Fortunately, that moment has blessed the people of Pakistan, and now they will have to break the traditional shackles forever. With a unified approach, they have left behind the idols of ethnicity, obscurant thinking and provincial preferences. It may seem easier, but it is not so because of the elite capture of the resources. The elite would not let go of things until they are convinced through reason and force. Thus, an awareness campaign needs to be launched for this beleaguered to find its rightful place in the comity of respectable nations. Representatives from every walk of life should sit down and plan for the future in pursuit of this ambitious goal.
Courtesy The Express Tribune, February 21st, 2024.