‘There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.’ - Plato.
While beginning this piece, I was advised by a friend that under the prevailing circumstances, I should try to be as politically correct as possible. It was what General Douglas MacArthur was told to be by President Truman, in one of their exchanges. When Macarthur asked, what being ‘politically correct’ was, Truman replied, ‘that it was a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end.’
We in Pakistan are finding it more and more difficult to be politically correct since we have now begun to run out of ‘clean ends.’ Having stood witness to the affairs of my country and watched each passing phase of a political evolution unfold before my eyes, I do not know whether to be concerned or amused. The former for the obvious effect this political system may have on the future of our nation and the generations to come - the latter, because I, now having lived long enough, relatively insignificantly, can recognise my irrelevance to the future, yet feel entitled to an unqualified opinion.
I am reminded of the famous Shakespearean quote, ‘the evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.’ Our graveyards are so replete with the good that people did – foregone conclusions, forgotten and ignored, and yet this nation remains enveloped in the evil so many others have left behind!! So, one wonders, what will this country look like in another generation, but what would we want it to look like, and these are two very different sentiments – the first, a likely outcome of what we do today, and the second, a dream of what it could have been.
Nations have collapsed in the past; history stands witness to such happenings, but if one looks into it searching for a lesson, one will discover that this is a familiar human story. It is the story of a people who believed, for a long time, that their actions did not have consequences. It is the story of how those people will cope with the crumbling of their own myth. It is our story. Sorry and sad.
We have now reached the dizzying heights of disorder and have established the rule of chaos. Democracy and mobocracy are synonymous in our chosen way of life and preferred system. No rational, nor reason, judicial or administrative application, logic or judgement stand as factors in any equation to affect right from wrong, black from white, in this system.
The line dividing propriety from impropriety is no longer visible, nor does it matter anymore. Individual acts are no longer governed by honour, honesty, a sense of doing the right thing, moral persuasion, or human empathy. We roam the streets either like predators or like those who are the hunted. Might is now effectively right – who you are is far more important than the things you do. Merit is sacrificed at the altar of parochialism, nepotism, or cheap popularity, while every office exhibits a totally clueless, incompetent, and unqualified semi-literate idiot who misuses his authority and causes damage to whatever institution he pretends to represent. Justice is dispensed selectively, if time is found for any dispensation at all, in the first place. It is so shamelessly forgiving to the few undeserving criminals and yet so shamefully and disproportionately punitive to those who are probably innocent and are implicated in exaggerated or false cases.
Consistency in governance is measured by the convenience it offers to the administrator; continuity in routine is only specific to the corruption it lives on. An individual’s security now depends on how far and wide one can avoid and distance oneself from the government, law enforcement, and the justice system. Survival in this country has now become an art performed by communities and individuals, despite the government and in spite of the administration.
It is impossible to tell how fast our society is collapsing because history has been riddled with disinformation, and reality is composed of half-fictions and full of paranoid conspiracy theories. Yet, if nothing changes in the way things are being done now, then this envisaged collapse is not only predictable but highly inevitable. The causes of a societal collapse have always been either economic or moral, but in our case, they are both, and together collectively, which makes it even more ominous.
We need a technocratic government at the provincial and national levels.
Aristotle (384BC-322BC) had feared that the inherent dangers in democracy were, first, the conflict between the aristocracy and the poor, and second, it would usher in corruption. Both processes would lead to collapse unless the separation of powers was enforced. We have arrived there already. The swagger of the insignificant crook as his armed guards follow him is all indicative of this reality.
Polybius (200BC -118BC) asserted that all nations follow a cycle: democracy, oligarchy, dictatorship, tyranny, and collapse. We have managed to arrive at the ‘collapse’ without even sampling the other forms of governance. Are we to be denied basic nationhood, and are we then a failed state even before becoming a state?
Closer to our own times, Ibn Khuldun (1332-1406) stated that dynasties (governments) repeatedly become sedentary, senile, coercive, pompous, and subservient to desire. Group feelings disappear as the dynasty (government) grows senile, and senility is a chronic disease for which there is no cure because it is something natural. Has our society become too senile and indifferent to rise above the status quo?
States do die or disappear occasionally, but mostly they outlive the span of human life. There are moral difficulties in indicting a whole nation, because to do so would be to make the passive majority suffer the acts of the criminal minority and future generations for the sins of their fathers. Are we destined to continue living as such – in the wake of the sins of our fathers, while we suffer the consequences of the phenomenon we are mistakenly living in and sanctimoniously classify as ‘democracy’? The question is, are we dying? Probably we are. Corruption has brought about an economic and moral collapse.
The writer is a retired army officer who has served as the head of Pakistan’s Central Command.
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