By: Latif Jamal
It's difficult to say which global events or incidents can be compared to the current situation in this country. There's no clear understanding of how to relate the increasing political turmoil and chaos here to any specific historical event or catastrophe worldwide. Every day in this country seems like a new spectacle. Instead of engaging in meaningful political discourse, political parties continue to regurgitate words from pre-written scripts. Democracy has turned into the great "fraud" of our era. Someone once said that democracy is "the scientific art of running the entire circus through the monkey's cage." We were only aware of the supposed virtues of democracy; societies like ours, which have mostly experienced dictatorships, saw democracy as a desirable fruit. Little did we know that under the guise of democracy, political revenge and tribal conflicts would persist. Dictatorships may be notorious for their name, but in a so-called democratic system, public reactions or protests are suppressed because they are labeled as anti-democratic actions.
In 1891, when Oscar Wilde criticized capitalism and democracy in his famous essay The Soul of Man under Socialism, writing that "democracy is simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people," we laughed at him. After all, how could a man who authored a classic like The Picture of Dorian Gray be so upset with democracy? While Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray was ignored during his lifetime, it received much acclaim after his death, more so than any of his other works. Before that, he was stigmatized for his homosexuality, for which British courts sentenced him to two years of hard labor in 1895. This imprisonment destroyed his health and ruined his literary career. After his release in 1897, Wilde moved to France, where he lived anonymously until his death in poverty in 1900. After his death, Wilde's writings were revisited, and he was placed among the great literary figures. It seems the world treats extraordinary individuals in this way, as it did with Wilde, as well as with authors like H. G. Wells and Saadat Hasan Manto, who also endured harsh realities.
When Wilde wrote against capitalism and democracy, and even when he received harsh sentences from British courts, Queen Victoria was ruling Britain. Not only were writers like Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle praising her, but so were George Bernard Shaw, Matthew Arnold, and Mark Twain. Wilde, however, was seen as the mad writer, who once wrote that "this queen is the embodiment of public stupidity."
In A Farewell to Arms, a novel published in 1929 and set against the backdrop of World War I, Ernest Hemingway portrays the futility of escaping the horrors of war. Even after a decade, the world couldn't free itself from the destruction of war, as World War II soon followed. The novel tells the love story of Lieutenant Frederick Henry, an American ambulance driver in the Italian army, and British nurse Catherine Barkley. They dream of escaping the horrors of war, but in the end, Catherine dies during childbirth, leaving Frederick devastated. One of the novel's most poignant lines reads, "The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places." This line resonates deeply with the people of this country, who continue to endure after being broken, but never rise stronger.
Neither the country's rulers nor its intellectuals seem concerned about how the public survives such dark nights of sorrow. Political parties, in the name of national reforms and security, continue to lay new traps for each other, perpetuating cycles of conspiracy that only lead to more conspiracies. Was the May 9 incident a reaction from the enraged PTI crowd? Or was it a conspiracy meant to instill psychological fear in the political parties of this country, a plan that largely succeeded, given that political parties have since shown unprecedented obedience? But despite the political leadership remaining in a state of psychological fear, the shadows of fear have not affected the political workers or the general public, who have moved beyond the mental chains that had held them captive for years. If this were not the case, PTI workers wouldn't have found ways to stay connected even during the social media blackout, defying all odds and delivering results that astonished not only major political parties but also the establishment itself.
It’s worth noting that while the PTI leadership has continued to devise strategies to engage with the powers that control the political status quo, the workers remain disillusioned with the current system, yearning for genuine change. But is such change even possible in this country? That remains a big question.
