The Hero Killers

Grim days in the history of the Pakistani nation. We have seen both Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif alone, now its time to see them together. But unfortunately the nation deserves such treatment. It is a self-loathing and self-flagellating nation, sorry to say, suffering from the malign of indifference and zeal of moral cowardice.

The proof of our criminal indifference is in our inability to remember what has happened to us before. We repress our bad memories like some patient in Freudian psychology, let them ferment inside us till the time someone comes along who is willing to give us a chance. Then we shower them with all the pent up bitterness and hatred in us. That is why the discerning leader knows that this nation cannot be given the chance to express itself. It must be kept in drowning in the vortices of its troubles that look like that they have come about of unavoidable circumstances. A self-loathing nation needs a reason to loath itself.

The naive idealist came around with his unpolished skill of nation handling, his black and white thinking and his belief that the nation's future must only be determined by moving in the right direction, he never knew the beauty of status quo. He projected his self-respect on the nation and expected it to understand, how silly of him. A nation that despises itself does not understand the ideal of dignity. A nation that lives for approval does not understand the meaning of right. A nation that thinks with its heart does not understand the meaning of future.

The poet Pirzada Qasim came to our university once and after the public lecture he said in a private gathering of teachers that, "this is a nation of enemies of knowledge", this nation does not just ignore knowledge but actively seeks to defeat it. Knowledge was the only thing that could elevate it and save it from itself.

We as a nation seek catharsis. We need something to burn, something to break and someone to bruise. We will break every idol, we will kill every savior and we will defeat every attempt to enlighten us. We have chosen the life we want to live and no can take that away from us. Grim days are about to come. We are about to enter another era of self-punishment, we are about to enter another dark night.