In any society, when their pre-adult generation stops questioning, the society becomes stagnant. In Pakistan, our younger generation has been limited to thinking primarily about girls and/or careers and secondarily his/her parents. These priorities however have been defined not by himself/herself but by an external force. (S)he does live in this society but is a victim of elimination from the same society. (S)he gets food to eat, a place to live and some work to do from this same society but (s)he is unwilling to think for the betterment of their society. (S)he thinks only of himself/herself. (S)he prays and attends motivational seminars and do a lot of other positive things but only and only for his or her own self; the others like him/her or worse than him/her can go to hell. (S)he has been made a victim of ‘individualization’. As Iqbal said:
“fard qaim rabt e millat se hai tanha kuch naheen
mauj hai darya mein aur beroon e darya kuch naheen”
“A person exists due to connection/coherence with society/nation,
Alone a person is nothing. Wave is in a river, outside the river, the wave doesn’t exist”.
This stagnation has now rooted itself in dear Pakistan. As a result, the system that is now ruling in Pakistan has made us fall centuries behind the rest of the world. Nations born after us have progressed way ahead. We are still suffering from the lack of basic necessities for all. Our problems are the supply of clean water and an adequate amount of food to every citizen when this should not be the discussion point of a nuclear nation living in a post-industrial revolution world of the 21st century. Something gravely wrong was done along the way.
In this same way, Europe was plunged into Dark Ages for more than a thousand years. How is it that now Europe, an epicentre of stagnation, poverty and cruelty, became the very land to birth the industrial revolution? European lifestyle or Europeanism is based on two broad concepts:
1. Materialism
2. Destitution of religion
Materialism refers to the concept of rewards/punishment occurring in this physical world instead of in the afterlife, or in other words, the concept of ‘karma’ present in this physical world instead justice only being done in the afterlife. (Don’t repeat my mistake: Materialism is not hoarding physical worldly materials like money. That’s Consumerism).
The destitution of religion means the status of religion is everyone’s individual concern. Religion is not a thing to cause or effect any change in any behaviour of any citizen. It is a strictly private matter, between a (wo)man and whoever (s)he believes in if(s)he chooses to believe in anything. If not, again, that’s his/her personal matter and society doesn’t have any role in it. Government can’t prioritize one person based on the other on the basis of religion. This is also called Secularism, which I’ll again mention later.
In the Dark ages, the King, the Landlord and the priest used to collectively practice cruelty on humanity. This cruelty, practised by the Landlord in collaboration with the King, was justified to the populace (victims) by the local priest and pope. The priests told common people of their lands that the cruelty they were facing, the poverty that they were in and the sufferings that they just never seemed to go through, (like this sentence) were ‘bestowed’ upon them by God and that these very sufferings and cruelties would make them superior in the eyes of God, who one day long after their death, would give them wine and women and throw their cruel masters in burning hell. People used to accept this argument. They agreed to their poverty as a blessing from their God. Does this sound similar in Pakistan?
Around the same time of the European Dark Ages was present Hispanic/Spanish Muslim Society. They were advanced in everything at the time. European students would come to study in Spain and go back to their nations and understand the cause of chaos spread in their homeland. They then would understand this concept of Trica (King, Landlord and Priest). And then they begin questioning the supposed ‘blessings’ from God and they challenged the cruelties practised by the Landlord, King and the Priest. And finally, when enough of them begin questioning the “normalization of poverty” around them, Europe broke through Trica and achieved a more stable system with an inclusive society. The industrial revolution took place because questions were asked to the benefactors of the Dark Ages.
Today if someone says that the Molvi is wrong in justifying poverty, he is out-casted by his family and joked among his friends. Scientifically in our country, we gloriously shit controversies on the only Pakistani scientist to get Nobel Laureate Dr Abdus Salam and on the father of Pakistan’s atomic program Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. We have had people maKing aeroplanes from spare stuff (Muhammad Fayaz). However, a state of majorly pause on human thoughts has been carefully imposed by this Trica. To counter this Trica, as a reaction in Europe, the concept of Materialism and Destitution of religion was born. The then European teens/pre-adults rejected the dominance of the church in their daily lives and challenged the positioning of a ‘Holy King’ over their countries. In Pakistan, the holy King is the businessperson who funds political parties and practices crony capitalism. (S)he is given protection by the institutions that (s)he bribes and the Molvi that lives in a servant quarter behind the businessperson’s villa.
The renaissance revolution was the starter of the Industrial Revolution. Renaissance was basically a movement to collect together the works of different Europeans in different fields. Like Iqbal said,
“Magar Woh Ilm Ke Moti, Kitabain Apne Aaba Ki
Jo Dekhain In Ko Europe Mein Tou Dil Hota Hai Seepara”
”But those pearls of learning, those books by our fathers
When we see them in Europe, our heart is filled with grief”
After taking back what was theirs in Renaissance, then Europeans began the industrial revolution. Out of context, however, I would like to add an ironic fact here that the same culture, the tradition and the lifestyle which European students took from us and revolutionized themselves, today we are the biggest enemies of that same culture and education. Today we are the loudest opposers of anyone who tries to modernize our antique culture. The concept of questioning brought about in Europe by the younger generation of that time was learnt in Spain from Muslims. Today the Muslims (bitter laugh)…
In the various lessons learnt and brought to Europe by the cadets of the Dark Ages of Europe was the concept of Liberalism (also known as Rationalism). Today liberalism is taken as Jeans and Tees on all humankind. If you search the term liberalism/rationalism over history, it is the phenomenon of promoting scientific research in all ways of life in society. Liberalism means liberation from the grips of Trica and it incentivizes people to think, research and act themselves instead of following the path of their forefathers. If God made poverty for a single class of society, year after year and decade after decade, what is the logic behind it? Is God stupid? Or is he cruel? Or is this that the God, is made up by my local imam, is an excuse to hide the cruelties played day after day by the Landlord (ministers, bureaucrats, and businesspersons) and King (prime ministers, dictators and presidents)? This is because the imam is a business partner of the Trica. When liberalism questions the poverty in the society, it concludes that this is because of the unequal distribution of wealth in the society, unlike what Imam says that his God blessed us with poverty. In reality, God created this land and the crops, a portion of delicious pasta and a loaf of plain bread, and Beacon House and Khoti Public School for the whole of humanity together. And not for a certain class. This is the unequal distribution of wealth created by the capitalist vultures named under Trica. Liberalism invites mankind to think and find the reason for everything before accepting it. The same is called Rationalism. If you begin to practice questioning, no one will then be able to hijack your brain. Liberalism is not, unlike propagated in our society, a public sex campaign. Liberalism is not giving authority to every boy and girl to be Emraan Hashmi and Nora Fatehi out in the streets. Mera Jism Meri Marzi and Shalwar Utaro Mulk Sanwaro movements (please forgive me, this is the most pseudo-liberal movements that I’ve yet seen) are actually a distraction from the actual meaning of liberalism and from the crucial concept of questioning that is the need of the day. To develop independent thinking capable of questioning based on rationality is called liberalism.
The King, a member of Trica, was dealt with by the introduction of Democracy in Europe. The system of choosing a King was given in the hands of the populace who would be governed by that King. The church, a member of Trica, was dealt with by limiting its authority. Religious scholars were restricted to defend the King or his stooges (President/Prime-ministers/Dictators/Ministers and Bureaucrats) and instead, they were asked to focus on the welfare of humanity by means of spreading goodwill and faith. No person can be superior to any other person based on his religion, no matter if (s)he is following the religion of minority or majority. This is called Secularism.
One key thing here to note is that when I say we should adopt Europeanism, it certainly certainly doesn’t mean adopting European clothes or culture (not that there is anything wrong with it for those who do so, remaining within society’s limits: Don’t practice public sex in Islamabad even if it is done in NewYork/LA/Toronto/the Sweet state of Alabama). To adopt Europeanism means to adopt the points I discussed above: Liberalism, Democracy, Industrialism, and Secularism.
Rationalism has a little broader definition too, besides just being another word for liberalism. Rationalism is actually the study and analysis of everything and anything with the cause and effect point of view in mind. If you develop a practice of thinking rationally while encountering new ideas/things/opinions, you’ll never be brainwashed.
Another key term here is militarism/mechanism. (Don’t commit my mistake: Militarism has nothing to do with the military). These terms refer to the development of new institutions made after the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution made the world move fast because machines are much more efficient than humans. So keeping that in mind, new institutions were formed like the Parliament or the Army or the Justice system. Democracy is the political skeleton that enables people of the land to control the institutions that govern them.
Socialism is the solution of Landlord: A member of Trica. Democracy is the solution of Political Kings and Armed Dictators. Secularism is the solution of all things religious in any society. However, I repeatedly remark that the European revolution had its roots in a different culture and ours, Subcontinent’s, is a different culture. Don’t try to replace this deep-rooted culture. Replace the stagnation of society.
However, before closing, one key thing that Europeans missed was the complete negation of religion altogether. Theirs was rightly so too because their cruelty was coming directly from the Church. However, in the subcontinent, religion is too deeply rooted to be negated. Here in a revolutionized society, religion just becomes a private part of everyone’s life. The tolls of a church bell and the calls of a mosque in a society where Secularism is developed are welcomed. This will further strengthen the society that is made after replacing the current Trica, as compared to the Europe that is now.
Lastly, alienation has been intentionally developed in my generation and is being developed so in the upcoming generations by Trica. Our course books stink individualism. Today’s teenager needs a Sana to accept his Instagram request and Sana needs a Hamayun to see her message and reply back within seconds. Our pre-adults and energy-filled generation are content if ‘Mere Pas Tum Ho’. Their parents want them to be Doctors or Engineers. Thus the whole family, struggling individually, is working to get some gold and a girl laid. This alienated purpose of the teenage generation needs to be solved and rerouted to bring about a revolution. A water droplet inside water stays water, throw the same droplet outside of water and see it perish into non-existence. Similarly, once again:
Fard qaim rabt-e-millat se he, tanha kuch nhi
“A person exists due to connection/coherence with society/nation”
When a society’s youngsters become alienated from their own society, the whole of that community smells of poverty, illiteracy and immaturity. This is the kind of society now in Pakistan. Faiz said decades ago:
Nisaar main teri galiyon ke ae watan, k jahaan
Chali hai rasm k koi na sar utha ke chaley
“I bow to your streets, O my country, where
State law decrees that none may raise their head”.
PAKISTAN ZINDABAD
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