I am having a bad feeling about the country that we love. I am having the same intuition which I had during the East Pakistan crisis. Even the recalling of it is proving extremely painful.
For some reason that famous quote of Sir Walter Scott keeps coming back to me regarding the prime human virtue, i.e. courage:
“Without courage there can be no truth, and without truth there can be no other virtue.”
What I am seeing is lack of courage to see the truth of what is happening to Pakistan. And worse, because the truth of the moment is so glaring i.e. what is ruling the roost on the one side is unrestrained plunder and mayhem, and with those who can put an end to this, there seems to be a determined and willful effort to evade the seeing of this truth. For, to see this truth and to then eschew the effort which this shall make incumbent upon the one who has seen it, and avoided consequent action, would be tantamount to cowardice leading to desertion. Better thus not to acknowledge truth, and thus escape the charge of cowardice. Reducing life therefore to a lot of saluting, strutting about the parade ground, and mouthing stirring platitudes about patriotism, would be such a comfortable existence! Staff cars with flags flying, saying “Yessir”, to the senior, looking down with the tail between the legs: and shouting NO to the servile subordinate, and then driving off to golf, and back to a posh residence to be surrounded by adoring loved ones, and then to be served a dinner smelling of freshly committed theft by a bevy of shivering servants!
O’ what a life!
Life without the intrusion of truth, and the need to put one’s courage and higher commitment to test, and living off theft and carrion, must be the ultimate in high living.