Sunday, October 27, 2013

Not quite modern after all

As humans, we love to criticize the politicians, criticize the relatives, criticize the neighbors and criticize every person whose part of our day to day lives. … So, lately (and quite predictably ) , the victim of  our insatiable need  for  criticism has been our  Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has been facing serious flak for reading off pre-written notes at the joint statement with President Obama instead of speaking extempore . The twiterrati have been up in arms about it, accusing the Prime minister of being childish and under confident. But it’s not paper-reading, or not being articulate in English which measures the maturity of a person’s mind - it’s definitely more complicated than that.

The problem doesn’t lie with one person, but with our society in general, which is like a teenager going through puberty - very emotional, confused and gullible.  We are a confused lot, not knowing whether to adopt the changing trends of the western world, or stick to our historical traditions and (much glorified) cultural values.  We talk about big words like “revolution” and “change” (Tsunami, cough cough), but are we actually willing to take the giant leap?

In the urban cities of Pakistan, modernization is rapidly replacing social traditions.  It is mostly the aftermath of globalization and ever-increasing technology that has enabled us to challenge our customs and take one step further in the march towards a modern Pakistan. But let’s not kid ourselves, dressing up in western attire, or drinking (illegal) booze at a local party proves nothing! This is just a false illusion of “being modern” we create for ourselves… But our little “Hollywood Dream” (as I like to call it) shatters into a million pieces the minute you actually get to know that these seemingly modern people are just a bunch of kids trying to act cool!  Their minds are still too immature to understand and adopt new concepts, and once you pull of the masks of modernism that they proudly flaunt, one can expect the same century old viewpoints from them on contemporary issue.

What can you conclude when these same seemingly modern people go around justifying murder on the accounts of blasphemy, or when these same people hurl abuses at their female classmates and colleagues?   What can you say about their maturity level, when these ‘advocates of modernism’ choose to remain silent spectators, as they watch cold blooded rape become endemic in the country? And yet they talk about “Change” and “Revolution” which themselves seem like big words coming from an infant’s mouth. And let’s not forget about their never-ending conspiracy theories! Everything that goes wrong is this country is either a “bhaarti or a yahoodi saazish

The truth is, we need to pull our act together and grow up! We need to go into the depth and details of things before forming opinions about them.  Grownups take responsibility of their mistakes, and learn from them, rather than pointing fingers and coming up with all sorts of nonsense conspiracies.

Just the other day I saw this meme, showing a girl with a positive pregnancy test having a huge smile on her face hugging her boyfriend who  was far from amused, rather he looked as if he was struck by lightning. This was supposed to be humorous by the way. I dont get it!!!! Why engage in an adult activity, if you’re not ready to handle the consequences like adults? ……. But wait!  Isn't that exactly the same mindset of our “Pakistani modernists” as well?



5 comments:

  1. ohh :) the last paragraph I remember that poor dudes face bechara :D
    by the way all the modern *burger awam* as people call it voted for the change :) I see the change that's coming in and I see the *sher ka shikari* as well

    not to mention our prime minister who jacks everything up and expects everything to change and our people get happy

    *yaaar shukar hai inkay anay say bijli nae jati*

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  2. I agree with what you said in the last paragraph - don't engage in adult activity if you can't handle the results like an adult :)

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  3. Agreed completly,

    “Pretension almost always overdoes the original, and hence exposes itself”
    Hosea Ballou.

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  4. Nice post, things explained in details. Thank You.

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  5. I certainly agree to some points that you have discussed on this post. I appreciate that you have shared some reliable tips.

    ReplyDelete