National Paranoia

NATIONAL PARANOIA

Maryam Sakeenah

The Women Protection Act has been hailed with great fanfare, as perhaps this government's greatest triumph to date. Quite possibly, they are right. But to think that this government's greatest achievement is in fact something so flimsy speaks volumes.

Certainly, the Women Protection Act has not been represented flimsily. We had quite enough dramatics, and the government used all means available, especially the media, for its propaganda_ showing the WPA to be a Godsend, an eternal panacea and salvation for women, heroically won over by a team of chivalrous knights against evil-minded misogynistic demons. Watch PTV_ this certainly is the great moral of the story we are all left with at the end.

One needs to assess, however, the true scale of achievement here, if any. What does the WPA promise? What is the deliverance it offers? We are told that the sole greatest factor which makes the WPA a panacea is that it has tamed down and rendered as ineffectual the obscurantist, bigoted, barbaric and inhuman Hudood Ordinance_ that Draconian Law that sent to jail a physically abused woman who appealed for justice, simply because she could not produce four witnesses. It burdened the victimised woman with proof, and in the absence of it, punished her instead. The 'cruelties' of the Hudood Laws, once exposed to the public, left us all shocked. How could this law ever even exist in a civilized society for so long when it was so grossly unfair? What religion allows such blatant injustice to exist? It was only the foreign funded NGOs who sympathised with the women and raised the voice against the evil document.

Reality Check. Charles Kennedy, an American research scholar surveyed and studied the implementation of the Hudood Ordinance and published a report in which he explodes the myth of victims of rape being punished due to lack of evidence. He writes, "Women fearing conviction under section 10 (2) [for adultery] frequently bring charges of rape under 10 (3) (charge of rape) against their alleged partners. The Federal Shariah Court, finding no circumstantial evidence to support the latter charge, convict the male accused under section 10 (2) and the woman is exonerated of any wrong doing." (Charles Kennedy, The Status of Women in Pakistan under Islamization of Laws).

Justice M. Taqi Usmani who has served as Judicial Head for such cases for over a decade writes, "The fact of the matter is that the text of the Hudood Ordinance does not contain in it anything that even comes close to punishing a raped woman for her failure to produce 4 witnesses. However, it is possible that before a case reached the courts, during the investigative procedure, the police committed such an atrocity against a rape victim, going against the laws. That is, arresting a woman for 'adultery by consent' if she brought a complaint of having been raped. However, this has nothing to do with the clauses of the Hudood Ordinance. The police in our society often indulge in such illegal activities. That does not necessitate a change in the law itself. For instance, possessing or smuggling heroin is a crime, but the police often troubles guiltless people, charging them falsely for drug trafficking. This abuse of the law does not mean that the law against heroin smuggling should be abolished. In some very rare cases if the police has been guilty of such manhandling, the Federal Shariah Court has, by issuing its rulings, exposed the matter and brought the woman to justice. If it is apprehended that the Hudood Laws do not clearly distinguish between rape and adultery and punish the raped woman instead, it is perfectly advisable to make a law according to which a complainant of rape cannot be arrested under any clause of the Hudood Laws until the verdict is announced. Any investigation officer who arrests such a victim must be punished by the law."

Orya Maqbool Jan in his article on the issue imagines a situation which may well arise after the WPA is allowed to take its toll. It makes him shudder to think of a town of middle class respectables, where a loose charactered woman settles. She receives lewd callers night and day, audaciously holds dance and drink parties and hordes of lascivious men routinely walk the streets, sending the daughters of the neighbours behind locked doors, making everyone around disgusted and insecure... In such a situation, the residents would have absolutely no way out but to bear it all, or move out, giving the prostitute a free hand to spread the filth unabashedly. Why? Because such cases can no more be reported to the police. One has to directly appeal to the sessions judge, who may or may not call a hearing (according to section 203)_ especially, if he is a believer in 'enlightened moderation'. In fact, it puts the reporter of the crime at risk and in an extremely insecure position, burdened with providing complete, detailed proof_ failing to present which, he must be punished and live in disgrace forever. On the other hand, if such a woman, on the flimsiest pretext, for some ulterior motive or for vengeance on a man who stops her from spreading corruption, reports the man's 'misconduct' with her to the police according to clause 496 A, the police can arrest the man without warrant. He is guilty of an unbailable offence, and will remain in jail for as long as the case is in process. The irony is that no laws are made or ever will be made for those numberless women who die in pain before they can even reach medical aid, who suffer ill health working at factories or kilns from sun up to sun down, who quietly live and die serving their families without getting anything in return, who struggle to get on in extreme, crippling poverty and do not even have the comfort of hope, wishes, dreams or desires. Our laws have no salvation fro them, but only protection for the woman who sells off her sexuality and puts to disgrace her entire sex.

Certainly, the pressing need in order to truly and effectively improve the lot of women and rectify the many social problems we find our society steeped in is to reform the institutions that implement and carry out the letter of the law. Any dispassionate, objective mind can see that the problem is rooted in the police system, the investigative agencies, the inaccessibility of justice and the procedure of the dispensation of justice. The woman suffers at the hand of a corrupt, inept, inefficient and insensitive system. Reforming state institutions, especially the police system is a crying need and would have been an enduring, meaningful achievement. However, the overhaul and rectification of institutions is a formidable, challenging task worthy only of a committed government clear in its welfare-oriented vision. Instead, creating a sensational melodrama between the 'forces of obscurantism' and the 'enlightened' clique and then heroically winning over the servile sycophants in the parliament to produce the euphemistically titled 'Women Protection Act' is easier. It becomes easier and heroic still with a jazzy advertisement campaign all over the media. The nation celebrates the President's loud sympathy for the women of this country. Who cares what really happens on the micro-level in those squatters and jailrooms?

The WPA, at best, is a flimsy achievement. It is misdirected, sidestepping the core issues and making a big deal out of what really is no big deal. I repeat. Our efforts are misdirected, sidestepping the core issues and making a big deal out of what really is no big deal. WPA aside, this is now perhaps the state psyche. What to say of a government which busies itself with launching air strikes on its own territory under foreign dictates, is at war against its own people, and has as its much touted crowning achievements the holding of mixed marathons for 3 successive years, the licences of tehterlessness issued out to zillions of new T.V channels every month and the passing of laws which have their origins in false propaganda and the compulsions of presenting a secular, 'soft' image abroad? What to speak of a nation struggling in the throes of poverty, deprivation, illiteracy, unemployment, abuse of human rights whose rulers celebrate triumphs in the freedom given to the entertainment media and in the introduction of music classes at universities in the teeth of opposition and protest from staff and students? What to speak of a nation in need of developing on its ideological premise laid out by its forefathers whose leaders spend their resources holding high profile International Sufism Conferences, and debate whether schoolchildren should be taught to associate themselves with Muhammad bin Qasim and Mahmud Ghaznavi or with Ashoka and Chandragupta Maurya? What to speak of a nation whose intellectual elite expend their energies thinking of ways to hedge in the teaching of Islamiyat in its narrowest possible scope?

Interestingly, apart from the introduction of Music classes all over universities, recently the authorities were at pains to make happen a mixed dance party at the UET campus, and on the particular night, congratulated themselves loudly at their triumph, speaking against the Muslim veil and expressing delight at having ripped it apart at the successful holding of a ‘historic’ mixed event on the soils of the institution. At the recently done up mausoleum of the Quaid, the government has hired a Sikh and a woman security guard as an apt metaphor of the Quaid’s ‘enlightenedly moderate’ vision, so that anyone coming to pay homage to the leader would be educated on the Quaid’s secular vision. On this backdrop, the ignored, trivialized statements of the Quaid that speak otherwise, become a haunting, tragic encore played to a deaf audience: “How can there be unity of government between areas so widely separated? I can answer that in one word. It is ‘faith’: Faith in Almighty God, in ourselves… the great majority of us are Muslims. We follow the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). We are members of the brotherhood of Islam in which all are equal in right, dignity and self-respect…It is my belief that our salvation lies in following the golden rules of conduct set for us by our great law-giver, Prophet Mohammad (SAW) of Islam… Pakistan not only means freedom and Independence, but also the Islamic Ideology which has to be preserved, which has come to us as a precious gift and a treasure.”

Certainly, those at the helm are pitiably in the grip of a paranoia. It is an anomalous obsession with taking on another identity more 'acceptable' to the powers that be in the world, who can dole out to us our crumbs. It emerges out of a colonized mindset whose identity is smothered by borrowed ideas and a servile awe of the colonizer and his cult. We are a confused nation, utterly clueless about who we are, why we are and what really is so great about being ourselves. Perhaps that is why the Head of State of this country declares to the nation that the vilest and most wicked of our enemies and the scourge of our nation is not poverty, illiteracy, disease, corruption or unemployment, but those obscurantists who foolishly dream of a State where these will no longer come to haunt us. In his address to the alumni of Islamic International University the president ridiculed those who dream of 'creating an Islamic State and talk about going back to the system of the Khilafah of 1400 years ago.' Such is the extent of their backwardness, according to the President. It is relevant to quote here the ideology-setting statement of the Quaid, whom Musharraf proudly claims to have donned the mantle of: “… I am sure that our constitution is going to be of a democratic type, embodying the essential principles of Islam. Today, these are as applicable in modern times as they were 1300 years ago.” The wide rift in ideas between the President and his predecessor gapes uglily, threatening to swallow us up in its directionlessness and blackness.

If only this ruling elite had been taught at school of the edifying glory of the Khilafah State; of how medieval Muslims pulled the world out of its Dark Ages and ushered in an era of positive development in virtually every sphere of life; that it was Al Andalus that left to Europe a rich intellectual legacy that created their Newtons and Keplers who built on the works of Khwarizmi, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Sina and Al Haytham; if only they had known that Khalifa Umar (R.A) who added 44 new territories to the Islamic State, established the economic system so efficiently that there remained not a single person in need of financial aid; that the administrative system he pioneered is an inspiration for statesmen in the 21st century, leading a British historian to say, 'If Islam could produce only one other person of Umar's stature, the whole world would come under Islam;' if only they had known that the Christian patriarch of Jerusalem, on witnessing the advent of the simple yet awe-inspiring Khalifa of the Muslims had remarked, 'Verily, Islam has excelled all religions'; that when Christain rule replaced Muslim rule in a Christian town, the priests came out of their Churches weeping and mourning, swearing on the cross that if they had the power, they would prefer living under Muslims than their own people; if only they had known how oppressed peoples from all over the globe wrote letters to the Khilafah State, appealing to them to liberate them and bring them under their rule... and that our glorious history is so replete with reasons for justified self-pride. If only we who call ourselves ‘modernists’ and take pride in being Harvard returnees or in speaking English with a flair could to the slightest degree, measure up to the great standard of egalitarianism set for us by those medieval Bedouins who lived in Arabia 1400 years ago!

If only we knew that when you stop seeing the worth of the amazing treasury of your past_ the history of the great Rightly Guided Khilafah_ you get plunged into such pitiable ignorance as our great leaders demonstrate. You get plunged into an ignoble subservience that becomes national character, crippling us, enslaving us perpetually and eroding the very roots of our existence.

In this crippled, stunted condition, there can be no positive development unless a direction close to our identity and roots is ascertained. Yet we only fight battles to wrench ourselves away from this direction, towards an alien idea, a goal not our own_ borrowed, imposed, extraneous. We are directionless, identityless, ignorant of our own selves. On this road, there is no enduring progress ever in sight as it runs counter to the essence of our being. On this road, there is only one end in sight_ a perpetual war against our own identity which has no winners and ends up only in the end of our existence. On this road_ this direction mapped out by an alien hand_ failure is destined. It is only a matter of time.

Learning to Sacrifice

LEARNING TO SACRIFICE

Maryam Sakeenah

“I will go where no road goes and the road shall go with me”.

For some reason, when I first came across this verse by Joscelyn Ortt, it occurred to me how remarkably it fitted in with the story of Ibrahim (AS)’s Struggle to Surrender. Courageously honest to the innate Truth within the self, he sought out the truest ‘God’__ beginning with the negation of false pagan godhood, he ultimately found Allah, forever. It is fascinating to read the account of his search for the Truth as Allah tells it in the Quran. The Quran recounts of Ibrahim (AS)’s struggle: “When he (Ibrahim) saw the sun rising up, he said: ‘This is my lord. This is greater.’ But when it set, he said: ‘…Verily, I have turned my face towards Him Who has created the heavens and the earth (in worshipping none but Allah alone), and I am not of those who join partners with Him… Do you dispute with me concerning Allah while He has guided me, and I fear not those whom you associate with Him in worship, except when my Lord wills something. My Lord comprehends in His knowledge all things. Will you not then remember?’ And that (faith) was Our Proof which We gave Ibrahim against his people. We raise whom We will in degrees. Certainly, Your Lord is All-Knowing, All-Wise.”(6:80-83)

Taking ‘the road less travelled by’ demands strength, persistence, honesty, and only the ‘hanif’ (uni-focal) can come out through the trials it involves, triumphant, able to ascend to a higher realm of the Contented Self (nafs e mutma’inna). Ibrahim (AS)’s struggle was a struggle to win ‘Islam’ (peace through submission). This struggle begins with the negation of false gods (‘la ilaha’), and leads the soul on to a recognition and acceptance of the Only Truth that brings with it the peace of ‘ill allah’. The achievement of the Contented Self brings out the human soul in all the richness, beauty and grandeur that human nature is capable of, till the exclusive title ‘ahsan i taqweem’ (the best of all creation) is earned. The Faith of the Contented Self expresses itself in ways larger than life, through means much greater than what is humanly understandable.

The sacrifice of Ibrahim (AS) was one such expression of the faith of the Contented Self, the intensity of which transcends beyond the limitations of historical time. Allah has preserved it forever, to be relived, refelt. Ibrahim (AS)’s faith broke free from the tethers that bind man to the pettiness of the Minimal Self (nafs e ammara).

The sacrifice on Eid ul Azha is a spiritual revitalization of that faith so vital for being ‘Muslim’ (the submitted). When we celebrate Ibrahim (AS)’s sacrifice, we celebrate the potential within our own natures for achieving exaltation through surrender, the zenith of which Ibrahim AS demonstrated through his great sacrifice. We learn to discover that part of our nature that can rise in the highest form Love knows and can liberate itself from the mundane and the trivial by giving in so completely to the Divine Will. It is an exercise in reinvigoration and self-discovery.

Like so much else, the sacrifice on Eid ul Azha has also fallen prey to ritualization. The spirit has fled and a mere compulsive performance of the act remains. The sacrifice on the 10^th of Dhul Hajj is a recommended Sunnah (except during Hajj, when it becomes obligatory). However, it is carried out as an onerous obligation, willingly or unwillingly, with the dictate coming from social and ‘peer pressure’. This is deplorable and in many ways has led to the reduction of the sacrifice on Eid to a mere arduous ritual. Not surprisingly, Eid for us means devouring meaty dishes, blood, gore and animal-hides. The shameless way in which we throw off the slaughter-refuse out in the open, left to rot on roadsides ill fits the followers of a religion that calls cleanliness ‘half of faith’. If we cannot even observe basic Islamic manners and hygiene the way the Prophet (SAW) taught us, it beats me what value our ‘sacrifice’ carries. Observing rites and rituals is easy, but imbibing that spirit of ‘Muslim-ness’ that it teaches is the hard part we don’t like bothering ourselves with as long as carrying out rituals keeps us comfortably pleased with the ‘feel’ of self-righteousness. This spiritless carrying out of ritual sacrifice has developed a kind of aversion for the act of sacrifice in the modern mind. It seems ‘cruel’, and understandably so, to be cutting the necks off those poor animals merely for having the table full with savoury meat-dishes to please the train of guests. This, I believe, is an outcome of an inability to understand what sacrifice in Islam really means, and can easily be dispelled if only we learn to imbibe the essence of Islamic sacrifice. Faith gives meaning to a lot that the bare intellect finds hard to grasp.

However, there is an answer in commonsense as well. A belief in Allah entails a belief in His attributes as well, the foremost among which are those of Mercy and Justice. Allah possesses these attributes in the superlative degree for He is the Source of all Goodness. It is He who has placed mercy in the human heart. It is ridiculous therefore, that a command coming from The Most Merciful Lord could be suspected for cruelty. This attitude is symptomatic of a major lack of perception.

We believe in Allah to be the Creator of the Universe and all there is in it. It follows naturally that it is also He who has made different species of living things dependent on others for food. There exist ‘food chains’ in Nature and no one calls them ‘cruel’. This is natural law, by way of which life moves on and progresses. It is part of nature’s balance. The ‘halaal’ animals have been created for us to derive food that is ‘halaal an tayyib’. The very purpose of their creation in Allah’s Divine Scheme is to provide man a means of healthy sustenance. Allah knows, and He is Merciful. He created the animal, and when He asks us to slaughter it, we do so, believing in His command to be a wisdom that our limited perception can hardly ever gauge in full. This is the essence of ‘sumey’na wa ata’na’ (We hear and we obey, our Lord!). Allah says: “We have made them (sacrificial animals) for you as among the Symbols of Allah, wherein you have much (spiritual) good”. (22:34)

Yet more insightful is a series of experiments carried out by non-Muslims to determine the most painless and cleanest way of slaughter. Professor Schultz and his colleague Dr. Hazim of the Hanover University, Germany, proved through an experiment, using an Electroencephalogram (EEG - An instrument that records the electrical activity of the brain) and Electrocardiogram (ECG - an instrument that records the electrical current generated by heartbeat) that Islamic slaughter is a humane method of slaughter and Captive Bolt Stunning, practiced in the West, causes severe pain to the animal.

Several electrodes were surgically implanted at various points on the skull of all animals, touching the surface of the brain. The animals were allowed to recover for several weeks. Some animals were slaughtered by making a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife i.e. the Halaal method. Some animals were stunned using a captive bolt pistol slaughter by the western method.

The first three seconds from the time of Islamic slaughter as recorded on the EEG did not show any change from the graph before slaughter, thus indicating that the animal did not feel any pain during or immediately after the incision. For the following 3 seconds, the EEG recorded a condition of deep sleep - unconsciousness. This is due to a large quantity of blood gushing out from the body. After the above mentioned 6 seconds, the EEG recorded zero level, showing no feeling of pain at all. The maximum amount of blood was driven out of the body, resulting in hygienic meat for the consumer.

In Captive Bolt Stunning, (the non Islamic method), the EEG showed severe pain immediately after stunning. The hearts of the stunned animal stopped beating resulting in the retention of more blood in the meat. This in turn is unhygienic for the consumer.

It is also astounding to note the ‘ethics of sacrifice’ given in a number of ahadith which command that the slaughter animal must be treated gently. The Prophet (SAW) said: "Allah calls for mercy in everything, so be merciful when you kill and when you slaughter. Sharpen your blade to relieve its pain." This is because we kill the sacrificial animal not to satiate our appetite, but out of Love for the One Creator who made the animal a source of ‘halaal an tayyib’; Who created the human soul and blessed it with human-kindness, with the capacity to Love his Maker, and as a result of that relationship, to love His creation.

The ritual of sacrifice was not unknown to the world before Islam talked about it. Yet Islam purified and added a greater spiritual dimension to it. Unlike in pagan culture where sacrifice was made to atone for sins, or to‘bribe’gods to bring timely weather for a good crop yield, or to appease vindictive, vengeful, angry gods for their own ends, in Islam sacrifice is meant wholly and solely for reinvigorating the faith and enriching the soul through submission. It is meant to purge the self from the temporal by making us relive the faith of Ibrahim (AS) every year. This annual spiritual blossoming that Eid ul Azha brings with it keeps us in a healthy state of faith: “So mention the Name of Allah over them (the sacrificial animals),… and eat thereof, and feed the poor who does not ask (men) and the beggar who asks (men). Thus have We made them (sacrificial animals) subject to you so that you may be grateful. It is neither their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah, but it is piety (Allah-consciousness) from you that reaches Him”. (22:34-37).

Again, in complete contrast to the pagan practice where the sacrifice was exclusively reserved for the guardians of the holy shrines and temples, Islamic sacrifice has an important communal dimension to it. The equitable division of meat that Islam lays down ensures that the unprivileged too have a share in the blessings the occasion brings. The ‘unloved’ are the most loved by Allah, the ‘forgotten’ the most remembered. The ‘giving’ aspect of Eid ul Azha kindles in us a spirit of charity and generosity. When we give of what we are entrusted with by Allah in His way, we purge away the love of possession from the heart and in this way, create room in there for His loved creation. This is sacrifice.

It is interesting to note that all significant religious occasions in Islam have a social dimension to them. That is why we call Islam not a ‘religion’ but a ‘Deen’__ a Code of Life. We never turn oblivious in our happiness. For it is Allah who blesses with happiness and prosperity whoever He wills, and it is Allah who tests with deprivation whoever He wills. As there is trial in not-having, there is one greater trial in having__ the trial by the immense responsibility of sharing the Trust. The compulsive charity on both the Eids in Islam reaffirms the fact that we need to remember those who are in need each time we are blessed. For blessing is never merited, but loaned out. It is merited only when it is shared. Only in giving of oneself, in sharing and dividing the little happinesses, only in those big ‘small kindnesses’ is a happiness that lasts, and grows.

Eid has so much to give. Yet, as we brace up for our annual kite-flying mass-hysteria (i.e, the ‘Basant’festival) so soon after ‘celebrating’ with befitting sobriety the Day of Sacrifice without pause for breath, I wonder how much there is still left to be learnt; as we throw off the moral yoke to suit the madness-in-yellow just as hastily as we throw off the sacrificial carcass in the nearest dump after a well-done performance of the ritual, I wonder…

I wonder whether the squandering of easy money in a vulgar show can provide even a cheap substitute of the happiness one can gain by learning to sacrifice; I wonder whether the pretty kites__ yellow, red and green will make the world a brighter place. I wonder, when I see how the chosen madness of a few is the inevitable misery of so many without voices, whether Eid has really taught us to remember others in our happiness? I wonder how many starving, homeless, jobless on that other side could have got a day’s meal, had the enormous amount we are prepared to fritter away like those carcasses in the street, been used for a worthier end? I wonder how many will get the headlines of the ‘city’ pages next day making heartrending, real-life horror stories just because some of us are so unwilling to ‘sacrifice’ our bit of fun? I wonder if drawing one little lesson this Eid would be asking too much? Whether learning to sacrifice just by a small kindness would be a lesson too hard to learn?

And I am reminded of the Quaid’s words on Pakistan’s first Eid ul Azha in the midst of humungous suffering and misery. It comes to me as a sad, sad encore: “Dark clouds surround us on all sides for the moment but we are not daunted, for I am sure, if we show the same spirit of sacrifice as was shown by Ibrahim (AS), Allah would rend the clouds and shower on us His blessings as He did on Ibrahim (AS). Let us, therefore, on this day which symbolizes the spirit of sacrifice enjoined by Islam, resolve that we shall not be deterred in our objective of creating a state of our own Islamic concept by any amount of sacrifice, trials or tribulations which may lie ahead of us… we shall emerge triumphant and strong from the dark night of suffering and show to the world that the State exists not for life, but for good life… The greater the sacrifices we are made to undergo, the purer and more chastened we will emerge like gold from fire…” (October 24, 1947).

“Then after that your hearts were hardened and became as stones or even worse in hardness. For indeed, there are stones from which rivers gush forth, and indeed there are some of them which fall down for awe of Allah. And Allah is not unaware of what you do.” (2:74).

The Failure of a Civilization

THE FAILURE OF A CIVILIZATION

Maryam Sakeenah

“If you seriously think”, said a 12-year old in a class on Darwin’s idea of evolution, “that you’re nothing more than an overgrown (evolved) monkey, you start behaving like one as well.”

It makes more sense than the child knew it did. For, in this simple statement lies the link between accepting the biological theory and incorporating the amorality inherent in it into the social structure_ just what the West has done by unquestioningly accepting the theory of evolution as the authentic explanation of ‘how it all began’. School textbooks present it as the Gospel-Truth, and children are fed on it. However, when one looks at the many scientific grounds on which the theory has been rejected and criticized as flawed, and the many questions it leaves unanswered, one wonders why a theory that leaves so much to be desired has gained so much ground. On yet another level, the theory has innumerable psychological, spiritual and emotional implications at which the human sensibility revolts. The child who spontaneously reacted against the idea was only being his purely human self.

Believing man to have the same inclinations as animals and human society to be subject to the same natural laws as the rest of the animals, seeing him as a part of the natural tussle for survival as just another creature in the jungle naturally implies that he is devoid of the unearthly notions of morality. For, the human jungle operates on the idea of ‘survival of the fittest.’ Operating in the jungle and abiding by its jungle-laws, man has to outgrow outmoded versions of morality held by the traditionalists that hamper the fulfillment of his survival instinct or make him lesser able to fight the battle. Whatever makes man ‘fitter’ to survive the rigours of the cutthroat, utilitarian jungle, becomes the ‘right.’ That is all there is of morality, which evolves socially, and hence is a relative concept. Darwin writes: “If men were treated under precisely the same conditions as hive-bees, there can hardly be a doubt that our unmarried females would, like the worker-bees, think it a sacred duty to kill their brothers, and mothers would strive to kill their fertile daughters; and no one would think of interfering. Nevertheless the bee, or any other social animal, would in our supposed case gain, as it appears to me, some feeling of right and wrong, or a ‘conscience’… in this case an inward monitor would tell the animal that it would have been better to have followed one impulse rather than the other: the one would have been ‘right’ and the other ‘wrong.’.”

The process of evolution, central to any social progress, is the result of a severe struggle for survival amidst the ‘sub-species’ (as Darwin referred to the various human races) of humanity. The one emerging stronger will secure its survival by exterminating the weaker. Thus would mankind be ‘cleansed’ and improve qualitatively. This progress or improvement of the species, was the ‘noble end’ Darwin preached, saying, “All do good who work towards that end.”

Placing the argument socially, it translates itself into the Utilitarian doctrine of ‘the good is that which is useful’, which is the ruling maxim in capitalistic societies. Within this lies a clear, outright rejection of morality as universal and invariable. It also negates the fact that morality has to be the basis for building social institutions, shaping economy and managing politics. Secularism and its accompanying ideologies take root from this rejection of absolute morality. Secularism rejects innate values and religion as a basis for legislation. The criterion for such legislation becomes ‘utility’ and ‘interest.’ These two terms are mutable and constantly evolving, just as the species struggling in the jungle. When these become the criterion, ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘right’ and wrong’ become shifting, fragile, mutable. What is useful for you, your society or the State today might not be so tomorrow. Thus ‘War Is Peace’ and ‘Ignorance Is Strength’ whenever ‘1984’ recurs. Osama bin Ladin suddenly turns from ally and hero to foe and terrorist in a changed global context, and Saddam Hussein from America’s blue-eyed boy to Arch-Enemy and barbaric tyrant. Nothing holds_ but, ‘What We say, goes’, as the American President so honestly observed. Morally unjustifiable warfare becomes necessity for making the Superpower ‘stronger, safer, better’, in order to be the fittest one around in the forest.

On yet another level, the notions of usefulness and interest spring from extremely selfish motives. Personal whim and selfish desire become the imperative, arbitrarily demanding satiation. It is this narrow selfishness that becomes the criterion dictating the ‘morality’ of an act. This is what the Quran refers to when it says, “Have you seen him who takes his own desires as god?”

Thus the Superego, which is the individual’s moral ‘police force’ is emptied of the religious/moral imperative, the ‘regulatory authority’ of belief in a higher Being that keeps what is base in man under check. The ‘id’ enlarges itself to occupy the vacuum and takes the space of the Superego. The base instincts now begin to dictate fulfillment. The moral qualm is muffled, and thus springs the hedonism and the permissive culture that we see in Western countries.

The influence of Freudian thought also comes into play here. Freud saw all human misery to be springing from unsatisfied ‘id’ desires, and thus laid down the satisfaction of these urges as the basic right of the individual. From the wearing out of the ancient Biblical commandments came, “Thou shalt not suppress thy instincts”, and “Satisfy thy urge.” Darwinism’s fist having shattered the moral bulwark, this psychological theory quickly gained root, speeding the Whiteman’s descent into the jungle of a permissive culture. Hence ‘individual freedom’ and ‘liberty’, which seldom means more than the freedom to indulge, become sacrosanct, inviolable values. The place earlier accorded to humanistic traditional moral values is given to these, and whatever violates the code of individual freedom is shocking, inexcusable crime. This becomes all they have of morality, in fact the criterion for a new false, selfish morality. Love, earlier seen as sacrifice, sharing and giving, comes to be selfishly seen as the satisfaction of a human need. All such human values are coloured in the gaudy paint of selfishness. The cult of The Self assumes worship.

Hence comes about a massive shift in individual and social psyche. With each individual caught up in battle with fellow-beings to secure the ‘fitness’ to survive, unabashedly persuing narrow personal interest to be able to win the struggle, seeking satisfaction of the ‘instinct-as-superego’, a culture of Narcissism, self-preoccupation and self-obsession is created. Christopher Lasch, writing about American society and culture, observes: “People have retreated to purely personal preoccupations. Having no hope of improving their lives in any of the ways that matter, people have convinced themselves that what matters is physical and psychic self-improvement: eating health food, taking lessons in ballet or belly-dancing, immersing themselves in Yoga meditation, jogging etc. Harmless in themselves, these pursuits, elevated to a program and wrapped up in the rhetoric of authenticity and awareness, signify a retreat from the big things in life… to live for the moment is the prevailing passion_ to live for yourself. ‘Survival’ has become the catchword, and ‘collective narcissism’ the dominant disposition. The society makes sense only of living for the moment, to fix our eyes on our own private performance, to become connoisseurs of our own decadence, to cultivate self-attention. The world-view emerging among us centres solely on the self and has individual survival as its sole good.”

Survival and personal well-being thus become the two ideals to be craven for. The society thus acquires a new orientation altogether_ the culture of Narcissism. The individual becomes caged within his minimal self, with his outlook on life severely restricted. The culture develops to suit the needs of the new Narcissist individual. It creates a lifestyle of personal ease and comfort to help the Narcissist stay in his blissful prison. Thus we have consumerism becoming literally a philosophy of life_ Mc Donalds and Coca Cola, Yoga, planned diets, electronic gadgets, frivolous entertainment channels flashing on the telly_ all there to answer the Narcissist’s personal needs and create an unreal, self-satisfying lifestyle for him. Electronics brands begin to claim that having all these can make ‘Life Good’, a cola drink becomes a proud identity of a ‘new generation’ of trivial Narcissists, and Cartoon Network is there to help you ‘Get Unreal’ as you shrivel into the minimal self. The consumerist culture feeds the Narcissist and keeps him slumbering in his blissful artificial, air-conditioned and centrally heated Paradise. The corporate business interests at the top dictating American policy sustain the consumerist culture, because such a lifestyle generates capital for the multinational giants.

Yet as the self shrivels up, so do the traditional universal human values. Universal humanism shrivels into jingoistic Americanism. With traditional morality absent, all your innate moral energy is held subject to the nationalistic ideal which is pumped into your veins through typical White-House rhetoric. You feed yourself on the myths of ‘The Great American Nation’, and you become a believer in a cruel morality of jingoism. A perfect illustration of how this mindset operates is in those stories of violent, inhuman prison-abuse by U.S soldiers at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, as if the inmates were some vile, despicable, lower-order beasts that you kill under your heavy boots. This is the absolute subversion of morality by narrow nationalism, humanity by blind Americanism. And it is not an aberration, it is a malaise spread deep into the very roots of Western civilization.

Such things happen because the minimal individual, whose world is its Narcissist paradise, cannot create a link based on its discarded human values with that part of humanity that does not share its particular limited set of values. The Narcissist, whose vision is severely limited to the mirror-image before itself, is appalled at the lack of these values of individual freedom and personal liberty in societies that still uphold the traditional universal code of conduct and curtail the individual’s freedom within limits dictated by that code.

Perhaps Darwinism’s inherent racism also exercises its influence here. The ‘species’ (or sub-species) that wins the struggle to survive (and Darwin called the different human races ‘sub-species’) is decidedly the stronger, fitter and better one, and therefore deserves the right to dominate and rule, and spread its cult, its brand of civilization per force, to ‘exterminate all brutes’, or convert them to the winning cult. When a society feeds its people on such a theory, it instills in them a false pride in its specific values and civilization. Coupled with the Narcissist psyche which cannot see beyond itself in the mirror, and cannot sustain itself with anything except its frivolous consumerist lifestyle and values, this develops into dangerous starry-eyed self-love, jingoism, condescension and blind scorn for those who believe and live different. The Narcissist’s innate, God-given feelings of humanity, being engendered in the minimal self, fail to extend beyond the borders of the ‘superior’ civilization he is part of. Americanism becomes the new substitute of Humanism, and vile cruelty beyond the Atlantic is condoned if it is only shown to be an attempt to extend the ‘civilized’ values of liberalism and freedom to the ‘barbarians’ in unheard-of places.

This cult of selfishness is so deep and well-grounded that ‘national interest’ (a brilliant terminology for disguising base national selfishness) comes to justify all that is morally unjustifiable. It is interesting to note here, that a majority of those Americans who oppose the Iraq War, do so mainly because some Americans in uniform are losing their lives. Not for the much more humungous human tragedy there; not for the exploitation and abuse and madness and megalomania that the war is all about; not for the lies that cloud it; not for the criminal brutalities that a nation of innocent millions is suffering.

Entrapped in their comfort-infested lifestyles, their empty lives full of empty fullness measured out in empty cola cans, smoked cigarette ends and coffee-spoons, the starry-eyed nation is unable to shatter the mirror at which they stand admiring themselves in order to face the reality around. Consumerism and the lulling pleasures of hedonism, excessive comforts of an insulated life and an exaggerated focus on personal well-being prolongs the Beauty-sleep, and so these harmless multitudes let happen the worst crimes sponsored by their own chosen leaders, fed by the artfully phrased justifications of ‘national interest’, and for making America ‘stronger, better, safer.’

Thus the American system, with its claim of upholding all ‘civilized’ values, its people being ‘free’ and ‘liberated’, is unable to stay the hands of brute-force its own leaders sponsor around the world. This impoverished society, despite the highest standards of democracy, freedom, liberalism and education, is unable to flush out hegemonic, fascist elements at the helm of policy-making. This is the failure of a civilization.

Western civilization spirals towards the prehistoric jungle where beasts, for eking out more space for ensured survival, and for making their kind ‘stronger, safer, better,’ tore up each other; when primitive apes fought bloody duels for tribal hegemony, food or space. The instincts firing the sophisticated ‘civilized’ warfare of today and the primitive tribal duels of millions of years ago are the same. It is a descent into Animalism. When a civilization, preoccupied with sustaining the culture of Narcissism is unable to see its descent let alone stop it, it is a failed civilization. When all you have of ‘civilization’ is trapped within brand labels and sophisticated technology, in highbrow rhetoric justifying unjustifiable warfare, yours is a failed civilization.