FIRST, another elected government was sacked and another military regime planted, then the chaos of devolution fiasco. Next, the post-referendum gloom and now the hanging clouds of a nuclear war. All put together, it is sufficient to ruffle the feathers of even the best of optimists. All nations go through such ordeals and are we an exception.
Occupied with such thoughts, this scribe was travelling from Abbotabad to Islamabad in a public transport, which seemed to crawl forever on a bumpy road under a dark sky. When the umpteenth breakdown stopped it, a new traveller boarded the coach and settled in the next seat. He introduced himself, unbelievably, as Henry Bergson. Frenchman to a fault, with sharp eyes and the looks of a genius, he was soon drawn into conversation by the scribe, which proceeded as follows:
Scribe: “I know you as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century (1854-1941), and also that you were awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927. You were the first one to detect that mechanistic determinism, which was originally developed for inanimate objects during Industrial Revolution, was being increasingly applied on freely acting human spirit with distressing effects. You also found that societies go through a process of evolution, which maybe contrary to logical expectations of the rulers.
“As would be expected, your voice was somewhat lost in the din of the machine. Yet, you continue to live on as a guiding light in the process of change. Please, tell me how you look at the time since creation of Pakistan and our persistent failure to adopt democracy successfully.”
Bergson: “First, understand that time on the clock and the calendar is mechanistic construct and devoid of human sensitivities. What matters for human beings is the lived duration. Duration is the continuous progress of the past which gnaws into the future, and which swells as it advances. When you examine the collective behaviour of people, you cannot cut them off from their past experiences, using the knife of time. You must first comprehend how history has moulded their perception of authority and its relationship to work, livelihood and morality, and then start from there, gradually showing the way to democracy.
“Democracy, like civilization, is not natural but an acquired attribute of man and society. There is no standard model, which can be enforced in one stroke through an edict. People embrace the spirit of democracy gradually as the need of the time, and allow it to shape up as an institution responding to their own unique needs through experiment, failures and adjustment.
“Second, you must not apply the same logic of cause and effect in political field as you do in science and industry. It makes you assume that good logic or a good ideology should change a society as easily as it changes the working of a machine. The failure of Soviet communism, which attempted to impose a soundly developed intellectual design on a society, is a case in point. What lacked was a regard for the true nature of the human mind and the capacity to be flexible.
“The human mind is made of myths, dreams, intuition and emotions, and not logic. These are overlaid with reflexes of survival in the framework of selfish, tribal and spiritual programmes, developed over the centuries of existence. Sometimes, they are overlapping, at others conflicting, but always elusive and difficult to predict. Attempting to change the human mind implies changing its perceptions, which is a protracted process of sociopolitical evolution.”
Scribe: “Can you be more specific about the relevance of evolution to social change and how we can assess its progress.”
Bergson: “Evolution of species is somewhat similar to evolution of societies, their spans from micro to macro-organism. Both are processes of change for systems and both move in the direction of growth and survival. I found that while a feature of the organism is adapting to a change or a new organ is taking its shape, a great deal of demolition and construction, and trial and error is taking place. It is not something as simple as grafting a new element on top of the old.
“While this process is on, the ‘vital impulse’ or #lan vital of the organism is persevering, and accepting or rejecting the inputs according to their value. It is also bringing the new elements in concert with the old, thus, integrating the entire system as one new whole.
“On the social scenario, while we appear to fumble uncertainly in the dark and blunder along one path after another erratically, we are in fact making progress in this evolutionary process. In other words, this kind of creative evolution does not progress in a systematic, smooth and rational manner as our mechanistic attitudes would expect. Indeed, the principles of lawful behaviour, ideology and morality, which may be the desired end of the struggle, often have to be suspended during this formative phase.”
Scribe: “Perhaps some examples will help me to understand the concept better.”
Bergson: “Monarchs used to rule by proclamations and edicts, and opposition, if any, was punishable by death under the law. But a number of barons succeeded in besieging and getting King John of England to sign Magna Carta in 1215, under the threat of civil war. This document signed in full disregard to law, turned out to be the foundation of law itself, and is remembered as the Great Charter of English liberties. Although originally intended to serve the vested interests of the privileged class, it was taken over by the #lan to make it sprout into numerous laws benefiting the common man.
“It eventually brought an end to that very class that initiated it. It prevented a revolution in England, which raised its ugly head in other parts of Europe to bring an end to an autocratic rule of the monarchs. Industrial Revolution and the dilution of hereditary authority of the nobility shifted the power to the capitalists and the factory worker, which gave birth to the institution of democracy.
“Empirically speaking, the growth of democracy is concomitant with the growth of industrialization, urbanization and education. It has taken hundred years or more to take roots in the West, and still leaves much to be desired. Compared to the blood-letting process of revolutions, the military interventions and frequent dismissal of governments that you experience are lesser evils. Although both may have dubious motivation and uncertain results in shorter term, they are, nevertheless, contributing to progress through a process of evolution.”
Scribe: “Do you condone these upheavals? How does #lan handle them?”
Bergson: “I am afraid, your question reflects the confused thinking of your intellectuals. We are not sitting in judgment here but only observing the objective realities. In your case the #lan is not only watchful but also active in unobtrusively nudging the events towards a more effective democracy. When a leader is elected on his promises, he is given a rousing welcome. When he fails on his promises and sacked for corrupt practices, the #lan expresses its acquiescence through silence; a fact observed by the judiciary in their judgments against corrupt rulers.
“When a reformist interregnums offers relief, it is welcomed, but when it fails to perform or drags on with its rule, it is ridiculed and jeered out of power. Regimes come and go, as their negative legacies are dismantled and positive contributions keep on adding incrementally to the evolutionary improvements.”
Scribe: “But how is it that some societies take shorter time than others to achieve results? Will we survive long enough to see through the necessary changes?”
Bergson: “Again, time is not as important as the lived duration and its experiences. Talking of Asia, some nations in the Far East, nurtured in Confucius ethos, had already overcome the tribal inhibitions and spiritual obscurantism to easily embrace a national #lan. But those in the Middle East have yet to start the process in a meaningful way.
“You happen to be a newly created entity in the middle of the spectrum and are still struggling to break through the centuries old barriers of parochial, tribal and ethnic milieu to merge into one identity. Doubtlessly, it is imperative for you to ensure your existence while you are going through this process. It should be reassuring for you that you have acquired a defensive deterrent against any military adventure threatening your existence.
“In fact, I consider it a good example of the working of #lan when I see how the political adversaries and diverse organs of the society worked with unanimity on the project. The scientists rose above the level of available knowledge and resources. And people endured the financial hardship over decades to achieve this goal. The development of this weapon, which, hopefully, will never be used, demonstrates that your #lan is alive and kicking, although it still has a long way to go. It should next be focused to meet the challenges of illiteracy, poverty and backwardness in the society.”
Scribe: “Our idealists continue to be highly sceptic and dismayed about the state of affairs. They feel that the hold of a particular class of politicians and military establishment will never allow a functioning democracy to take over, and the unprincipled manipulations of our self-proclaimed reformers can never lead to a principled polity.”
Bergson: “This sounds more like a romantic disillusionment based on the cliche-ridden controversy of ‘ends and means’ rather than realism. They are trapped in mechanistic determinism when they infer that a system working in Europe should work here equally well, and soon. The fact is that you are passing through your own evolutionary muddle as the other nations did theirs. They have since accomplished a sustaining #lan which delivered prosperity and stability, and there is no reason why you should not achieve the same in due course of time.”
The road was getting better, the drive smoother and the weather brighter. As the scribe opened his eyes, he found the next seat empty. He was still savouring the thought of #lan vital which may also be called national cohesion, solidarity or nationhood. Although abstruse and elusive, this intangible must be nourished and nurtured consciously by each individual and institution of the country. It is, after all, to the nation what soul is to the body.
FIRST, another elected government was sacked and another military regime planted, then the chaos of devolution fiasco. Next, the post-referendum gloom and now the hanging clouds of a nuclear war. All put together, it is sufficient to ruffle the feathers of even the best of optimists. All nations go through such ordeals and are we an exception.
