Losing
the Plot
Shakespeare's Macbeth calls life " a tale told by an idiot
full of sound and fury signifying nothing". and Mirza Ghalib says
"bazeecha atfal hai dunya meray aagay, hota hai shab o roz tamasha meray
aagay" (The world before me is a child’s playground, where daily the
drama of life is enacted)
Psychologist Dan McAdams, says we perceive our lives as a story.
The human brain is hardwired to seek the story that connects events of the past,
the present, as well as an imagined future,.to bring meaning and purpose to our
lives. All religions and folklore persuade through relating stories that convey
underlying moral principles.
The early English novel can be seen as an alternative to the Church
sermon, as society became more liberalized. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's
Travels, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, or Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice
were laced with moral dilemmas. The Urdu novel, starting with Mirza Hadi
Ruswa's Umrao Jan Ada, has been more of a critique of society's
judgemental prejudices.
Fictional characters in novels, drama or film, have had a strong
influence on social attitudes and aspirations. We can organize our
experiences, like a novel, into characters, plot and setting. However,
real life , unlike fiction, cannot be neatly managed - too often we find
ourselves in a manjdhar, the midstream of a journey we set off on, unable to go
back and confused about how to proceed. We lose the plot.
Losing the plot is a term taken from fiction writing where the
author loses track of the narrative. It also applies to losing sight of an
important principle, commitment or direction, in the world of business and
politics..
At a personal level, the joyous birth of a child may become a
twisted tale of conflict and abuse. A marriage that started with romance may
turn into boredom and despair. The job we longed for may become the cause of
stress and burnout.
Narratives are formulated as inspiring stories to create national
cohesion, and as a declaration of nationhood to the world. The lofty
declarations, whether the revered US Bill of Rights, the declaration of Israel
to guarantee equal rights to all its inhabitants and safeguard the Holy Places
of all religions, the Marxist withering away of the state, or those of
any number of smaller nations, seem a far cry from the ground
realities.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah's speech on 11 August, 1947, urged the
new country to "solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and
especially of the masses and the poor" and severely punish
"bribery and corruption, black-marketing, nepotism and jobbery".
Perhaps the leaders read it in reverse.
Colonialism was justified as a civilizing intervention;
Industrialization would make products universally available and affordable; the
IMF would help poorer nations become prosperous. The original intentions may
have been noble, but they lost the plot as economic and political interests
intervened.
The idea of a universal rule of law was accepted by both large and
small countries. In reality many laws across the world are a result of British
colonialism rather than through a universal consensus. The Indian Penal
code, written by T. B. Macaulay was applied across British colonies and remains
the existing code for many.
Religious beliefs have also succumbed. The Ten Commandments are
simply ignored, the Khalifa, appointed by consensus, was very quickly
replaced by dynastic rule, the Buddhist ahimsa which prohibits violence, is
frequently set aside.
Educational systems were meant to enlighten humans, not just
create a workforce. Inventions set out to improve lives, not litter the earth
with plastics and styrofoam. .
Today people want a different world from the one those in power
have imposed on them. The internet, for all its flaws, has connected them in
unprecedented ways. The time for short term fixes has passed .As Einstein
said “ We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when
we created them”
Durriya Kazi
March 12, 2023
Karachi
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