Exhausted Nations
As the year draws to a close, many experience an end of year
fatigue, as people assess the year’s losses and gains. This year is dominated
by the exhaustion of nations.
It has been a year of protests by the affronted - the
inaction over the Palestinian genocide, the panic of US citizens over the
recent extremely polarized elections, or Pakistanis reeling with disbelief over
the macabre spinning of events that challenge the predictions of the most
seasoned political pundits.
There is a contest of “who will blink first” rather than the
glorified ideals of right and wrong. It
has reached a point of no surrender as each side is in a fight for survival, unable
to concede defeat as the stakes are too high. There will be regrouping,
debriefings, reassessments of strategies, and new plans of action.
Stephanie Van Hook, Director at the Metta Center for
Nonviolence, says it is not about putting a different kind of person in power;
it is about awakening a different kind of power in people. We are witnessing
spontaneous uprisings rather than managed revolutions. For it to not be the
lighting of a match that burns out quickly but a sustained movement to make
lasting change, requires turning attention inward “away from our conditioned
responses that we have developed over time to maintain some kind of order in
our minds”. Martin Luther King Jr, warned against “outbursts of anger”, instead
anger must be “harnessed under discipline.”
How does one take time out in a crisis to think deeply and
prevent burnout? Restlessness and unrest
imply their opposite - rest.
Elena Bilheimer in her article What is the Role of Rest in
the Revolution? says “urgency thinking” is what caused the present crisis. “Rest isn’t an excuse to do nothing, but
rather a chance to reflect and engage in the issues with more creativity and
flexibility”.
The idea of rest is a growing field of study. Seven types of
rest are contemplated: Physical, mental, sensory, emotional, social, creative
and spiritual. Rest is a fertile state. When the mind is not occupied with a
specific task, it is not inert but active. The parts of the brain that
deactivate when responding to external stimuli allow introspective processes
during periods of rest. John Steinbeck wrote “a problem difficult at night is
resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it “
The Quran mentions night as a means of rest and the day a
means of revival. Subh-e-Nau or a new morning, is often presented as a
cornerstone of hope. The Sufi Khanqah is a retreat essential for receiving
spiritual knowledge, as was the Egyptian desert for Christian monks, or the
forest for Buddha.
Rest of the mind can also be achieved through activity like
sports or walking. The camaraderie that develops as thousands walk on protests,
listening to inspiring music, seeing to each other’s needs during roadside stops
or during confrontations, is a less acknowledged opportunity to reflect, listen
and deepen understanding.
The prolific creator, Leonardo Da Vinci, revealed: “Every
now and then I go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to
your work your judgement will be surer… Go some distance away, because the work
appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of
harmony or proportion is more readily seen.”
Author and scholar Bayo Akomolafe enigmatically states “The
time is very urgent – we must slow down.” He said we need to seek fugitive
spaces, sanctuaries “where we can shape-shift and consider a kind of slowness
and deep listening”. He cautions against
using war-like words such as ‘combatting’ and ‘fighting’ for the efforts to
address climate change, racism, tyranny or inequality, otherwise “we're
reinforcing the system we're trying to escape”.
A revolution in Pakistan cannot be the simple binary
revolutions of 1917 or 1789 in Russia or France, but is an entangled woven
fabric in which finding the threads of oppression and resistance are difficult.
As Bayo Akomolafe reminds us, there are “multiple worlds between justice and
failure, between victory and defeat”.
Martin Luther King Jr. in his address to students in
1965 said “ There is nothing more tragic
than to sleep through a revolution”. “Anyone who feels that we can live
in isolation today, anyone who feels that we can live without being concerned
about other individuals and other nations is sleeping through a revolution.” He
quoted the poet John Donne, “any man's death diminishes me, because I am
involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee”.
Durriya Kazi
November 29, 2024
Karachi
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