Our personality crisis

A Harvard professor once stated that death and sex are the two main things that make men lose grip over themselves. Apparently they release a chemical inside your brain that intoxicates you by either dimming your emotions or making them hyperactive. The thing is, Hollywood knows this well. A multi-billion dollar industry and what do they sell? Ideas about sex and death artfully spun to give us delightful pictures of glorious wars, secret service agents, assassins, moonlit romances, passionate acts of love and what not. If this was just one of those things, then I guess it would not have mattered, but these movies have a way of affecting the youth of a nation so that they forget their own norms by standing for secular freedoms that neither their culture nor their religion permits. Perhaps, this is the dilemma faced by the youth of Pakistan. They are a caught between a compromise of civilizations, trying their level best to figure out who they are and what they are supposed to.

Elite educational institutions in Pakistan such as LUMS, LSE, FAST, FCCU, GIKI host more breakups than you would expect from an entire Islamic country. Valentine’s Day is spent with so much delight that you have special shows being conducted by television and radio to make the lovers meet each other or express their love in different ways possible. Balls and dance parties are held where the boundaries between the two genders diminish. The telecom industry, has provided night packages where you can talk with someone for the entire night and be charged an affordable amount. The service is only available on pre-paid service as it is used by the younger generation. But that’s not all. We have the movies to really add spice to the picture. As Brad Pitt kills a large number of people to fall onto the bosom of Angelina Jolie, a teenager watches in fascination, thinking how amazing and wonderful life would be like that. I once heard that the power of the dark side lies in its sheer force of attraction. Therefore, his mind spins to different ideas, revolving around how he can be as cool as the people on the big screen. As our society still has a law against killing people, what he can accomplish is meet someone from the opposite gender and engage in a relationship with her. But things don’t stop here. Sooner or later, he is out on the net surfing pornography to satisfy the lust which has been built by the society around him or engaging in sex with either his girlfriend or someone who takes a fee. But then again, we live in an Islamic society. True we are given the right to choose our own companion, but we are not allowed to go out on dates or parade that person in front of our peers, so that we too may fit the profile of the ‘cool’ gang.

When the GATT was created, it had the single motive of earning as much as possible, even if it meant victimizing the third world in the process. Modernizing a society is the step that comes between penetrating an economy and neo-colonialism. It helps the society be more welcoming to multi-nationals entering the local market and shutting down small and cottage producers. The way it is done is that glorified ideas pertaining to a better more exciting standard of living are attached to free-market open economies so civilizations think that the only way to go forward is to become more westernized. Immaneul Wallerstein, pioneer of the World Systems Theory argues that unchained capitalism exploits inequality, therefore the first world exploits the third world by utilizing its resources. The modernization theory on the other hand argues that the only way to develop is for the entire world to go to a single culture, so huge corporation can ravish resources without any kind of check or balance. The only thing achieved by Globalization is imperialism all over again.

But the question is, why have secular freedoms chosen to lead us to the western better life? A simple answer, because the dark side attracts you more. Penetration is easy; it does not take time or cost that much. Just let it run wild, and it is going to do a lot of damage.

So the conclusion is, we are running towards a ghost of a better life. And in that process, we are trampling our religious and social values. So what can we do to make this all go away? The answer lies in embracing our true identities and becoming Muslim Pakistanis. Only then, we can truly prosper.