Kaana (Blindness) syndrome in Pakistan

Jose Saramago's blindness is a beautiful book. It describes the conversion of an entire town in to blind people as a result of an epidemic. It is beautifully metaphorical for the current situation in Pakistan. It is unfortunately not limited to Pakistan. In the interest of reductionism, I will generalize about this blindness and posit that it is a function of the constant operator. With the basic definition of constant operator being repetition of the same function over and over again without yielding any new results but rather a constant reshuffle of the same factors in an attempt to create new combinations which are limited by the confines of the system. This happens to be the very definition of extremism. Fundamentalism is the result of this constant operator gone wild and taking over. It is limited by a construct which is believed to the exclusion of all other realities and needs to escalate in order provide previous levels of yields or satisfaction. Hence, the erratic behaviors in fundamentalism.

In time lines of a unit (be it a civilization, culture, city, neighborhood or family), the rise and fall is dependent of this very constant and transitional operator. It is only the transitional operator that can renew a unit. In the case of SE Asia, during the independence from the Raj, there were several transitional ideas and inspirational ideas. Over the period of time however the state of affairs has transformed into fundamentalism because of the above stated dynamics.

A friend of mine described a term to me yesterday called "full metal jacket". Apparently this is a condition in which heart coronaries have been stented so many times over and over again that a bypass cannot be accomplished. Nothing can be done to open up the arteries if they are blocked once they are in the grips of repeated stenting. A society in the grips of the constant operator is much like this metal heart. In this situation the only possibility of a new life is a new heart.

In Pakistan to survive a person has to function within the confines of a rigid system which caters only about yields (and its survival) and in the grips of the constant operator humanity of an individual or the inspiration of life is sacrificed. Every individual or every organization (on whatever scale we are talking about) dries out if it does not have the chance to experience the transitional operator (inspiration). The spring dries out without new rains!

If cheating is the only way to survive in a society (life has to go on by hook or crook), everyone carries around with them a profound sense of guilt. This guilt is the gift of the constant operator. A guilty person is a scarred person, a victim of the constant operator. It is a person who cannot stand for what one believes in. It is a person who can live life only listening to the "badness" within oneself or others rather than rejoicing in the "goodness". This scarred person becomes the mouthpiece of the system and can only talk in terms of duality (rejection in the group or acceptance in the group). It is a person who will never be able to bring a revolution and that is how the constant operator survives revolt. (Look at the french revolution for examples for a range of constant operators and the rise of transitional operators. Look at the russian revolution. Look at USA).

But life has to go on. There shall come a time that blindness cannot go on any longer and then there is no choice but regeneration. It has to start with identifying the constraints in a system, recognizing life giving things and developing the ability for individuals and society to be able to tell the difference in them. Opening to the oasis and closing to the desert. The guilt has to go! The Kaana syndrome has to end. I started this post by Jose Saramago and I will end it with mentioning his sequel book, Seeing which encapsulates the life ending and life giving nature of a world that we inhabit.