The assassination of Salmaan Taseer came as a rude shock to every sane person living in or outside Pakistan. It is a tragedy that can only be recalled with a throb of pain. Grief has crazed the wits and proved that suffering, self-abnegation and wilful rejection are the only means through which we exist. Hate, religious bigotry and intolerance are the only means through which we become conscious of the existing religious fanaticism gnawing at our nerves, but we have to be mindful of the fact that it does not thrive in a void. It is a condition that alludes to real socio-economic problems; it also suggests the very nature of the social system that is dominant in society. In the agriculture-based economy of Pakistan, the majority of the population lives in the countryside in dismal socio-economic conditions, having no access to the basic amenities of life. These children of a lesser god cannot even breathe without the consent of their feudal lord, who in turn is obliged to let them live — though in misery — in order to expropriate the surplus value they create for him. For those living under tyranny, life becomes a habit that they cannot shed. Their entire struggle is limited to mere survival. Religion and aesthetics are luxuries beyond their reach. Historians can easily compare them with the slaves of the Roman era who were often called cadavers. In her dealing with such devastated men, destiny never closes its account. Religion has never been a problem for the upper classes. For them it is merely a fashionable substitute for faith. It only attracts their attention when it suits their interests. The power of almighty capital rests with them. It can buy any commodity from the creeds to the deeds of self-styled monopolists of religion. During the last few years, we have been fed a new term of ‘civil society’. People barely know its meaning, but this term is quite in vogue, though as a misnomer. Civil society is always a product of capitalist democracy that, by nature, is essentially secular in character. A continuous political process is a pre-condition — and not the conclusion — for the creation and establishment of a civil society. A feudal setup linked to the government by paternalistic ties of a Bonapartist-Caesarian type is an antonym to this concept. The pedantic, pontificating and pernicious behaviour of those who call themselves the custodians of the law, religion and civil society, is a case in point. In countries like Pakistan, civil society — if we are forced to accept this misnomer — at best is primordial and gelatinous, while in the West where finance capital has taken over the reins, there is a proper relationship between the state and civil society. When the state trembles, a sturdy structure of civil society is at once revealed. The state is only an outer ditch behind which there stands a powerful system of fortresses and earthworks. The Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci has rightly pointed out in his Prison Notebooks that “in most advanced states civil society has become a very complex structure and one which is resistant to catastrophic ‘incursions’ of immediate economic elements (crisis, depressions, etc). The superstructure of civil society is like the trench system of modern warfare.” Do we have such a species back home? To the malady of religious fanaticism, the most vulnerable class is one that can afford to have some surplus food, money and leisure. The middle class or the petite bourgeoisie, due to fear of deprivation, inherent insecurity and uncertainty of the capitalist system is more prone to fall prey to all sorts of superstitions. The fear of being hunted and snared haunts it persistently, along with the terror of society, which is the basis of morals and fear of God (but not his love). This class certainly does not express the view of the majority since its number is extremely small but it excels in flaunting the flag of hypocrisy of all hues. Their vociferous outcry forces the intellectuals to lend them their ear, though it demands without grace and receives without thanks. Its lower stratum provides the fodder for extremist militancy. Its knowledge and awareness about human rights and privileges is devoid of class analysis and so becomes counter-productive not only for itself but also for the state and masses at large. For maintaining its hegemony, every state coercion creates a repulsion, which resultantly foments anger and invokes sadistic impulses. Such impulses of hate lead to the alienation of some, while these passions carry others away, especially when the soil has already been prepared by the state. In such circumstances, human emotions can be stirred more quickly than intellect. The fascist phenomenon can be explained in the same light. The extermination of Jews did not occur at a random moment but in the middle of the crisis during an imperialist war. German society was in a state of upheaval; there was a thorough pauperisation of the middle class. It had lost every hope of a decent survival. The upsurge of a Marxist revolution was imminent during 1918-1928. For capitalism to sustain there was only one course open, which was to provoke one section of society against the other. It was the social relations, not the ‘destructive nihilism’ of the Nazis, which determined — and always determine — the ideological movement. Capitalism itself is the cause of crisis and cataclysms that periodically ravage the world. Capitalism cannot afford free social passions; nothing is more detrimental to it than those movements of collective hatred. (To be continued) The writer is based in Australia and has authored books on socialism. He can be reached at saulatnagi@hotmail.com