Time for the monsters on April 18, 2019“The crisis”, Gramsci says,”consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” It is time for the monsters. This stands true for not only Pakistan but for the entire world, which has been converted into an Auschwitz or […]
Barbarism: the continued part of civilization on March 26, 2019“The first man,” Freud says, “who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization” – yet he complains that civilization has changed nothing. “What progress we are making”, he says, “In the Middle Ages they would have burnt me. Now they are content with burning my books”. Freud probably had no […]
Women thy heal yourself on March 20, 2019Women under capitalism are not only the source of cheapest labor, but have become a socialized sexual object too. In an advertisement, it is hard to discern what is for sale, an inanimate object or a charming animated beauty, paid to promote it. ‘Physician thy heal yourself’, a Biblical phrase improvised by mercurial Nietzsche became […]
Suicide and Kashmir, the existential problems of Pakistan on February 27, 2019“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem” for Camus, and that is “suicide”. In reality, suicide neither pretends to be a philosophy nor poses such awkward questions, or else the world population would not have swelled to nearly seven billion. Despite living in an unlivable world, where people taste death but not life, only […]
Where can you go in Pakistan and scream? on February 12, 2019“Political power,” Mao says, “grows out of the barrel of the gun”. It means that no one can fancy grabbing the political power without having access to guns to violence. Since every state owns these means it claims to have a monopoly over violence – considered legal, hence justified. Does it give the state a […]
Venezuela: which side are you on? on January 31, 2019“Do not wait for the last judgment”, “Camus warns, “It happens every day”. The narrative for judgment without the pillows of illusion was in the air, and once narrative becomes a byword it does not take long for the bombs to follow. The modern imperialist tradition borrowed from a Biblical phrase of ‘with us or […]
Saudia: The land of bleak shadows on January 20, 2019Apparently, it all started from a “monkey” business (The Guardian, 2015) and the real culprit was Margot Wallström! The deal was about pygmy marmosets ordered by Riyadh which later became an unwanted commodity, hence they were denied entry over a diplomatic spat with the Swedish foreign minister. The issue at hand was not a Sphinxian […]
What has the world done to deserve heroes? on December 28, 2018“Everything is indeed permitted”, Sartre states, “if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself. He discovers forthwith, that he is without excuse”. Following his footsteps one can safely say that had the world been spared the burden of heroes […]
Indo-Pak relations: time to be a dreamer? on December 11, 2018Some forty seven years ago, John Lennon had his revelation, a personal apocalypse. It culminated in a delectable expression of musical art: a famous song having a title of ‘Imagine’ emerged whose message, cadences and nuances still vibrate in human memory and recall the long cherished dream, a desire of making the world free of […]
Writing poetry after Gaza is not barbaric on December 7, 2018“Writing poetry after Auschwitz”, Adorno says, “is barbaric” (Adorno, 1967). Yet it is the prerogative of poets and artists who refuse integration to differ; poetry on occasions remains the only language that refuses to conform and art the only method to violate the norms of an established reality that denies any other means of catharsis. […]