Fundos vs Nouveaus

Here is a pictorial representation of the big bang. it's an intriguing image which charts our momentous journey across time and space. and with regards to our notions of 1000 words, it is an eloquent manner of comprehending the vastness of the passage that creation, or matter, or reality has seemed to take.

yet the first thought that struck me when i saw this picture – i think it was the first thought – was that why is it all only traveling in one direction? it seems to be pretty obvious that explosions travel in a vaguely circular manner. this seems to depict a cannon shooting in a particular direction.

i think that there is a reasonable, rational scientific explanation. for example, the axis for time follows a path from 0 to Now, and as such requires a liner view of the events. but it reminded me of a physics lesson from my IB's. our professor, who at times appeared to be exasperated at inquisitiveness, was trying to explain something about the universe and its finite boundaries. and me and a couple of other kids kept asking him - “but if the universe is finite, isn't it in something?”
i don't know if you get this. the point was that if there is some object that constitutes of matter, then surely it is within something else. the end of its boundaries must mark the beginning of something else, something which is not the object in question.

(it may be interesting to note that all those asking the question were from developing countries.)

his stuttering rebuttals, and pleading assertions that he was telling us what was right left me with a certain skepticism about the whole thing. and before you all go up in arms, i concede that I'm not a creationist or a proponent of intelligent design. i'm confused. and it seems to me that a lot of us are. certainly everyone i know seems to be.

but while the people i know may be confused, humanity in general doesn't seem to be so. in fact, when you look at the world, and not the people you know, you get the idea that everyone seems to have a really good idea of what they're doing, and why its right. predictably, as a pakistani, my first thoughts go the taliban and the fundos and all their like-minded brethren.

they seem to be pretty damned assertive in their self-righteousness. they're so sure that it allows them to justify blowing up bombs in political rallies, cd markets, prayer halls and us-assisted governmental investigative agencies. the idea being that the fear and terror spread by such acts would convince their targets to change their ways. now before you get washed over by your instinctive reactions (and the fundos always elicit instinctive reactions) consider this image.
i don't know who caused this boy to lose his leg, but its what happens every time there is some carnage filled catastrophe. and at some level they must know that this is what they are doing, and not all of their victims are scum-infested infidels as i'm sure they've realised. but yet it hasn't stopped them, and while you can identify with their rage at some level, it staggers the mind to think of the unadulterated violence perpetuated in the name of islam.

but what intrigues even further is that they are not alone, but rather their compulsive attitude seems reflective of our times. if we stay within pakistan and move towards the newly affluent middle class we see the same problems. pakistan in many ways is watching its infrastructure and its amenities simply melt down. we don't have enough power, enough water, enough security.

but we the rich buy bigger generators, install larger power pumps, bribe more important water officials, hire more security guards. maybe the problem can't be avoided, but wealth allows us to circumvent it. we are blissfully oblivious of the fact that our actions are only speeding up the process of our own annihilation. its a sentiment that echoes well with the actions of the fundos as well. we complain of the heat as we douse ourselves in flames.

( if we return to the picture from the start, sometimes it seems to me that the truth lies on the other end of the big bang, maybe just a few steps away. yet we've spent all this time rushing towards the opposite direction.)

but if i go back to my point, one remedy that we choose to seek in pakistan, regardless of age, wealth, ethnicity, literacy, gender or religion, is that we choose to blame this on some sort of endemic, systemic, institutional reason. and consequently, the very few who feel compelled to address these problems look for systemic, institutional answers.
if you allow me to digress, i have worked with various NGOs headed by extremely able and intelligent people. yet their children were educated abroad, drove their own cars and got addicted to cocaine. now don't get me wrong, these are not your aunty NGOs. one was probably the most successful NGO model in all of south asia. and despite their foreign education and drug habits, their kids were fun, intelligent, compassionate people. but their manners and habits were consumerist and compulsive, and led to self-destructive ends.

and so the question arises. why have these people failed at their children even when they have achieved so much in a country notorious for its failings? why have the taliban sought to bring a return to the islamic ideal when their methods lead to the deaths of so many of the innocent?
the answer lies in an interview i read today of Syed Hossein Nasr, a Muslim American scholar who's also a Sufi. this is what he said

“What is tragic today is that there is a number of Muslims who think that all the solutions are to be found simply by external actions. They don’t have to do anything within themselves. This is a deeply Western idea – modern, Western idea, where you try to improve the world without improving yourself.”

i found it to be a brilliant observation. because what the fundos and the nouveau riche would like you to believe is that the other side is deluded and their vision dystopian. that allows you to believe that the Other does nothing but act in its pure self interest. and its either completely oblivious to their acts of destruction, or worse yet, totally aware of them and hell bent on perpetuating its sadist ideals.

the truth i feel is that both sides, and everyone in between, finds refuge in their compulsions and addictions. whether that addiction is towards consumer driven materialism or religion fueled fundamentalism, they feel that they can sacrifice a little part of their souls to achieve that end point ideal, which can either mean vanquishing the infidels, or attaining the most desirable set of status symbols.

its a path that is driving us, me, to destruction. for my part, i pledge to try and change myself. the rest of the world can follow, if it wants.