Taming the beasts

[Cute Badshah]

Folk wisdom tells us that if at first you don’t succeed, then create a furor and try again. When it comes to getting people riled up, our omnipotent ‘angels’ — as they are euphemistically referred to these days — are second to none. Unable to secure the desired result in the wake of the Hamid Mir allegations, the ‘angels’ happened to chance on a dramatic case of religious slander aired on the same channel that had earlier invoked their ire.

It is thus that the country’s biggest media group is reportedly on the verge of being shut down after a rapid mobilisation campaign featuring the religious establishment and the former’s media competitors. There are many aspects of this series of events that should be discussed. Most glaring is the shameless manner in which rival media houses rip into one another, confirming that liberal capitalism, with all its pretensions of civility, is an essentially no-holds-barred survival of the fittest.

At a more general level, contradictions within the corridors of power are becoming increasingly visible. In theory, the sharpening of contradictions should not worry progressives because it is when systems of domination start to dysfunction that the possibilities of substantive change increase.

Yet I have come across many progressives who are profoundly concerned about what they believe is a tilt in the balance of power back in favour of the men in khaki and reactionary political forces. Leaving aside the question of when the balance of power ever tilted decisively against the right, I want to suggest that we try and understand the nature of evolving contradictions from a different perspective.

Compare the sensibilities engendered by the images beamed out by television these days with those of the arch-conservatives that are the most mobilised constituency in the country.

The silent majority must be mobilised by progressives.
On the one hand are the glitz and glamour of globalised capitalist culture, with its uninhibited titillation. Otherwise sacrosanct taboos are unashamedly challenged on the screen. That tens of millions keep tuning in every day to see more confirms that TV’s appeal is growing rapidly.

On the other hand are the stringent rules and regulations of public religiosity, enforced by institutions and ordinary people alike in all realms of social life. Moral standards are firmly established and challenging them leads at best to excommunication from the community of believers and at worst to severe punishments, even death.

Which is the ‘real’ world that the majority of Pakistanis inhabit? Both, insofar as most ordinary people participate in each consciously. Yes, they adopt different dispositions in either case, but this does not mean that one set of dispositions is ‘real’ while the other is ‘false’.

While the future cannot be mapped out seamlessly by social scientific inquiry, the rapidity with which TV — and by this I mean all information technologies — is shaping social life in the present century means that everything that comes in the way is likely to be transformed. Which means that the ‘reality’ of globalised capitalism is going impose itself more and more on the ‘reality’ of public religiosity.

This is important to bear in mind if only because it confirms that the media houses rejoicing at the misfortunes of their rival are as much bearers of ‘infidel’ cultural symbols and could tomorrow be just as easily accused of religious impropriety. In the big, bad world of Pakistani politics, there are ‘no friends, only interests’.

Beyond this particular episode, progressives should recognise that what seems like the increasingly hegemonic power of the religious right coexists with private lifestyles that do not conform meaningfully to the dictates of our self-styled moral police. This is not to suggest that we should rest easy as the ‘angels’ and their lackeys run riot in the name of defending the faith. But it does mean that a significant number of ordinary people do not accede to the moral ‘consensus’ and simply choose to stay silent in the face of the outrages committed by conservatives.

It is this silent majority that must be mobilised by progressives if the increasing number of aggressive attacks from the right is to be countered. The establishment’s power is expressed through religio-political groups. Progressives must build countervailing power through organisations of their own, rooted in the struggle of ordinary people.

Just in case anyone was hoping so, it is not sufficient to vest our hopes in the cultural hedonism of globalised capitalism. This is the biggest beast of all, even if it may currently appear to be much more palatable than the excesses of the religious right. Taming both beasts is an epic challenge, and take it on we must.

Taming the beasts