Will to self-destruct

Perhaps, people of the subcontinent and in particular of our beloved country have the highest propensity to self-destruct. We take a certain pleasure in hurting ourselves. We endlessly indulge in sawing the branches we are perched upon. As a Nation we are extremely weak in anger management.

We let emotions override sanity and reason. Our reactions are invariably knee-jerk to any situation of chaotic challenge. We have tendency to take our eyes off from an issue and instead put all focus on the surrounding circumstances.

Our behavioural responses are akin to a scenario where we fight amongst ourselves to identify who lit the fire, instead of first extinguishing the raging fire. In the process we get consumed. We uniquely possess skills and abilities to provoke the inherent and intrinsic tendencies to self-destruct. We take a wily pleasure in giving pain to others, without realising the pain shall ultimately be ours.

Our passions run so high that if we are against or angry with Paul, we find the first available Peter, who may have not the remotest connection or relevance to Paul and then beat the hell out of him. In doing so, we foolishly imagine that Paul would experience the pain, injury and insult inflicted upon Peter. This entire thought process and relative reaction is nothing except absurdity of Himalayan proportion. I will elaborate this behaviour.

Self-destructive tendencies and behaviour point towards a deep-seated medical condition. As a nation we have this ‘medical condition’ since our independence. We have in the last 77 years never missed, even by default, an opportunity to cause self-harm and pain.

Since we have within us a dead conscience in a live physical self, our sense of shame is also perennially on the pyre of our collective misfortune that encompasses our daily lives. The wound that bleeds inwardly and internally is most dangerous.

Diligence is the mother of all good fortune. We haven’t been able to discover yet the art and science of protest. There are in other societies a codified behaviour that must be adhered to when protesting for any cause, right or wrong, good or bad is not the issue, but the method of conveying protest is.

Only a vile mind can inflict pain upon fellow human. Our protest methodology involves extermination, butchery, elimination and spoilation of the perceived enemy. The enemy need not be real or true, even an imaginary foe or situation can evoke within us the base animal instincts of devouring upon the victims of our uncalled for wrath. Otherwise, if this not be true, how does one explain the following select situations.

On 27th December, our first Lady Prime Minister, the illustrious daughter of East, of the more Illustrious popular leader, Z. A. Bhutto, was assassinated in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi. A great tragedy had been delivered. The moment required deep thinking. The killer to this day hasn’t been caught.

The wrath however of the tragedy was inflicted upon the innocent people all over Pakistan. Shops were ransacked. Looting spree began with no intervention from the many LEAs. Public buses and private vehicles were torched to ashes. The height of this frenzy was the dragging out of an ATM of a bank on to the middle of street in interior of Sindh. But a whole army of protestors with iron rods couldn’t open the cash tray much to their disappointment. This was a protest. It was meant to convey how pained the people were because of the loss of Benazir. Really?

BB’s soul would have shivered at the sight of this type of protest. She was a non-violent leader. An educated, enlightened leader of people living in dark ages. We destroyed national assets...did it cause pain to the killers? Nay, must be only delight. What a bad trade-off to such a grievous tragedy. The killers remained untouched. We self-destructed ourselves. In protesting against increase in sugar prices, we on a wholesale basis destroyed “our” traffic lights. Who did we injure? Ourselves.

The Kashmiris are killed by the oppressors in Held Kashmir, we respond by burning our vehicles, damaging private property. Whose loss and whose gain is this? I recall in 1979, some Kharjites attacked the Holy Kaaba and took hundreds of pilgrims as hostage.

The news spread like wild fire. The mob decided without a shred of evidence that the Evil, the USA, was responsible, and in a frenzied state they marched to consulates and the embassy. The mob in a fit of fury and frenzy pelted stones on the cars of fellow countrymen. They killed a Pakistani employee of the embassy. The US had nothing to do with this very local uprising.

Neither the Kharjites were hurt by our actions nor were the perpetrators: a classic case where the protestors were cloaked with feelings of sanctimonious feelings, a holier than thou attitude. A complete lack of understanding to reveal to themselves that there was no proximate cause related to any, except, the Saudis themselves but we killed a fellow citizen. How much more can our clouded thinking take us to lowest of the abyss of human indignity.

Malice hurts itself not; he that hurts another hurts himself. We convince ourselves of the nobility of our ignoble behaviour. “The devil can cite the scripture for his purpose (Shakespeare in Merchant of Venice). We are our own enemy and one enemy can damage and hurt more than two ten friends can do good. It is better to have thousand enemies outside the house (read country) than one inside.

Mob is uncontrollable. Even handlers fail. A wily leader of fools lives a merry life. Look at all the clergy who lead massive rallies; they are mostly in their SUVs, the four wheelers. The protestors in this wild heat follow on foot. So much for masawaat! These pseudo religious leaders cannot read the writing on the wall—people will one day unmask you publicly. The fact is not dawning. Retaliation is not an article of faith. To respond to a barking dog is to prove your own identity.

The disapproval of something genuine leads to protest. That the resentment must find its way in causing harm to our traffic lights beats an insane mind too.

Recently, there has been a spike in deaths caused by over-speeding tankers and trailers. Our reaction has been to burn down the trailers and if the driver is caught, the mob lynches him. The government says those miscreants will be handled and given strict sentences. Nothing happens.

There is a similar case. All are unanimous that goods from Israel must be boycotted. A few days back these miscreants attacked a fast food chain, who reportedly buy some ingredients, indirectly, from overse as companies that have Israeli interests. They broke glasses, vandalised the premises.

The mob doesn’t understand how franchises work. If the intent is to hurt, look at remitted profits. Are they reasonable or is it out of step with norm or tends to be flight of capital? Then write to regulators in protest. Burning down our assets helps no cause. The job opportunities have been lost. The entire peripheral economy around the franchise gets affected. Boycott by not buying and not by looting and vandalising.

Just imagine how does Israel get damaged by the closure of our shops or how does the Palestinian issue get any benefit? None. To the contrary, it hurts our economy, less sales, less taxes, less daily wages, etc.; so to protest against Israel and to show solidarity with our Palestinian brothers, we indulge into idiotic self-flagellation. We amuse the Israeli and the world with our suicidal tendency to hurt ourselves.

One minute of insane behaviour requires decades of corrective action. The deleterious attitude towards humanity for a cruel heart is a Roman Holiday. Regrettably, “The mob gets out of hand , runs wild, worse than raging fire, while the man who stands apart is called a coward” (William Arrow Smith).

Uncontrolled and impulsive responses to situations, individually and collectively, arise out of tendency to self-destruction. The lack of control coming out of either lack of education or out of instilled biases and prejudices gives impetus to unruly behaviour and with disdain and complete disregard and neglect towards responsibility, actions are undertaken to cause pain and harm to self and others.

A mob passes through no phases to self-destruct; there is no contemplation, a forethought, preparation; the reactions are impulsively, emotionally and sentimentally inspired, leading to temporary insanity.

In the “Mutiny of Young”, Robert Lindner writes, “In the crowd, herd, or gang, it is a mass-mind that operates—which is to say, a mind without subtlety, a mind without compassion, a mind, finally, uncivilized.”

Mob is ignorant, largely, and is usually following a blind leader; mob has many heads, but no brains. The enlightened President, Abraham Lincoln said, “There is no grievance that is fit object of redress by mob law”.

The frenzied mob exercises no restraint because it experiences a certain pleasure, a positive sort of enjoyment and satisfaction at the pain caused.

The sick mind of the mob gets pleasure with the growing pains of others. The savage nature of man enjoys the flow of tears—it does not melt the hearts.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025