Acrimo-nious conflict will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums, and smaller adrenal glands. This truth of history had first been emphasized upon by Homer, and subsequently endorsed by almost every historian and chronicler of human behaviour.
The roots of acrimonious conflict lie either in the desire to conquer, dominate and subjugate, or in the simple lust for wealth and power. Only occasionally it has so happened that the spirit of commitment to (and guardianship of) certain sacred ideals and cherished principles has resulted in conflicts bordering around acrimony; but in general the adrenal glands have played a pivotal role in triggering combats, battles, wars and carnage.
The reason I am inclined to philosophize the factors behind the present state of conflict between the Government and the Rest is that it is my firm belief that no amount of knowledge of, and training in civilized behaviour (acquired over all those centuries that have gone by since Paris took Helen to Troy, and a thousand Greek ships were launched against Ilium to recover the Queen of Sparta from the Trojan custody) has succeeded in changing man’s basic instincts and nature.
On the 1st of June President Pervez Musharraf went to his “Comrades and Commanders” -in-Arms to confirm, for the consumption of both his challengers and his supporters, that the customary loyalty of the saluting soldiers to their chief hadn’t been dented by the extensively flaunted theories to the contrary. In so doing he wasn’t acting any differently from Agamemnon the king of kings who had just not been able to help feeling threatened by the power that Achilles had enjoyed in the Greek ranks. On the face of it, they hadn’t ever failed to publicly regard each other proud friends, but beneath their armour and skin, they both housed rock-hard egos which left no room for any other kind of worship except self-worship.
Of course this reference is symbolic. General Pervez Musharraf is not Agamemnon, and Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry isn’t Achilles. Yet they are caught up in an acrimonious conflict that could have been avoided if General Pervez Musharraf had recognized the fact that to be the King of Kings meant ‘acceptance’ of the simple truth that all kings have the same majestic whims.
Why hasn’t the King of Kings acted any differently from the way he has acted?
Why hasn’t he chosen to bring more of ‘cerebrum’ into play and less of adrenal glands?
Why did he forget while seeking endorsement from his commanders that he has been taking pains to convince the world that he is running a genuine democracy, in spirit and content, not a camouflaged army regime?
An animal is either a lion or a horse. It can’t be both.
Simple truth.
(This Column was first published on 04-06-2007)
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