Intellectual’s Community and Aam Aadmi
Loren Eiseley was an American anthropologist, educator, philosopher and natural science writer. Eiseley articulates the dilemma of intellectuals and wise-men of the society who always keep universal and global concerns on their priority agenda and never thinks about the sufferings of Aam Aadmi in their neighbor and never worry about the dreadful Insaniyat in their surrounding areas because they remain much busy in thinking international policies and global strategies.
The Star Thrower is a story of an intellectual who used to go to ocean to create his essays, stories and novels. His intellectual essays and fanciful stories are well read and appraised all around the World. He had a habit of walking on the shore to gain innovative ideas and inventive thoughts before going to begin his writings. One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked on the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled at the thought of the person who would like to dance early in the morning and he walked faster to identify him. As he reached closer, he noticed that the figure was a young man and was not dancing at all. The young man reach down to the shore pick up small objects and throwing them into the ocean.
The wise-man came closer and called may i ask what are you doing. The young man paused, looked up, and replied throwing starfish into the ocean. Then the wise-man asked why you are throwing starfish into the ocean. The young man replied “The sun is rising up and the tides are going out. If I don’t throw them in the ocean, they shall die on the shore”. Hearing this wise man commented but young man do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You cannot make any difference by your act. The young man bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean. As star fish met the water he said it made a difference for that one.
This is the dilemma of wise community all over the globe that they remain busy in exploring new horizons in the sky and forget hundred and thousands dying star fish under their feet. They remain engage to know the impact factor of tie color of Barak Obama but they remain unaware that a child died in their own servant quarter last night due to starvation and malnutrition. They feel worry to know the reasons of global warming but unable to notice miseries of poverty stricken roofless Hari’s. They put all their efforts to detect the secrets of private life of celebrities but ignore the naked bodies of labour standing roadsides for bread winning. They always conduct psycho analysis studies to discover the religious and political affiliations of the masses but never try to explore the basic physical needs (rooti, kapra aor makkan) of Aam Aadmi.
This capitalistic system use the wise community as a tool to control the minds of masses and to build their opinion for a cause and then manufacturing consent of public for their own corporate objectives. Wise man and intellectuals are used as opinion leader to plant pseudo issue and pseudo-events to divert the common men from their real issues which ultimately give birth to uncertain societies, segregated communities and indeterminate nations. Because have’s class knows that if labour unite on any single line agenda, their power has a potential to shake the thrones of the kings and their truth slogans will challenge the authority of intellectuals and their decisions can force big mafias to shut down their screens of disinformation, on which so called missionaries and screen intellectuals are shouting and wrestling until the guests started abusing and fighting and Mr. Anchor sitting on safe side of the table, smile beneath the lips that he had succeeded to win the top scores on TPR rankings.
To pin down the diary of an Aam Aadmi we have to begin with the example of village (the basic unit of civilization) it is necessary to explore the thinking of a peri-urban people because they are not much bulleted by the agendas of corporate players. Before the excessive media outlets people have time to set together under Bargud tree to share their personal problems and family issues with each other and wise man of the community try to dig out the solution using his knowledge and experiences. They discuss about the changing season and its impact on their ready crops and how to use this seasonal change for the cultivation of the next crop. They share their experiences about common cattle diseases and their herbal treatment.
Unfortunately today the agenda of 1% elite is injected in the minds of 99% public as Karl Marx has said that those who control the means of production ultimately control the means of thinking in the society and this is again unfortunate dilemma of wise community and intellectuals of our society that they always think about the international strategies and great games, in this lust of big thinking Aam Aadmi is dying and crying like star fish but intellectuals and wise men are exploring the new horizons for their fiction stories and new angles in their feature articles because intellectuals of our society are somehow are getting their share for the profits of conglomerates and big business mafias.
Due to massive bombardment of fake realities and pseudo issues today we can breathe without bread but cannot without television, our youth can visit schools, colleges and universities without books but it is unimaginable to go to class without smart phone, we never worried about the boiling drain pipe of our streets but shock to know about cable disconnection at our home. These are our standard to examine the life and these are our merits to judge the humanity. We shall have to remove the glasses of media disinformation and came out of heaven of conciliation then we shall be able to view the hell of this planet in which Aam Aadmi is scorching since centuries.
This is time to remove mediated telescopes from our eyes which only captures the far off images of big things and we have to start thinking about Aam Aadmi who is dying like star fish on the shore although these issues are not so big for the intellectuals writings and not much news worthy for the journalists but it can make a big difference for Aam Aadmi. Wise community should have to explore the reasons that who is throwing young blood into bombardment of terrorism, why Balooch nationalists are adopting violent strategies for their cause, why Karachi is crying day in and day out and why street crime increased in Punjab in the days of industrial shut down due to energy crises.
There may be multiple reasons for all the above tragic scenes and mishaps but the bigger drive from where all the negative thoughts are produced is the hell of stomach hunger which brings the orphans into mudrashas in search of food and shelter and then mudrashas use their blank brains for their own heinous designs, it force deprived Baloochs to gain their rights by hook and crook, it puts educated and jobless degree holders to become target killers and it turns the workless daily wagers into street snatchers. In short rather than thinking beyond the horizons wise men and intellectuals of the society should have to focus on the shore where hundred and thousand star fish are dying or otherwise historians and truth seekers must put them in the chapter of intellectual dishonesty, screen wrestling and conciliated official writers in the holy book of humanity.