Are We Living in the Age of Bullets & Ideas!!!!

A University Professor from Balochistan believes that we are living in the age of bullets and ideas, sharing his thoughts with a friend and it is so profound yet true. Since childhood i had been taught that ideas are powerful than bullets, as i grew up, I witnessed that bullets are powerful enough to silence brilliant minds and ideas. During 16th century, one of the philosophers ‘Machiavelli’ advised to Italian king in his book Prince, that power is reality rest doesn’t matter. Those were the dark ages in Europe but today when I look around I simply say power realism is the order of the day. I still believe that ideas have enormous power, since they form the frame of our understanding of the world, inform our beliefs and drive our behaviors. Great ideas are so profound and frame-shaking that they quickly topple many of the things we believe, and transform our worldviews, our values and hence our actions. I still believe that we need more great ideas, and a deeper understanding of how and when they transform our understanding, our culture, what we do and who we are. There are two best known cases when great ideas were not accepted like Galileo’s discovery and Darwin's model of the evolution of all life so threatened the orthodoxy of ideas that to this day, centuries later, religious fanatics remain in denial about its validity, and try to deprive it of its credibility by calling a 'theory' rather than 'truth'. Looking back socially, there are people in Pakistan come up with better ideas for making a difference in the lives of people; they share new form of relationship between state and its people. Ideas focus on State ensuring the welfare of people and acting like a father further ensuring the socio-economic and political rights of people.

 On the other hand we see ideas generated on political platform for better tomorrow are simply washed away with the power of bullets, be it Balochistan or any other part of the country. Religious minorities are silenced in the name of blasphemy; peaceful gatherings or processions are threatened with suicide bombs, hotels are attacked, mosques are bombed, even girls schools are not spared, people are forcefully kidnapped, tortured in the name of national security and at times political voice is silenced with the power of bullet. Hope emerges, when I see people coming up with better ideas for tomorrow and better future for all of us living in Pakistan.