When a society is hit by instability and uncertainty, the whole society starts losing its direction. It starts going astray; its people start losing hope and trust from the society. They, in fact, lose the sense of purpose as well and fail to realize what roles and responsibilities they have as a part of society. Therefore, they saunter aimlessly and reach nowhere.
Same is the case with Afghan society. The socio-political disorder, the insecurity and the ambiguities about the future have left the society confused. The politicians seem to have lost the true objective of their leadership. They themselves are not sure what they are doing and what they have to do for the nation. What they can be sure is their personal benefits and that they can measure easily as well. Therefore, they keep pursuing only the same and never take the tiring job of solving the issues being faced by the country as whole.
The intellectuals of the society who should be a ray of hope in this dismal circumstances have in fact shut down the lights of their consciousness. They have also compromised with the circumstances or they are being overwhelmed by them; therefore, they have nothing worthwhile to offer.
The religious leaders on the other hand are insistent on their obsolete ideas. What they do not like are the changes; whether good or bad. They only know one path and that leads back to the past. They do not have any formula to face the challenges being introduced by the ever-changing socio-political circumstances. They are apologetic towards the extremists and themselves are also responsible for creating a mindset that is favorable for the nourishment of religious extremism and terrorism.
The youth that should be the makers of future are not sure of their own futures. Many of them, in sheer desperation, are leaving the country and the ones that are left behind curse their destiny. The government does not have any comprehensive strategy to involve them in the process of the nation building and certain of them find refuge among the ranks of the terrorists, where they find both incentive and clear objectives.
As a matter of fact, the entire system of values and traditions in our society seems to be based on weird ethical principles. Few of the people have devoured the entire wealth of the nation; and many among them are busy in the fabricated demonstration of wealth and prestige. While the intellectuals have taken the responsibility of proving the sins of the rich class right through holy scriptures. Meanwhile, some other groups are striving endlessly to earn reputation in every possible manner.
Has earning fame ever been a matter of concern for the wise people of the society? Our society has adopted the non-issues and wasting time on them. In reality, we are lagging behind our true social, civil and philosophical problems. Our people are reacting just like immature children and it appears to be written on our foreheads that we do not have any serious issues at the moment.
Though we are human and claim to be superior to other creatures, we have forgotten the habits of thinking and understanding. The fact is that our people have not been provided the required saneness and boldness to think about the challenges of time and challenge the prevailing values and understandings. We are habitual of saying only those words that seem suitable to everyone as we are afraid to make others angry. We, from the very beginnings of our lives, are taught to compromise and adjust. Even if there is a place for one person to sit in a car, we can adjust two persons there. We strive to fit ourselves in the mold of traditions and practices even though they may be obsolete and insane.
If someone considers the problems of others as his, they become angry and consider him their enemy. If a person tries to divert the attention of others towards their actual problems, they mind it and consider it a lie.
We have only a single ideal to pursue and that is our ‘past’. Unfortunately, the past has not always been glorious and our people seem to follow the same portion of the past that was inglorious. It is difficult to understand why our people do not live their own lives instead of living the lives of their forefathers. If they really want to make difference to themselves and to the world they need to start living their own lives – their present, not past.
If we lack a serious consideration to our present and to the life, we would never be able to have a sincere relation with knowledge and even with our beliefs. Though we seem to have inhabited the cities, we have deserted our conscience and our spirits. We seem like alien in our own world. We need to wake up; we need to understand that we are pursuing the wrong directions and the wrong destinations. We must realize that we are not using our humanly attributes in their full capacities and we are not fulfilling the responsibility of being true human being.