Tag: constitution as a moral document

What should we (the civil society) be doing in India and Pakistan? A conversation between an Indian and a Pakistani

Jayant Bhandari is an Indian who left India and settled in Canada. I never met him. He’s a Facebook friend. His posts generate thoughtful discussions and that’s how we both found each other in a good friendly relation.

I did try to leave Pakistan during my teen years, and failed. Later I abandoned the idea of leaving the country for obvious “reasons.” I wanted to do my bit to free our people from the pseudo shackles made of unfounded notions by the Riyasati Ashrafiya (ریاستی اشرافیہ) of Pakistan.

What is common between Jayant and I is the deep concern for the freedom, well-being and happiness of our respective people. And no doubt for the larger humanity too.

Early this January one post of Jayant attracted my attention. It was an excerpt from one of his articles: First World, Third World.

“Irrespective of the merit of what Trump did, those who …

Cynicism and the Theory of Lesser Evil

[Here is the part 4 of the article: “Cynicism and Pakistan.”]
The Theory of Lesser Evil (TLE) is a manifestation of cynicism. As cynicism finds its meaning mainly in negativity and faultfinding, TLE too believes that everything is Evil; there is no Good. If everything is Evil, and there exists no Good, then what we are free to do is make a choice between all the Evil things. Nonetheless, TLE makes room for things which are more Evil and which are less Evil. This seems to be a ploy to carve out a niche for human choice; otherwise, if everything is Evil, then there is no question of making any choice. In that case, we are all condemned and doomed to live with Evil. But the choice between the things more Evil and the things less Evil allows for us to live with things which are less Evil. Herein lie
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