Collective Wisdom

The term is now frequently in use by those who seem to be annoyed due to the interference of Supreme Court to put a bridle on their full galloping wrong doings. They want to convince us that the wisdom of only 17 judges of superior court can’t be trusted. They can rely on the wisdom of 170 millions people who elect them to exercise the power and make decisions. They boast to be the representatives of these 170 million people, but, whose representatives these 17 judges of Supreme Court are? Are they not on their posts to ensure 170 million people not letting them become subject to any injustice? Are they not to prevent wrongdoings harming the rights and interests of 170 millions people? Are they not there to safeguard against intrigues hatched against the country and stand firm protecting the nation from selfish and avaricious designs of all the local and foreign forces? Of course, they are.

If the opinion of 170 million people is a thing to be named the collective wisdom then when does it come in practice? Only on the occasions of the election when they once again get stung from the same hole? Wise learns after the events but the laymen are repeatedly beguiled showing no learning from treacherous words of the politicians. The political charmers very foxily dupe them through their false statements and promises. Petty desires lower their human status and they remain nothing but at the beck and call of the political conjurers.

It is not more than an illusion that the number of votes cast in an election making a political party winner is actually in result of something to be called ‘collective wisdom’. Wisdom is a power. It differentiates between right and wrong without any waver, above from any spurious material attraction. It beams to show the exit in thick darkness. It influences and not gets induced. A common man, at least in our country, seldom uses his wisdom or in other words his common sense while deciding whom he has to favor in the election. His opinion is much more subject to the outer factors than his insight. It is made on the call of coterie, cast and tribe. His mind is greatly misted over by media propaganda, hazed by prejudice and clouded by the worldly benefits.

No doubt an illiterate and a scholar in a society are equal in protection of their life, property and honor. Both must enjoy the opportunities to make progress and live a peaceful life but still the difference of their wisdom can’t be denied. The politicians, very cunningly, construe the number of heads coming in counting on their side as the wisdom of the supporters because in present popular democratic system number of the heads is more important than the brains in the skulls. But in making policies and taking decisions not only the concept of consulting them is thought absurd, even their problems and grievances are thought not worth any consideration.

Every body knows the level of devotion of the workers of PPP for their slain leader Benazir Bhuto. Her murder was a great shock for them. They still wait for the plotters and the killers of Bi Bi to be brought to the justice and punished for their heinous act of murder. Fingers are raised at some dubious characters in the party and very influential figures in the government but ‘collective wisdom’ of the workers has no weight in the eyes of the leadership. The anger of the people bursts making their hackles rise because of price hike, shortage of necessities of life, load shedding, lawlessness, huge loss of lives and properties in result of bomb blasts. They burn the tires, block the roads and hold the demonstration rallies but this expression of their bitter feelings goes unnoticed and is not thought to be ‘collective wisdom’.

Our Holy Prophet (pbuh) is reported to have said: “ The highest degree of the wisdom is to be God fearing” Perhaps the same thing with a minor difference in Bible: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” God fearing is found neither in the leaders nor the masses show any sing of it. Wisdom is only found in truth which is missing on the both sides. Those who again and again get stung from the same hole can never be assumed to be ‘wise’ and their vote for fake degree holders, plunderers and liars is in no way an evidence of ‘collective wisdom.’