In the previous column, I escaped from the burning issues of our country’s politics, which are all nerve breaking and dreadful. Some of my friends have endorsed it. They think in a country with an overwhelming majority of illiterate and emotionally blind people we face plunderers in the garb of politicians, and with the masks of leaders on their faces, and stooges of foreign powers are performing as puppets. Agony is the fate of those true Pakistanis who start understanding these kind of dirty politics. In this environment, those who have not plundered billions of rupees to bring a change or become an effective part of the system should snooze and enjoy life by staying away from this game. They must give more attention to their own profession and to the welfare of their families and community.
From the emergence of Pakistan, we are facing crises and tough times. Why that is so, this has been explained in American scholar Daniel Markey’s book “No Exit from Pakistan”. He says that the US had decided 72 years ago that Pakistan would not be allowed to develop. The USA never trusted Pakistan. He writes that the more they were helping Pakistan financially more Pakistanis were hating America. The author narrates the techniques the US uses for purchasing our politicians, bureaucrats, professors, journalists, etc. After narrating so many eye-opening facts, he also emphasized that the US will not exit Pakistan, especially because; “(i) Pakistan is a nuclear power, and we need to watch it closely. (ii) Pakistan is the only country that has very close military and civil relations with China. We can monitor China through Pakistan. (iii) Pakistan has a big army if it goes rogue it can disturb the whole region, we need to watch it closely.”
I have referred to this book so that we can keep in mind the roots of our problems. When I was a small boy in seventh and eighth classes, I picked it from the routine gossip of my elders that our foreign bosses have decided to keep Pakistan underdeveloped. Then, I also learned that despite being so rich in oil and gas deposits, big powers want us to remain poor in this sector. In that early age, I also learned that in our country dishonest people and flatterers are successful. Those who get bribe at lower ranks and share it with high ups and bow before them climb the ladder quickly by promotions, whereas the honest and hardworking government functionaries are cornered everywhere. I have found these two observations of common people of that age quite true everywhere till this age of 75 years. Now, back to the topic at hand.
Scholar Stephen Littlejohn in his book ‘Theories of Human Communication’ writes: “Angels never face any communication problems because they communicate with each other telepathically but human beings face communication problems because they communicate symbolically.”
Here, symbols mean words, colors, sketches, body movements, hand gestures, and face impressions. Information, desires, emotions, and ideas are stored in our brain cells in electromagnetic form. There is no wire invented so far that can take this information from one brain to another. We are compelled to convert different parts of our information or ideas into symbols for transferring it to others. Symbol can take any shape like written and spoken words {language}, signs, colors, and sketches. These symbols do not mean themselves but they represent those meanings which are in our brains.
Words, in a language, carry only those meanings which are attached to them by a general understanding of the people who speak a language. Words are just like maps that represent a territory and its topology. When we draw some lines and say it is Pakistan, these lines or not actually Pakistan but they are just an idea of that area that contains political boundaries, rivers, roads, mountains, and cities. In the same language, meanings of words can change with the change in time and space. A word can have different meanings on different occasions and for one meaning different words can be used. Another scholar talks about the field of experience or frame of reference.
All we have in our minds acquired by experiments, observations, traveling, and readings are our fields of experience. It is called frame of reference because whenever our mind receives some information through any of the five senses it refers it to its stored information of the field of experience (total knowledge).
Our brain like a supercomputer processes this referred information within the sixteenth part of a second and replies back. If we look at the people around us and get information about their field of experience, we will see that everyone has lived in different places, with different traditions, experiences, and knowledge. Everyone’s frame of reference will give different meanings to different situations. That is why it is difficult to see exactly the same opinion of group members about similar situations. Different opinions can create hindrances in group work and if taken as a blessing it can benefit the group with its variety of experiences. But for it, team spirit must prevail within the members and collective wisdom must be gained through brainstorming or other methods.
