IRSHAD SALIM — Back in November 2018, I correlated the going on’s with angry Beethoven’s 5th Symphony — it remains one of the best-known compositions, and one of the most frequently played violinistic expression of 19th Century Europe — when anger management was not a psychiatric pay slip.
A month earlier, DoodleChaos scaled it up using Line Rider, and YouTubed it: DoodleChaos spent over 3 months synchronizing a line rider track to Beethoven’s 5th — drawing everything by hand.
The roller coaster to the brink, then rolling over, swinging back, and again going for a spin, and then returning back from the abyss, until my (our) expectations that the rider will fall out (any time, soon, etc.) become the unexpected.
If we assume that we are the rider, and the broken line — at places upended and in some places under-grounded — is the rule of law — and is also the path to employment/self-employment opportunities with challenges — the animation will make more sense. We need some of us doing straight thinking.
We can’t be doing this (video clip below) instead. I call this the causal effect of our embrace with the ongoings: artificial intelligence and ‘debt/modern economy’ albeit ‘consumerism’ at work:
Khan Sahib (his friends and supporters call Premier Imran Khan) is as much a rider (of his own will) as members of the bulging youth. Incidentally they are almost 64 percent of our population –a huge dividend and a challenge too. They are on this highway too, piggybacking.
The state edifices are fixing the line and that will take time — this is not Khan’s domain though, no matter how much one or many may think so — he can and is providing and ought to provide the enabling environment.
Meanwhile, giving breaks and relief to the (youthful) nation is a natural must-do thing-for the government. It will add political strength and support to the process and reduce the parallax.
I question why the line isn’t straight or is broken, etc. but ‘WE’ all are the line rider, so I must focus on my strength and belief, not on weaknesses and perceptions, and scout a path of least resistance.
Who are ‘WE’? It should be ‘THEY’ in my view: A) the youth (64 percent); B) the youth in rural areas (67% of our population lives in the rural).
‘WE’ (the 10 to 11% and of non-youth group, rest are children) must stop thinking for ourselves and give a thought. And that includes me.
WE can’t doodle chaos. It will affect OUR future generation (64% of us).
The writer is an Islamabad-based consultant and analyst.
