Do not discount Pakistan’s British heritage

Most of us don’t believe everything we hear, and certainly not what we see on TV. Add in the poor education of so many in the for profit media, and their tendency to reverberate what ever bubbles to the top of the septic tank, and it is difficult to be confidently informed of reality. Good, bad, or indifferent, that is how it is these days.

All the turmoil in Pakistan is the test case, or example. The obvious candidates for who commissioned the assassination are three. Add in the not so obvious candidates, and who knows. The key point is there are many in Pakistan who still believe in the nation-state idea, the rule of law, and the many myriad of compromises to help make this happen. Along the way, many in Pakistan see the exploiters of their many cultures and tribes, who can never rule in their own right because of competing cultures and tribes, and so are willing to follow the British model that worked for so many centuries. It is one tough cauldron of politics and business and ruling families.

Just don’t forget them in all the reporting going on. Our western example, a nation-state example, is worth fighting for, and certainly rates honesty in values and reporting. While we probably will never know what is really going on in Pakistan, our support for the British principles there will probably help the solution work to our advantage, as well as their advantage.

For the younger types so interested in all this, read about Marshall Tito and Yugoslavia back when it was both a nation-state and a dictatorship with rules. Sometimes knocking heads has benefits, especially when the alternatives are anarchy. Anarchy is not good for child raising and the future. Hence there are often better and compromising ways to do things for society.