Psychological Weakness

Psychological Weakness

1991 1 January 21 Psychological Weakness (335) A close friend of the Roman King Nero, Petronius Arbiter (d. 66), who was appointed magistrate of Rome in acknowledgement of his extraordinary abilities, gave many interesting sayings to posterity. Here is one of them:

‘The mind longs for what it has missed.’

This is just as true today as it was in the past. Indeed, this psychological weakness is so prevalent that not just individuals, but whole nations suffer from it.

The basic reason for this is that whatever was lost was not absolutely clear in the past but in the present, it has become more sharply defined. In the past this missing thing could not be the centre of attention because it was either not known of or if known of, it was not clear in every detail. Later on, in the full glare of publicity, it becomes a matter of common knowledge and, as such, becomes the general focus of attention. To allow this to happen is the crassest foolishness.

It is due to this human weakness that superficial leadership can come into being in a nation. Such shallow leadership is invariably raised on grounds of ‘known deprivations’. This is because the easiest way to arouse a people is to dwell on their known losses. For instance, if a Pakistani leader announces that Kashmir has to be taken possession of, he will immediately gain in popularity with the public and he will easily collect crores of rupees in donations. Why? Because all Pakistanis think of Kashmir as being lost to Pakistan.

On the contrary, if a Muslim leader of Pakistan says that we have to rise as a da’i group, he will never be able to collect an audience, for the loss of our da’i status is not generally known. False leadership is based on known losses: true leadership is based on invisible losses. (That is, worldly losses are evident to everyone, but loss in terms of the life hereafter eludes comprehension, because it can never be visible to the naked eye.)