Ali Mandokhail
Abnormality and madness is being different from “others”. Others are the majority who have the same structures, standards and discourse. In short it is the majority that has unjustly occupied the right to fix and label someone. Let’s revisit the middle ages. People used to pay Church for indulgence. Martin Luther (the father of Protestantism) resisted and doubted this very act. Following it, people (the majority) declared him a mad and abnormal. But the very ‘madness’ of him proved to be a history changing move in the later history of Christianity.
In other words the game is about ‘standards.’ Standards are determined by the majority. No matter how stupid the standards are but we (irrationally-charged lot) blindly follow the standards. Ghani Khan was declared Lewanai (mad) for his doubting the role of Mullah in a time when Mullahs were deemed as “spokesmen of God on earth.”
In a similar way, Paulo Coelho, one of the most famous writers, was given electrical shocks for his ‘abnormal’ behavior. Since his childhood he wanted to be an artist but the word artist at that time was considered as bad as homosexuality and drug addiction. He suffered because the word artist was not the general practice of the majority thus the society labeled him as a lunatic because he was not behaving as the society wanted him to behave. But the same lunatic followed his dreams, and now he is shaping the minds of millions through his books. We must neither scoff at others for being different nor should we label them as normal or abnormal. In short, standards for normality and abnormality never exist; better to avoid labeling.
Writer is a student of BUITEMS
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author and Balochistan Voices not necessarily agrees with them.
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