Your leadership will be a reflection of you (the people), is oft quoted to deride the majority of us who have elected the rulers after whose election we rue our fate.

And I have no doubt that the majority of us do use this quote not to justify the irrationality of our rulers’ actions, but the rationality of their being what we are.

Since this is a given, why debate over the types of government and question relevance of democracy over dictatorship or any other form of so called civilized governance? Should we not then stop questioning the legality of the deeds and blindly accept the misdeeds of the “elected,” “imposed,” or “otherwise” elevated to the corridors of power on the pretext that they are of the same ilk as us?

This becomes the overriding factor in our lives. Every time something happens that we want to question, we are confronted with the conspiracy of the will, with everyone telling us to stop thinking and subjugate rationality to a conditioned mindset ingrained over years.

Even when the victims and survivors of acts of radical extremism want an answer to what has befallen them? How will their bleeding hearts find succor? How and what will be done to counter this and other incidents like it? For how long will such terror and horror be inflicted on the innocents?

All they get as an answer is that, what has happened was the will, and what is to happen, will happen if it is so willed.

Road rage, children going out of the ambit of the family, wheeling on motorcycles, eve teasing, street crime, cheating, intolerance, mistrust, seeking ways to circumvent rules and authority, an overall environment of disobedience, and a host of such issues confront us today, in all probability these are also willed.

Any social scientist and psychiatrist will tell us that these are symptoms of a disease called disintegration of societal values and norms, and the cause for this disintegration is a breakup of the family system, time mismanagement, ill-gotten gains spend unwisely, and to some extent the misuse of technological advancement.

Why not use the ‘will’ as motivation to bring about a change in the entire scheme of things and as a result in the manner of governance by creating a change in ourselves, individually and collectively, so that this change is reflected in the greater good of society. And then use this quote to extoll the greater good of the greater lot, and the rulers then will be of the same ilk as we.

The will is constant. Although we know that of the past nothing can be done, the future is untold and not promised to anyone, and only the present is in our hands. Yet the will becomes a stumbling block on which we are not ready to compromise nor are ready to accept the fact that change is the only constant in life.

The will waits to play out its charted course; and we wait baited breath for the will to transpire. When from the pulpit of all denominations we hear it said “Allah does not change a people's lot unless they change what is in their hearts.” (Surah Al-Ra’d 13.11)

Till the change is willed, the will unfolding is the given. And we willingly accept it as unquestionable and inviolable. A fate that is not!