Mr Vawda essentially made two points as he displayed boot fetishism. Like any fetishist, he loves the mysterious powers the object of his adulation represents to him and he finds it extremely unreasonable and hypocritical on the part of the opposition to try and invade his inner sanctum. It appears he guards it quite jealously.
When the host of the show wondered, quite elegantly, about how shiny the boot was, Mr Vawda’s comments implied that the opposition had licked the boot wonderfully well. Never mind the paradox that the boot came out of Mr Vawda’s bag and not that of the opposition.
Mr Vawda knew what he was doing; he was attacking the opposition members’ sense of honor and self-respect as politicians. He knew it would hurt them where they are most vulnerable, despite all the survival-motivated hypocrisy and corruption-induced cowardice that they can easily be accused of. Mr Vawda is a man who carries no such vulnerability. His own sense of honor and self-respect is untainted and undiluted by stains of corruption. Hence the quite safe conclusion that this was Mr Vawda in his essence – at his purest. It is clear that Mr Vawda takes great pride in this and will not be deterred by those who tend to be shocked by such raw displays of purity.
The civilized creatures in a state of shock should know that they have strangely and needlessly suffered a culture shock in their own country – as if they had just woken up from a long and deep slumber and did not know what path the country and society have been on for years.
We should learn to savor such uncompromisingly clean and transparent commitment to purity. We should deride the psychological contradictions and complexities of those who run away from the debates and talk shows which feature these displays. Mr Vawda showed imagination quite natural to him when he exposed what he must have interpreted as his opponents’ attempt to possess self-respect and sell it too. In the face of inspired imagination, his opponents could only flee the ground.
We should also take our hats off to the media anchors and hosts that lend a helping hand to imagination. Make no mistake about it – a host of hosts and media organizations without exception have, at one time or another, not only helped Vawdas big and small, but imagined and created them. The credit belongs to all.
George Orwell wanted us to imagine a boot stamping on a human face. The boot when it is right there on the menu doesn’t take much imagination. It is the face we should strain our brain for. Whose face should (do) we see?
The writer is editor oped, The News.
Email: redzain@yahoo.com
Twitter: @reditorzain
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