ctober 1 is the International Music Day, the cause of celebration of one of the most significant expressions by humankind. It is an occasion to acknowledge and celebrate the power of the music to bring together people and communities.

Another occasion celebrated these days is the June 21 World Music Day meant to note that the world has become closer due to a number of reasons, mostly the rise of technology that makes it possible to connect with one another within moments. Artists around the world give street performances on the day to make their art more accessible to the societies they are a part of.

But whether the world has actually gotten closer or the differences among peoples and cultures remain as wide as ever remain s a moot question. There are in fact people who worry that the differences have grown wider with the exponential rise of the human outreach.

As we see and hear, there is war all round us. The desire for peace is still a pipe dream. The ultimate arbiter in conflict solutions is still a call to arms. This is evident from what is happening in the world today. Arguments and consideration for peace, harmony and tolerance and their blessings are being blown to pieces as the war mongers chart the course for mankind’s collective future.

Where does that leave the arts and the artistes? They, obviously, are on the side of peace, but not quite. The history of the arts corresponds closely to the history of war and hero worship in many ways started with the heroes of war being raised to the level of demi-gods, even gods.

Musicians too have been employed by mighty kings and warriors to play and sing their tunes and lead the chants in their praises. Even these days the embedded message in the arts is often the victory of one and the demolition of another. What is lacking is a sense of objectivity. Prejudice and cultivated biases play a major role in this and the even handed judgment dealt a crushing blow.

Today, as in history, we see musicians being enlisted to play the bands that are supposed to be an integral part of a synchronised military machine. In the past too, the harmony and the togetherness that rhythm brings was a key element in unison and discipline.

It can be said with the advantage of hundreds and thousands of years of history that the two cannot be eliminated. Neither can one of these be eliminated at the expense of the other. The two will exist side by side and the desire to make wars will be just as intense as the desire to live peacefully and resolve all disagreements without shedding blood. The mantra of tolerance will be effective only in patches.

It is very simplistic to assume that arts are an effective antidote to the aggressive instincts embedded in nature. In the past decades, especially in Pakistan, the arts have been pitched against the aggressive instincts as a way to counter those and to be an effective countervailing wave. In Pakistan, during the decades marred by the aggression of terrorism, it was sometimes argued that good music, dance and poetry were the ultimate answer to aggression and the desire to destroy. It was said that the societies that were artistically most active shunned aggressive behaviours and did not indulge in needless violence.

What is needed is a higher level of tolerance. The rise and progress of another society should not be seen as a threat to one’s own superiority. Development does not have to be a contest where there can be only one winner. An exclusive perception of superiority leads to violence; or else demands compliance. If societies and nations persist in such approaches a stage is soon reached where two or more want to establish and demonstrate their superiority in whatever form possible. In most cases, the arts become complicit in this quest or aspiration. The artists then pay a secondary role in enforcing the intellectual and emotional justification for the pursuit of dominance.

Still there is no harm in dreaming that the end will be a peaceful one where all issues are resolved with a peaceful forbearance and violence ceases to the rule rather than a rare exception. The parallel streams have been the course that human history has run through. It appears that it will continue to follow the same course. The rest is idealism. Of course, that too is a domain for the arts.

The writer is an art critic based in Lahore