Letters from a Grandfather
By Mowahid Hussain Shah

During the brutal cold of February in Washington, I received a book from world-record-holding spinner emeritus of England and captain of Surrey, Pat Pocock. The book, “Letters to My Grandchildren,” written by venerable British Labor Party statesman, Tony Benn, is a distillation of wit, intellect, and judgment conveyed to his grandchildren in the form of letters. 

The art of letter writing has declined and so, too, with it thoughtfulness.
Benn’s book is a welcome break from the sameness that defines modern living.
Fired by moral purpose and equipped with a formidable intellect, Benn furnishes illuminating guideposts to purpose-driven living. 
In an unobtrusive way, he punctures the smugness of arrogance: “I’ve also become aware as I have got older how little I know.”

Benn believes that “the world is literally one small community locked together.”  It is all the more reason, therefore, to reexamine the impact of information propagated by the powerful.  The threat perception of the global elites is elucidated by pointing out: “what has always frightened the rich and powerful has been the appearance from among the oppressed of self-confident leaders who could alter the balance of power.” (page 39)  It has held true in the case of Ché Guevara, Malcolm X, and Nelson Mandela.
Benn is cognizant of the perils of enjoying power without responsibility.  He reminds that “just getting rid of one government and replacing it with another one did not necessarily change anything.”  It is a message that many in Pakistan have not fully heard or listened to.

Here, too, the Labor leader questions the hereditary system which, in its broader scope, erodes democratic legitimacy in Pakistan as well as in America, where the 2016 Bush versus Clinton Presidential clash then was an action replay for the Bush versus Clinton tussle of 1992.

Benn warns the West that “America is itself in decline.” (page 100).
On Mideast, he finds “ludicrous the Zionist argument that God gave Palestine to the Jews”  (page 37) while stating that “Israel has absolutely ignored the United Nations, and been protected by America.” He further posits:  “We are always being told that nukes are essential for our defense, while any other country that uses the same argument is denounced and threatened with military strikes as some Americans and Israelis have done against Iran.” (page 86)  Those who bank on the overwhelming use of military and technological power would do well to heed Tony Benn’s counsel:  “In the nuclear age, it is the suicide bombers who cannot be deterred by the threat of death.  Indeed, they welcome it.” (page 85)
Significantly, he sees the current world crisis as a “rerun of the 1930s.”  Certainly, the 21st-century scapegoating of Muslims is a push in that direction. 

Benn cautions his grandchildren and through them the younger generation to be vigilant of those “continually trying to frighten you”, to verify facts on their own, not to yield to the self-imposed prison of pessimism, and to keep burning “the flame of anger against injustice.”
And that is what converts “popular aspirations into practical politics.”