Deadly Culture Wars in Pakistan

Adding a bit of jest to Hegel, Marx quipped that if history repeats itself, it does so first as tragedy then as farce. Even by this standard, it is not clear how we should characterize Pakistan's third overthrow of military rule and fourth proclamation of a bright, democratic future. Has tragedy again given way to farce or farce to tragedy? Islamic fundamentalism has found a willing partner in Pashtun nationalism on the country's western frontier; refugees stream across a porous border from war-torn Afghanistan and again from the Pakistani army's own offensives. In the cities, workers face double-digit unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, and entrenched systems of patronage and nepotism. If this is a farce, no one is in on the joke.