The adage ‘The pen is mightier than the sword” was created by Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton, an English author and politician in 1839. It apparently means that written words have more power than muscle force or violent means in communicating a point.
But what do we see in reality? Telling to do something or not to do something is never enough. It has to be followed by what penalty is there for failure. Laws of the land do not just stipulate what is forbidden or what not to do, it also details the punishments that will follow for the defaults. The UN resolutions are never executed unless it is followed by effective sanctions or military interventions.
Think about a writer face to face with a sword-wielding warrior. The sword man can threaten the life of the writer and can actually kill him. He can also dictate the writer to do things according to his wish like writing a book glorifying him. Undoubtedly, the writer will submit to the warrior’s wish if he wants to live. Now let’s imagine what the writer can do to make the warrior act according to his wish. He may write hundreds of pages directed toward the warrior to urge him to do things according to his wish. Most likely the warrior will never read those pages and even if he does, he won’t have any reason to submit to the wishes of the writer.
Let’s illustrate our point a little more. Suppose you want to stop people from walking down a particular section of a footpath. You may put up a notice by the side of the footpath with words like ‘Walking down this section of the footpath is prohibited’ or in a more beseeching manner, ‘Please don’t walk on this section of the footpath’. Alternatively, you may stand by your selected section of the path brandishing a whip and declaring that anyone who tries to walk on this section will be whacked. Rest assured, the attempted walks would be way lower or completely nil in the second case.
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This article was published in the Daily Sun on July 24, 2022. Please read the full article here or here.
Note: At the end of the article the newspaper mistakenly printed “The writer is a former Ambassador and Secretary” instead of “The writer is a former Corporate Professional and Academic.”