The Symbolic Death March of the Nihilist Penguin
Social media platforms like Instagram, Reddit and Tiktok are flooded with short clips of Penguin, marching away from its waddle (colony). Netizens named it ‘nihilist penguin’ as he was going away from the waddle even though his mates tried to persuade him to come but all in vain. Netizens over social media used the symbolism for existential crisis and turned the scenario into a joke, emotional posts and other life related issues.
Backdrop of the story:
The rare footage was from a 2007 documentary entitled “Encounters at the End of the World” by the film maker Werner Herzog. In the documentary, a scene comes up where an Adelie Penguin breaks away from its raft and walks inland which the author called “death march” as penguins do not head away from their colony towards nearby mountain ranges.
Some netizens come up with the claim that the trekker in the penguin showed that he travelled 100 kms away lonely towards inland with zero availability of food and shelter in Antarctic Ice, marching wilfully to death.
BBC Worldlife shares about Adelie Penguins that they are about 70cm tall and weigh 5 to 6 kilograms. They are named after a piece of Antarctica called Adelie land. They are species of Emperor Penguins who only survive in flocks and colonies and less chance of survival occurs when left distracted. They are found in Antarctica in abundance.
Scientifically such inland wandering can only happen in case of abnormalities in animals like stress, illness, navigational error or disorientation during migration. Scientists negate any such nihilist approach in penguins and they claim poor ending for such distracted animals.
The video is somehow very old and no valid claim could be made whether the penguin got distracted death at the end or survived in any way. Netizens have tried to clad, somehow, the death march of the nihilist penguin into various symbolic existential struggles like exhaustion, burn out, rejection of normative system, emotional drift and striving with living etc yet most of them deconstruct the symbol in pensive way.
Whatever, these symbolic representations of the nihilist penguin be, to me it really is a grave symbol which covers all the complex existential crisis under its sombre umbrella in our contemporary world, almost hovered by gen-z dilemmas.
Pessimists suddenly try to take refuge under the symbolism “the death march”. All those who are striving with existential threats, seek instant shelter in the symbolism, and thus it becomes the instant source of escapism for all the life stricken Internet mates.
There is a famous dictum in khowar (Chitrali) language which goes “pay ki romar nisitay shapir ghari boy” (if a nanny gets distracted from her herd, she becomes a bolus of the wolf). The penguin symbol becomes highly subjective. Everyone tries to mould it with one’s own perspective, yet two dominant perspectives seem encountering each other- the pessimist approach vs the optimistic approach.
Rekhta Urdu Foundation’s page has posted some of the following famous existential and philosophical poems with the penguin pictures;
“Dunya ki mehfilo se ikta gaya hun yarab,
Kya lutf anjuman ka, jab dil hi bujh gaya ho”
Iqbal
“Rahiye ab aesi jagah chal kar jahan koi na ho,
Hum-sukhan koi na ho, aur ham-zabaan koi na ho,
Be dar o dewaar sa ek ghar bnaya chahiye,
Koi hamsaya na ho aur pasbaan koi na ho,
Pariye ghar bemar tau koi na ho temadaar
Aur marjayiye ghar tau noha khwaan koi na ho”
Mirza Ghalib
Another renowned clothing brand- Wear-Manto, has dedicated the following lines to the penguin;
“Mei bhi bht ajeeb hun
Itna ajeeb hun k bas
Khud ko tabah krlia
Aur malal bhi nahi”
And,
“Humko mita sakey yeh zamaney mei dam nahi
Humsey zamana khud hai zamaney se hum nahi”
Delving deep, we find the gist of Anthropomorphism in the symbolism. This is a concept where human traits like emotions, intentions or behaviours are attributed to non-human entities like animals, objects and deities. It becomes a psychological tendency to make the unknown known.
Moreover, Dr. Ainley, an ecologist, being part of the documentary team said,
“Even if we caught him and brought him back to the colony, he would immediately head back for the mountains. But why?”
He added, “ Well, I have never seen a Penguin pushing its head against a rock, they got distracted.”
What is the ultimate lesson we learn from the viral Penguin’s tale,is my real concern. We are living in a world full of psychological and existential issues. The more we are focused on negative things the more we are invited by negativity and pessimism. In such a grave scenario we should try to grab the positive side of the story.
Existential crises have been rooted in the essence of our existence since its inception. What we can do in such a grave moment is to shelter ourselves in the shadows of optimism. We need not to burdenize our minds on pondering deep upon such grave philosophical concerns. Living should be our ultimate goal and for that one should cling to glimmering rays of hope not for once, twice or thrice but forever and ever and ever. Let optimism prevail.
Kashif kaifee
The writer is Mphil Scholor Visiting lecturer English
at UOP , UOCH
