Recently I have decided that I
would not talk rationally with my fellow Pakistani’s. I would not frustrate on
irrational and illogical things they tell me. I would seriously discuss Ghosts,
black magic, Bangali Baba’s, paranormal activities, Extra-terrestrials,
miraculous healings, men flying or disappearing, animal talking, Zionist/
illuminati conspiracies and global agendas, Urdu Columnistand state narrative
about everything. Perhaps you are mockingly smiling at me. But let me make this
very clear that this is not some spontaneous outburst. This decision is the
outcome of years of observation and analysis of Pakistani people. My conclusion
is that we as a nation have switched off our brains and decided to live in a
fool’s heaven.Till date we are happy about our decision. We have no patience for
people telling us scientific and rational things. We want to hear and believe
crispy, emotional, dogmatic, and charismatic things. Logic, science, and
rationality are too dry, boring and cumbersome.
My conviction was increased when I attended the conference on “Ghosts and Black
Magic”. It was held in a prestigious modern university in Islamabad. The hall
was jam packed with young students of different fields. Everyone listened
enthusiastically to the utternonsense of a speaker claiming to be an expert on
the subject. He didn’t give a single logical and scientific argument in support
of his claims. But no one in the audience objects to it, rather there was an
excitement. I was wondering whether it’s a dream or reality. How could such a
conference held in a Science and TechnologyUniversity. But Pakistani never
failed to surprise me.
On another occasion a PHD spent whole two hours explaining to me the deep
illuminati conspiracies behind major geopolitical events. He presented his case
with strong conviction but without a single logical or rational argument. All of
his arguments were based on propaganda literature, movies and documentaries. All
my efforts to logically deconstruct his narrative were useless. And after the
victory of Donald trump another foreign educated person told me how this was
foretold by an astrologer. This irrational pattern seeking on the face of facts
was incomprehensible to me. Every other person educated or not was addicted to
irrational thinking. So I started closely studying people and their behavior.
Biggest reason for our irrational thinking is not the lack of education. It’s
the absence of emphasis on critical and logical thinking in education and
society. Our society is based on ancient stories, myths and parables. Fact
finding, reasoning, deduction and induction are never taught or encouraged.
Conformity to the past practices is considered the highest intellectual
achievement. Dissent and transgression from established norms and narrative is
severely condemned. Our state and religious authorities need mindless people who
would fall willingly to anything coming from authority. That’s why questioning
and creativity is never encouraged. It is feared that open minded people would
demand more democratic and civil rights. They would not be exploited in the name
of tradition and religion.
Book reading, learning science, philosophy, history and literature is usually
discouraged. Because books encourage people to question things and find answers.
That’s why you would hear a lot about the harmful consequences of book reading
in our society. People would tell stories how someone had lost the right path
after reading books. They would propose that we should ask authorities in every
field for answers.With absence of critical facility to distinguish right from
wrong, logical from illogical, science from pseudoscience, and possible from
impossible, our people fill their heads with garbage and rubbish. The more
garbage anyone knows the more informed and educated he feels. The criteria for
being educated is knowing /believing the garbage and telling the garbage with
seriousness. No wonder why our problems are not solved.
After countless debates with all kind of people I started feeling that I am
arguing with stones. The famous Urdu poet Jon Elia rightly described my feeling
Meri Sab Baaten be Asar he Raheen
Naqs Hey kuch merey bayan main kya
(All of my arguments were useless
Is there some fault with my communication style?)
So instead of wasting my energies on correcting people thinking, I started to
accept and enjoy this situation. So if you are rational Pakistani wanted to
change the society I would humbly request that Sorry! We have switched our
brains.