Confronting the Self-Defeating Assumptions, Beliefs and Norms of Society in Pakistan

A Catalogue of myths and self-destructive tendencies of the society

By Muhammad Iqbal Malik

Problems that persist or repeat over time cannot be attributed to chance. They are not accidents of history, or element of fate. They need to be analyzed to identify a root-cause. A mature society constantly searches for the underlying causes of its major issues and strives to eliminate or minimize the problems.

Pursuit of truth is at times a bitter and painful experience and reveals a self-created pattern of failures. Humans, both as individuals and as groups, often engage in thoughts, emotions, beliefs and behaviours that stall their own growth and development. These human tendencies are often called self-defeating behaviours. The phenomenon is usually activated at the subconscious level and therefore is hard to unearth. Our assumptions, beliefs, thoughts, feelings and attitudes all strongly influence our behaviour, but often indirectly, subtly and unconsciously.

Self-awareness, realization, and acceptance are the first yet critical steps towards solving a problem. Finding remedies becomes much easier once you know and recognize the fault. The text that follows aims to expose a set of assumptions, beliefs, attitudes and norms of our society, that in my opinion have significantly hampered our progress as a people and have negatively contributed towards many of the societal problems that we face today. Challenging and confronting these beliefs and norms in my view is integral to any serious effort of social reconstruction.

1. Poverty is a shameful curse and the poor a burden
2. Religion is all about belief, speech and worship
3. Attribution of critical failures to fate – a convenient escape route
   عبث ہے شکوۂ تقدیر یزداں
   تُوخُود تقدیر یزداں کیوں نہیں ہے؟
4. God will take care of this, Inshallah!
5. Attributing all major societal failures to corrupt and inapt government
6. Democracy is not suitable for this part of the world
7. Pakistan is an Islamic State
8. If you are born to a Muslim family, you are a Muslim
9. We have an education system

   What we have is schools and colleges, but no education. Education and literacy are not one and the same thing

10. Pakistan was created in the name of Allah... no power in the world can undo Pakistan
11. Old is gold, seniority is merit
12. Might is right
13. Authority implies rightfulness
14. Challenging authority is unethical and a threat to the system
15. To question is to insult or challenge one’s authority
16. Only fools dream
17. Children need their mothers round-the-clock
18. Seeking wealth and seeking God are mutually exclusive desires
19. Technology is the grand route to advancement
20. Strong Army, strong Pakistan
21. The obsession for national security
22. The myth that we are a nation

    We could be but have never made a serious attempt

23. Businesses are profit making machines - society and business interests collide
24. Theory and practice are two poles apart
25. Debate and argument is a threat to unity and social harmony
26. Autonomy of units would disintegrate Pakistan
27. Constitution is fantasy, law is reality
28. The letter is heavier than the spirit
29. Values are fairy tales that must be violated to make pragmatic decisions in the best of national interest
30. Individuality is synonymous to selfishness
31. Tradition is religion
32. Pakistan is fragile in essence – challenging the corrupt establishment (civil and military) would disintegrate Pakistan
33. Parents have a moral right to dictate their offspring and make their life choices (even through adulthood)
34. Public institutions back the strong and crush the weak
35. Truth in politics (both civil and military) is gross stupidity and naivety
36. Ends justify means – lies for the sake of national interests
37. National debate on any major issue would weaken Pakistan
38. Citizenry is not mature enough to know the truth – thus shut up!
39. Pakistan is a strategic ally of America. Or America is a friend of Pakistan
40. Conflict is a curse
41. People are not mature enough to be autonomous in any sphere. They need to be closely monitored and controlled
42. Failure is a curse – thus don’t try!
43. We fight in the name of Allah - all our wars are Jihad
44. Military is the strongest and the most mature institution in Pakistan

    Imagine an institution of hundreds and thousands of armed men, hijacked every other decade by one unarmed man – the General - in gross violation of the constitutional, legal and ethical provisions. This indeed is height of institutional strength and maturity!

45. The military is more patriotic than the politicians. Or the politicians are more corrupt than the military
46. The shackles of "the system" are too strong to be broken – the status quo cannot be undone
47. "What can I do?"
48. Problems are solved "by" resources. We don't have resources, thus we cannot solve the problems
49. There must be a way out of our social evils without the "mess" of direct confrontation and sacrifice
50. Learnt helplessness
51. Honesty is foolishness and dishonesty wisdom (especially in public affairs)
52. Firefighting and quick fixes
53. Widespread tendency for quick, yet short-term gains
54. Readily self-satisfied and self-contended souls (qanaa't)
55. Historic resistance to change and innovation
56. Time is plenty and tomorrow is another day
57. The Trickle-down Effect
58. Propensity to "solve" problems by crushing the symptoms