In his book "Power", the French
philosopher Michel Foucault asserts that truth is a reality of this world that
is only formed by virtue of many types of constraint and produces regular
power effects. Every society has a process for controlling the
truth, often known as a "truth regime", that determines the
acceptable discourse and knowledge for that society. Societal discourse,
according to him mediates its power and influence through institutions and
elites who are responsible for articulating what is considered authentic.
Furthermore,
discourse as a social construct is generated and maintained by those who wield
power. The school system, the media, and the ebb and flow of political and
economic ideas continuously reinforce this discourse. People's thoughts, words,
and wants are governed, policed, and managed through this doctored discourse.
Any information or opinion that contradicts the officially sanctioned
narratives is swiftly disregarded as untrue and dangerous.
Using
Foucault's reasoning as a guide, one can observe that in Pakistan, the
bureaucracy and security agencies have developed narratives based on religious
nationalism and populism with the support of the middle class. A politician's
election campaign is orchestrated to ensure that those who subscribe to these narratives
are elevated to power, where they may serve as spokespersons for the stories in
the public eye. Because of the tremendous appeal of these tales among the
masses, this vicious cycle continues unabated.
With
the assistance of the state and its different institutions, these narratives
have established a position of sanctity inside Pakistani society. People have
been trained to believe official narratives, causing them to reject any
alternative perspectives.
In
Pakistani society, for instance, a Jew represents all that is opposed to Islam.
This ubiquitous antisemitism in Pakistani society is the product of flagrant
antisemitic tropes employed by the Pakistani elite for political power, which
has misled ordinary Pakistanis into believing that Jews have little to do other
than plot against Islam.
If
you attempt to disprove these narratives, people become angry. And by this, I
mean furious. Not just upset. Incredibly outraged, as if their loved ones were
subjected to a severe insult.
This
is hardly unexpected because repeated exposure to the same narratives causes
them to permeate our cultural imagination. When every device in our life
conveys the same message about an issue, it gets ingrained in our identities.
When
these official narratives are questioned, individuals become agitated because
they take it as an attempt to destroy their worldview, which is fiercely
guarded.
Many
of those who defend official narratives of the Pakistani state from critique do
so not because they feel these narratives are inviolable but because it is far
more comfortable than addressing the notion that their whole worldview is based
on lies.
According
to behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman, people have psychological defence
mechanisms to defend their worldview from an attack. Our minds prefer cognitive
comfort over the cognitive difficulty in order to save mental energy. We are
more creative and intuitive when we are in a state of cognitive comfort, but
our minds are severely prejudiced against information that has the potential to
upset our worldview and bring us back to cognitive strain.
When
people are exposed to an alternate reality or hear a different point of view,
they are fed information that modifies their conception of the world. They
become enraged when they realise that almost everything they have been
brainwashed into believing is a lie.
This
is the underlying reason why Pakistanis cannot accept an alternative story to
the one they have been taught to accept. These people resist the discourse that
might put the world as they know it to an abrupt and irreversible end.
For
them, realising they have been duped into believing a falsehood and that their
entire philosophy of life is nothing more than a mere hallucination would seem
like the end of all they have ever known. So to repress this understanding,
they use their psychological defence mechanism of getting offended at those who
disagree with the official narratives.
To
urge an average Pakistani to contemplate the notion that they have been misled
about Afghanistan or India, for instance, you are not asking them to dismantle
a single conviction about a single problem. Instead, you're requesting that
they ask questions that generate further questions, the answers to which may
lead them to lose their entire world-conception.
Let
me explain; if you contemplate the potential that the government is lying about
Afghanistan or India, you must also consider the chance that the government is
lying about other matters. And if they are lying about all of this, then you
were also taught falsehoods at school. And if you've been fed lies from your
childhood, it follows that your whole idea of how the world works is based on
lies, which suggests that your political philosophy and many of your beliefs
are likely false as well.
Having
said that, is it really a surprise then that people are so adamant about not
going down that nonsensical path of investigating whether they are daydreaming
or not?
Can
you really fault them for rejecting opposing ideas?
Obviously
not, because undergoing a worldview disintegration is a difficult journey. It
is neither simple nor pleasurable to discard all falsehoods and discover the
truth.
In
Pakistan, it is far simpler and easier to switch political allegiances than to
entirely abandon state-sanctioned stories on various issues. This is because
mainstream politicians in our nation function under the state-created fake
reality. They have not only accepted these narratives but have also served as
reinforcing agents for them through speeches and debates. All of this is done
to appease the political engineers, who reward them by putting them in power.
People are reluctant to face the truth and challenge their ideas. Those who have awoken from their slumber, on the other hand, must assume command and lead the sleepers out of the darkness. If they are not yet ready, please be patient. They will soon follow your lead.
