Numb, not dumb

Pakistan is a case study for social psychologists

The reaction of Pakistanis over the Panama Leaks­ – the biggest leaks of human history as some believe – evidently manifests that the nation has gone horribly numb. The international leaks have disclosed the stashed offshore wealth of notable international figures including Pakistani ruling elite. There is a spectacular furore throughout the world over this global scandal but the ‘resilient’ Pakistanis have preferred to remain indifferent to it and even if they responded, it was merely by raising debates in their houses and handing over the issue to political parties. The appalling reaction of civil society in the country is shameful. Has it resigned itself to the usual corruption going on daily basis? Has the Pakistani society become corrupt as a whole? The answer is that has gone numb, politically and socially.

The Panama Leaks is not a single example brushed aside by Pakistanis; rather, dozens of incidents merit mention here which suffered the same fate. Starting from the Dhaka debacle, the list goes on. General Yahya Khan was honoured as President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan – people not only accepted him but blessed him with guard of honour. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was judicially executed but people from nowhere came out to mourn over the execution of their ‘beloved Quaid-e-awam’. The 90’s witnessed the worst political turmoil in the country but ‘brave’ Pakistanis distanced themselves from all that mess. Asghar Khan Case revealed the hoggish faces of our ‘worthy’ politicians, generals, and bureaucrats but people tolerated it. To one’s surprise, incumbent finance minister has sworn of money-laundering by his Prime Minister but people licensed him to ‘serve’ the country. Why shouldn’t this nation be reckoned the best for this distinction?

To examine the reasons of this stark numbness to political and social milieus, one can infer that people have developed compromising attitudes. Many believe that nothing will happen even if they protest – a phenomenon emanating from long vandalisms of governments and other authorities. People are misguided about the facts. They are exposed to advertisement’s sheen marked by projection of false progress and many fake promises. The technique of Goebbels is used to woo the people and make them soft targets. Concomitantly, when the promises are evilly exposed to nothing, people get disappointed for the moment but after a short while blame their fate and forget the immediate past. This vicious cycle leads towards their numbness.

Poor literacy rate and a lack of reading habits are the reasons, too. Over the years, governments and respective institutions have deliberately conspired to keep this nation groping in the dark. They feign setting targets every year to ramp up the abysmal literacy rate but always fail, thanks to their dishonest intentions and ineptness. No reading habit ultimately prompts the poor analysis of situations and kills the actual responsive abilities. People want to do nothing but to get everything. A huge chunk of people are at a loose end.

Radicalization and multi-dimensional polarization have obstructed rationality. Air Marshal (R) Asghar Khan, the former Air Force Chief and founder of Tehrik-e-Istiqlal, has been a credible character in politics of Pakistan. He has been heard rebuking the nation as Goth and languishing still in the chastening phase in an as advanced as the 21^st century. A senior journalist and analyst, Hasan Nisar, repeatedly repines over the incompetence and oblivion of Pakistanis and denounces it as a conglomerate of literate-ignorant. Awami Muslim League chairman Sheikh Rasheed has anathematized the ‘short-term memory loss’ nature of Pakistanis at many occasions.

Political awareness and public maturity is gauged and measured by their choice of elected representatives who project the maturity level of Pakistanis. There are countable numbers of parliamentarians who are highly qualified but they constitute hardly 10% of the house. The rest is having opaque qualifications or no more than graduation degree. Very often, reported cases of fake degrees of law makers and hidden assets are enough to grieve over the choice of people.

It’s a human nature that if the undesirable incidents happen after long gaps, people react to them very strongly. But if they occur in a cascade, people go numb. Again, in the case of the Panama Leaks, corruption has become a cliché in Pakistan and people hardly care about it. The reactions in such countries as the United Kingdom reveal that their people are not patient regarding any wrongdoing of their state representatives. They go beyond the limits to topple them. For instance, the Prime Minister of UK is facing harsh criticism from both inside and outside the British Parliament after his links were exposed in the scandal. But in Pakistan, people have become habitual of such things. Suicide bombings, in the previous decade, provoked such bare discontent and dread among the people that they condemned it vocally but as soon as they became the order of the day, they were taken by Pakistanis as daily routine of life. The same is the case over other social problems.

Another distinctive flaw characterizes Pakistani Society i.e. Mob psychology. People tend to gather into unruly crowds mainly for protests or they just amuse themselves by trying to know and experience what is happening there. Almost every sect and institution has its unions and pressure groups. Psychology has concluded that human beings are inclined to behave aggressively in groups. The existence of a surrounding group influences someone’s behaviour and causes people to act in manners that contradict their typical attitudes and behaviours. Groups have incredible effects on an individuals’ behaviour and attitudes. This phenomenon is visible in the behaviour of mobs.  A mob is one of the most influential forces in changing people’s behaviour.  Social Psychologists attribute this effect to a process of de-individuation. This leads to an overall weakening of social influences and self-consciousness. This phenomenon is common in Pakistanis. Those involved in a mob or protest fail to explain their cause properly, and they tend to squabble if asked for a reason.