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Pakistani, improve thyself!

CriticalThought

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I can see a general sense of dismay on the forum regarding quality of posts. In this article, I would like to address specifically Pakistani posters. I would like to help my fellow Pakistanis to improve the forum.

Your sense of decaying quality is actually a charge sheet against Pakistaniat (read this for further insights into Pakistaniat: https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/pakistaniat-and-its-remedy.559533/). In my article on Pakistaniat, I have tried to characterize the symptoms of this malaise. Here, I will attempt to provide the root cause and remedy.

At the very root of many of our problems lies a ruined educational system. An educational system that emphasizes rote learning, creates a sense of social segregation between rich and poor, and inspires low self-esteem amongst the economically disadvantaged. Thus, we have semi-educated masses whose minds have not been trained for intellectually discourse, but who have been armed with 'freedom of speech'. When you unleash this toxic combination upon the internet, you obtain what you see on PDF.

I myself am the product of Sindh Textbook Board of Education, matriculated from a private school, and alumnus of a government college for intermediate (year eleven and twelve) education. I am first hand witness of educational bias that permeates our system. The college I attended selected the very topmost male students from matriculation exams. No other college could even lay claim to these top pickings. On our very first day, a professor greeted us with congratulations on being selected. We were told that they sorted the applications according to marks obtained, and basically picked the top ones, discarding all the rest. As the educational year unfolded, some of the professors started teaching us more than what is included in Year 11 curriculum devised by the Sindh board. They gave us names of books by Indian authors that are used for graduate studies and encouraged us to peruse them for deeper insights and further knowledge of the material. I had many close friends from other colleges and I know for a fact they did not receive such instruction. In short, they were systematically deprived of opportunities that me and my fellow students were given on a platter.

I went on to study in a private university. This very well known place of education made bachelor level students memorize materials from assigned books. As the years progressed and I displayed flare and thirst for deeper knowledge, an extremely senior professor in the university who was teaching a very advanced and complex course involving the very foundations of computer science called me to his office and inquired whether I was solving the exercises at the end of the chapters. Keep in mind that he never asked anyone to solve these exercises in the regular classes. My fellow students never had the opportunity to increase their intellectual capacity by engaging in this mental exercise. But the need and necessity of this intellectual endeavor was pointed out to me in private. And if I ran into difficulty, I had access to his expertise.

And so my dear fellow Pakistanis, take this from one of your own: you have been systematically groomed for low intellect and mundane thinking by a biased system, and then indoctrinated with beliefs of 'freedom of speech' that gives you a false conceit of your own abilities.

The intent behind sharing all this is not only to help you understand your own situation, but to help you to improve it. And my solution is simple: be honest with yourself and identify the subjects in which you followed the rote learning path of the status quo. Go back, and re-learn those subjects by buying advanced books from the internet, not only reading the chapters but also solving the exercises at the end. I am sure there will be many who laugh at my childish, almost pedagogical solution. But there is great wisdom in this basic hint that I am giving you and which was pointed out to me in private by a very senior professor. Just like your muscles need exercise to keep them in shape, your mind needs exercise to keep in shape. Just as the body goes pear shaped and becomes lined with fat due to lack of exercise, so does the mind rot due to lack of intellectual exercise. Solving these exercises is what gives you the confidence and the mental ability to find solutions to new problems that you have never encountered. It is what fuels your creativity, and presents new angles on the subject matter that are not covered in the body of the text. And this mental exercise gives you the ability to present your own thoughts in a cogent manner. It creates a more organized mind, and an organized mind is reflected by the writings that it creates.

If just one fellow Pakistani reads this and takes the lessons to heart, I will feel I have been successful. I do not care for the mockery and jests that I am expecting as a response to this article. I pray that Allah Accepts Pakistan and Pakistanis and Makes us the source of power and strength for Islam and Muslims around the world. Aameen.
 
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I don't think people being thick is the problem. For a start, a large part of the forum is western educated (which in itself is no guarantee of intellect). I think it's a multi facetted problem. Contributory factors are:

1. The quick news cycle. Everything moves on so quickly who has time to get into depth with anything.

2. TLDR; A general culture on the Internet and media in general to summarise thing. The prime social media platform for politics is twitter - 256 characters. Even newspapers (especially Pakistani ones) fail to do long detailed editorials. For a generation now this is the norm for political discourse. The forum is now a niche platform.

3. Distractions. Trolls, Indian or otherwise working actively to derail threads and getting away with it.

4. Negativity overload. People get bored of the same negative news, the same motions. Sometimes there are limits to what can be said. Some threads read exactly like the same thing last month.

I think we should take an approach of less is more.
 
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Not with all them patwaris walking around. We have to systematically eliminate all patwaris and worshippers of corrupt toola from within our population to have any chance of rising. Fully expect the jahil quam to vote for PML-N and PPP if elections are held tomorrow, completely forgetting how both parties have raped the country for four decades while building up their own wealth abroad.
 
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this malaise
As a western educated person who was brought up in the west I regard Pakistani's to brighter then the average in the west. So what is wrong with Pakistan? I think at the very simplest it is culture that looks down or disparages critical thinking. To be openly think and operate outside the 'norms' is looked down at. There is too much emphasis on what was revealed [religion] which often is superstition dressed as religion at the cost of logic and critical enquiry.

This has crippled the Pakistani nation who are scions of 8,000 year civilization and one of the true cradles of human history. One great example and manifestation of this is Atif Mian. The other day I was reading a article by this gemtleman and he really is one of the finest economic brains in the world today. Yet because of medieval mullahs who are harbingers of primitive superstition this fine brain is a loss to Pakistan. In any other country he would be in centre of PMIK's economic team sorting out the mess in Pakistan.

If your father is having a cardiac arrest and is being treated by a world class heart specialist you don't start asking or discriminating his faith or religious views. You only look at his skills as a surgeon. In Pakistani culture you would have him removed from the theatre and instead have some numbty do the surgery even if your parent dies because of incompetence.

This is the real malaise ....
 
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As a western educated person who was brought up in the west I regard Pakistani's to brighter then the average in the west. So what is wrong with Pakistan? I think at the very simplest it is culture that looks down or disparages critical thinking. To be openly think and operate outside the 'norms' is looked down at. There is too much emphasis on what was revealed [religion] which often is superstition dressed as religion at the cost of logic and critical enquiry.

This has crippled the Pakistani nation who are scions of 8,000 year civilization and one of the true cradles of human history. One great example and manifestation of this is Atif Mian. The other day I was reading a article by this gemtleman and he really is one of the finest economic brains in the world today. Yet because of medieval mullahs who are harbingers of primitive superstition this fine brain is a loss to Pakistan. In any other country he would be in centre of PMIK's economic team sorting out the mess in Pakistan.

If your father is having a cardiac arrest and is being treated by a world class heart specialist you don't start asking or discriminating his faith or religious views. You only look at his skills as a surgeon. In Pakistani culture you would have him removed from the theatre and instead have some numbty do the surgery even if your parent dies because of incompetence.

This is the real malaise ....

100% agree. In a country with limited world leading talents, we're picky with the few we have. Plenty of people will have opinions and rhetoric against the man and his understanding of economics; none of whom will have his credentials.
 
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