The Arrogance of Ignorance

To let ignorance rule is to let decay set in. But to nurture reason, even in the darkest of times, is to light a fire that can guide generations.

• Sindh, with its rich heritage of learning from Shah Latif to Sachal Sarmast, must remember that its true strength has never been in power or wealth, but in wisdom.
• Let us choose the harder path—the path of logic, truth, and courage. That is how civilizations rise. That is how Sindh and Pakistan can truly progress.

By Abdullah Usman Morai

When Power Turns Its Back on Truth

Throughout human history, societies have advanced not merely by power or wealth, but through ideas—through reasoned thought, courageous questioning, and the relentless pursuit of truth. Yet, paradoxically, some of the most powerful people and institutions have also been the fiercest enemies of reason. Why?

In the corridors of power—whether political, religious, or social—logic often becomes an unwanted guest. Reason demands accountability, while power seeks comfort. Logic asks questions, while ignorance in authority insists on silence. This tension is not new, but it is increasingly dangerous in our time, especially in societies like Pakistan, and particularly in regions like Sindh, where the suppression of critical thinking can keep entire populations in the shadow of ignorance.

This article delves into the psychology of rejecting reason, the historical and modern patterns of this behavior, and the urgent need for societies—ours included—to rethink the value of truth, logic, and independent thought.

The Psychology of Rejecting Logic

Power backed by ignorance is not simply unintelligent—it is often willfully blind. Many in authority reject logic not because they can’t understand it, but because they fear what it will reveal. This psychological resistance stems from:

• Cognitive dissonance: When facts challenge deeply held beliefs, the mind experiences discomfort. Rather than accept being wrong, powerful individuals may attack the truth instead.
• Ego defense: Admitting fault is seen as weakness. Those in control often see reasoned critique as a threat to their identity, legacy, and influence.
• Fear of loss: Reason disrupts the status quo. An educated, questioning public may no longer blindly obey. For many rulers or institutions, this is terrifying.

Power and Ignorance Through History

The historical record is filled with examples of reason clashing with irrational authority:

• Galileo was imprisoned by the Church for advocating heliocentrism—a truth too disruptive for the dogma of the time.
• Socrates was executed for “corrupting the youth” with philosophical questioning.
• In totalitarian regimes from Stalinist Russia to Nazi Germany, intellectuals were silenced, exiled, or killed.

These examples highlight a consistent pattern: authoritarianism fears inquiry. Tyrants prefer echo chambers over critical minds.

Echoes in Pakistan and Sindh

Pakistan has often seen power align itself with ignorance to maintain control. In Sindh, the feudal mindset still dominates many areas—not only politically but intellectually. The suppression of reason manifests in several ways:

• Education is discouraged or poorly funded, especially in rural Sindh. A thinking population is harder to control.
• Merit is replaced by loyalty, leading to a culture where qualified voices are drowned out by sycophants.
• Truth is politicized—from health crises to environmental issues, facts are often twisted or buried if they inconvenience those in power.
• Whistleblowers and thinkers are branded as traitors, even when their only crime is telling the truth.

The tragedy is not only the silencing of voices but the generational impact it causes. When logic is ignored, progress is paralyzed.

Education: The Ultimate Threat to Ignorant Power

Education is not just a tool for employment—it is a mirror that helps a society see itself clearly. It awakens the soul of a people, exposing corruption, challenging injustices, and breathing life into dormant dreams. That’s precisely why oppressive powers fear it.

In Pakistan—and especially in Sindh—education is often treated like a threat rather than a right. When a girl in a rural village reads about equality, she begins to question her chains. When a boy learns about democracy and justice, he sees through the hollow promises of corrupt leaders. And that is dangerous for those who survive on blind loyalty and fear.

Here’s how education threatens ignorant power:

• It builds independent minds.

A thinking citizen is no longer a pawn. He or she becomes a participant in democracy, not a passive recipient of handouts or slogans.

• It redefines leadership.

When youth are educated, they stop celebrating inherited power and start demanding merit, ethics, and accountability.

• It erodes false narratives.

Education confronts historical distortions, questions myths used for political manipulation, and fosters critical analysis of media and propaganda.

• It empowers women.

In feudal societies, where women are kept silent, education becomes a revolutionary act. An educated daughter is harder to marry off at 14, harder to silence with customs, and impossible to suppress indefinitely.

• It ignites imagination.

From the poetry of Shah Latif to the dream of science fiction, education lets minds explore what could be—beyond what is.

In Sindh, this threat is visible: ghost schools, politically-appointed teachers with no training, curriculum that stifles curiosity, and lack of libraries in entire districts. These are not just administrative failures—they are intentional strategies to keep the population intellectually dormant.

The way forward must be radical: revive village schools with honest administration, ensure quality teachers with real incentives, fund libraries and reading spaces in local languages, and prioritize thinking over rote memorization.

Because once a society learns to think, no power can enslave it again.

The Courage of Reason and Truth-Tellers

Reason often walks alone. It doesn’t shout slogans or seek applause—it whispers quietly in the hearts of the brave. And in a world where ignorance is loud and armed with power, to speak the truth becomes an act of immense courage.

Pakistan, despite its many crises, has always produced individuals who chose truth over silence, even at great personal cost. From the dusty lecture halls of rural Sindh to the newsrooms of urban Sindh like Karachi, from underfunded labs to village classrooms, there are people who carry the torch of reason forward.

Examples and dimensions of this courage include:

• Teachers in remote areas, who teach children under trees with chalk and broken slates, believing that one day, one of their students might change the world.
• Journalists and writers, who expose corruption, injustice, and hypocrisy, knowing well that a knock on the door at midnight could end it all.
• Students, who protest for fair exams, clean water, and functioning libraries, challenging the political status quo not with violence, but with pens and placards.
• Doctors and scientists, who fight against misinformation, whether about vaccines or health crises, despite facing death threats or being labeled as foreign agents.
• Mothers, who defy cultural norms to educate their daughters, refusing to let poverty or patriarchy decide their fate.

Even in history, thinkers like Shah Inayat Sufi, who championed peasant rights against feudal tyranny, or GM Syed and Rasool Bux Palijo, who advocated for secular and philosophical Sindhi identity, were branded rebels. But their ideas still echo in the minds of those who dare to question today.

This courage is not always rewarded. Many truth-tellers lose jobs, families, freedom—even their lives. But history remembers them. The silent sacrifices of reason become the loudest chapters in a nation’s soul.

What we must realize is that reason needs community. A single thinker can be silenced, but a culture that values truth cannot be killed.

To support reason in Pakistan and Sindh, we must:

• Celebrate thinkers and reformers as national heroes.
• Create networks of safe spaces for dialogue, dissent, and debate.
• Support freedom of expression and protection for journalists and whistleblowers.
• Integrate philosophy, logic, and ethics into national curricula—not just as subjects, but as guiding lights.

Because without courageous minds, a nation may survive, but it will never thrive.

Solutions: How to Break the Cycle of Ignorant Power

Breaking the bond between power and ignorance is not just a political challenge—it is a cultural, psychological, and moral transformation. It requires not only systems and policies but also courage, values, and collective awakening. In Pakistan, and especially in Sindh, where generations have lived under feudal, tribal, or political dominance, the resistance to logic and reason is deeply embedded. But this cycle can be broken—and it must be.

Here are key solutions, not just for reforming systems, but for reviving the soul of our society:

1. Reimagine and Reform Education

• Replace rote memorization with critical thinking.

The current education system rewards obedience over curiosity. We must design a curriculum that nurtures questioning, reasoning, ethics, and emotional intelligence.

• Civic and ethical education in schools.

Teach students how power works, what accountability means, and why truth matters. When young minds understand their rights and responsibilities, they become active citizens, not silent spectators.

• Train teachers as nation-builders.

A teacher should not just deliver content—they should inspire transformation. This means better training, better pay, and community respect.

2. Decentralize and Democratize Knowledge

• Make libraries and cultural centers accessible.

In rural Sindh, entire towns lack a single functioning library. This intellectual starvation must end. Each village deserves a reading room, internet access, and space for young people to think, question, and explore.

• Use digital media wisely.

Podcasts, YouTube channels, and WhatsApp groups can spread either knowledge or ignorance. Let’s build and promote local platforms that deliver authentic information, local history, science, and logic in regional languages.

• Encourage translation of global ideas.

Bring the ideas of Bertrand Russell, Carl Sagan, Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, and others into Sindhi and Urdu so that young minds from Larkana to Thar can access global thought.

3. Build a Culture of Intellectual Respect

• Celebrate thinkers, not just celebrities.

Media and awards are dominated by entertainers and politicians. Let’s honor teachers, researchers, environmentalists, and scientists on national platforms. Let children grow up idolizing minds, not just faces.

• Encourage public debates and forums.

Host community dialogues in schools, mosques, shrines, and town halls where people can engage in respectful, reasoned conversation on social and political issues.

4. Challenge Feudalism and Unchecked Power

• Promote land reforms and local governance.

Feudal lords maintain power through land ownership and illiteracy. Redistributing land and empowering village councils (depoliticized) can restore people’s voice.

• Educate people on their legal and constitutional rights.

Many people in Sindh don’t know they can demand clean water, fair wages, or education. Awareness campaigns through street theatre, radio, and local artists can spark this awakening.

• Support youth-led activism.

Young people are not just the future—they are the present. Student unions, youth parliaments, and tech bootcamps can redirect energy from frustration to reform.

5. Support Whistleblowers and Truth-tellers

• Legal protection for those who expose wrongdoing.

From journalists to bureaucrats, those who reveal corruption should be protected by law and by public support.

• Create independent ombudsman systems.

Allow citizens to report injustice without fear of retaliation. Let every school, hospital, and police station have a complaint cell that is effective, transparent, and accountable.

6. Use Faith and Culture as Tools of Reason

• Reclaim the progressive roots of Sindhi and Islamic heritage.

The poetry of Shah Latif, the pluralism of Bhittai, and the teachings of Islam all promote justice, truth, and reflection. Let’s use these cultural treasures not to control people, but to free them.

• Counter extremism with wisdom.

Logic doesn’t mean rejecting faith—it means embracing it with understanding. Promote religious literacy that teaches compassion, coexistence, and questioning over rigid dogma.

Foster Empathy Through Art and Storytelling

• Use film, drama, and literature to show the cost of ignorance.

When people see the emotional, social, and economic impact of blind obedience and irrational rule, they begin to question it. A single play can move hearts more deeply than a hundred speeches.

• Preserve local stories of resistance and courage.

Document the unsung heroes of Sindh—teachers, mothers, villagers—who stood up to ignorance. Let their stories live on in textbooks, songs, and documentaries.

Closing Note to This Section

Change begins with awareness, grows through empathy, and triumphs with persistence. The alliance between power and ignorance may seem unbeatable, but it is made of fear. And fear melts in the face of truth, compassion, and collective courage.

Pakistan doesn’t need another savior—it needs millions of awakened citizens. Sindh doesn’t need more slogans—it needs more schools, more stories, more thinkers.

To break the cycle, we must stop asking “Who will save us?” and start saying, “We will save ourselves with reason, with truth, and with unity.”

Conclusion: Reclaiming the Space for Reason

In the war between ignorance and reason, the battleground is not just institutions—it is the human mind.

Sindh, with its rich heritage of learning from Shah Latif to Sachal Sarmast, must remember that its true strength has never been in power or wealth, but in wisdom. Pakistan as a whole must realize that nations do not fall when they make economic mistakes—they fall when they stop thinking.

To let ignorance rule is to let decay set in. But to nurture reason, even in the darkest of times, is to light a fire that can guide generations.

Truth may be silenced, but it never dies.

Reason may be ignored, but it always returns.

Let us choose the harder path—the path of logic, truth, and courage. That is how civilizations rise. That is how Sindh and Pakistan can truly progress.

Read: The Architecture of Happiness

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Abdullah Soomro, penname Abdullah Usman Morai, hailing from Moro town of Sindh, province of Pakistan, is based in Stockholm Sweden. Currently he is working as Groundwater Engineer in Stockholm Sweden. He did BE (Agriculture) from Sindh Agriculture University Tando Jam and MSc water systems technology from KTH Stockholm Sweden as well as MSc Management from Stockholm University. Beside this he also did masters in journalism and economics from Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur Mirs, Sindh. He is author of a travelogue book named ‘Musafatoon’. His second book is in process. He writes articles from time to time. A frequent traveler, he also does podcast on YouTube with channel name: VASJE Podcast.