DND Report
Myth-making can be used to shape a nation’s identity, and it can work otherwise to reshape and destroy the stated and proven identity of the nation.
Myth-busting is a tedious process because it has to be multipronged, multi-domain, offering critical examination for proving the myth as incorrect. A lot of work has been done by Structuralists and psychologists in Europe as part of the Renaissance movement. Presumptions, fantasies, thematic complexities, rituals, and blind faith nurture myth-making in society, and correcting misconceptions, promoting rational thinking, and providing a more accurate understanding of a particular topic are major tools for myth-busting.
The most crucial phase in societal fixing is to identifying the myths from realities that needs a sectoral approach. Pakistan had been victim of political mythmaking in past and a Cult was crafted that had been trying to destroy the foundations of Pakistan by offering “Naya Pakistan myth”, through abolishing the existed social, political and cultural norms while offering a utopian culture woven through imaginary threads.
Based on providing misinformation, personal opinions, and the process of discrediting others, this Cult of Imran Khan targeted every norm and institution of the country, but thanks God, it failed to achieve results. The myths, which are of course contrary to realities, are also being used by other adversaries, such as terrorists and separatists, who are now called by the Pakistani state Fitna e Khawarij and Fitna Hindustan.
I am pragmatic that the state of Pakistan, after doing firefighting, is now moving fast-forward for constructing a social base where it would be difficult for adversaries in the future to target youth with fabricated content, myths, and cult culture. For that process, we need to know that myth busting relies on evidence-based facts, scientific research, and reliable sources to support the debunking of a specific myth (fabricated and false narrative), presenting counter-arguments, clearly stating the inaccurate nature of the myth and providing evidence-based explanations to correct the misconception, promoting rational thinking aims to encourage critical thinking and the ability to discern between reliable information and misinformation, and improve contact with target groups such as youth, academicians, and writers—this is what Pakistan is now doing through Hilal Talks.
Our youth should know the purpose, elements, types (of political myths), and the process to bust whatever has been launched on them. The most important is explaining the process that includes brainwashing, indoctrination, creating a magical person or reason, developing characters larger than the country, and setting the scene where this cult leader or character shall provide a utopian world in a real sense. Cults offer an atmosphere to youth where they start living in fictional worlds in speculative fiction, where the youth are placed within it, offering a framework of new values and destroying the acquired perception of individuals.
The famous psychologist Carl Jung suggests that myths are expressions of the human unconscious and collective unconscious, reflecting universal archetypes and emotional experiences, while the popular anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski views myths as social institutions that reinforce cultural norms, values, and beliefs. They serve to maintain social order and stability, and do the otherwise as well. Structuralists such as Claude Lévi-Strauss suggest that myths are systems of binary oppositions (e.g., good vs. evil, nature vs. culture) that reflect underlying structures of thought. Myth makers who want to destroy a society create their new “good” to replace proven “good” and also create “new evils” to replace proven evils, and this upside-down of social norms starts destroying the societies and the nations. Hero making is easy through myth making, and that is what we saw in Pakistan in the last decade when a socially perverted person was made a hero who could defeat a monster, and ten live bullets of AK-47 could go through his clothes without hurting him much.
The best introduction of myth comes from Andrew Lang, who says that all myths are aetiological —causing or contributing to the development of a disease or condition. In simple words, a human of the 21st century, when they start accepting myths, actually starts living in a primitive world because myths are proven to be linked with primitive science. I am sure our youth would not like to live in a primitive world and now understand that myths are not realities and they are False Narratives.
Note: The name of the author is withheld on request
