[DAWN] IF we can change one thing about Pakistain in 2014 can that please be our mindset? Can we cure ourselves of the Pakistain-versus-the-rest paranoia that cultivates the image of a conspiring wicked world ganged up against us? Can we begin appraising our acts and omissions critically and take responsibility for our faults instead of justifying them and reinforcing failure? Can we build a Pakistain that is not infested with rabid intolerance that is dehumanising us as a society?Paranoia is a mental condition in which one loses touch with reality. If you took Pakistain to a psychiatrist, it would be prescribed a pill. Individuals inspire themselves in different ways: motivation can come from the constructive desire to succeed or from negative emotions such as jealousy. But hatred for others can't be the source of inspiration leading an entire country towards progress. If our national leadership is united over one thing, it is blaming the world for our failures.
Pakistain lives on false binaries. If we love Pakistain, we must hate the US and the West and India. If we don't, we are enemy agents who have sold ourselves for financial gain. In public our leaders compete rabidly for appearing more anti-West. But in their personal lives they are rational. They will send their kids to the West for education or to settle down. They will even form a beeline to shake the US ambassador's hand when possible, but froth at the mouth in public.