What truly holds a society back? Is it poverty, illiteracy, corruption or bad governance? While these are serious issues, they are often symptoms, not the root causes. Underneath them lies a deeper malaise — certain ways of thinking and behaving that, once normalised, corrode the moral, intellectual and institutional fabric of a society. In Pakistan, some of the most damaging patterns are not economic or political but psychological and cultural.

Among the most harmful is the persistent tendency to resort to force as a default solution to every problem. Whether in homes, schools, offices or the corridors of power, the instinct to dominate has become deeply entrenched. Dialogue is dismissed as weakness, and listening is seen as surrender. But what force achieves in the short term — silence, compliance or order— it undermines in the long term: trust, legitimacy and consent. A state that governs through coercion rather than consensus eventually loses moral authority.

Equally corrosive is the refusal to accept criticism. In Pakistan, disagreement is often........

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