The Illusion of Universality: How the West Thinks For Us and We Mistake It for Our Own Thought

"The most dangerous chains are the ones worn proudly—because you’ve forgotten they are chains at all."

Julian Baggini, in his brilliant book "How the World Thinks," unveils an uncomfortable truth: many of the ideas we consider “universal” are not universal at all—they are American or Western inventions, exported globally through power and persuasion, and accepted without question by the rest of us.

But the deeper tragedy lies here: we, especially in post-colonial nations like Pakistan, don’t just consume these ideas—we defend them. We treat them as if they were born from within us. We confuse imitation for progress, and forget how to think in our own voice.

Philosophical Occupation: When the West Thinks for Us

Western philosophy celebrates individualism, secularism, rationalism, and materialism. It treats the self as supreme and the world as an object to be mastered. In contrast, our own traditions—whether Islamic, Confucian, or indigenous—view the self as a servant, not a sovereign. They center community, harmony, humility, and the sacred.

Yet somehow, the Western worldview was marketed as reason itself, while the rest were dismissed as “cultural beliefs.”

We, in Pakistan, had once rich intellectual foundations—Maulana Maududi’s political vision, Allama Iqbal’s philosophical rebellion, the ethical soul of Sufism, and the metaphysical depth of Islamic civilization. But today, they are sidelined—rarely studied in our universities, rarely applied in our governance, rarely shaping our youth.

Instead, we quote Nietzsche but forget Iqbal. We adopt liberal democracy but ignore the Islamic political philosophy that Maududi so meticulously developed. We have lost not just our content—but our confidence.

Psychological Conditioning: Slaves Who Think They Are Free

This is the real success of the modern empire: it colonized the mind. Our inferiority complex has become so entrenched that we now associate truth with a Western accent, and value with foreign validation. A Pakistani student quoting Foucault is praised as intelligent. One quoting Shah Waliullah is called outdated.

The result? We have become slaves who believe they are free thinkers. We wear imported ideologies like ill-fitted clothes, never noticing that they are not tailored to our history, our culture, or our people.

Social Sciences and the Myth of Neutrality

Political science, economics, sociology—all of them are built on Western paradigms. We study Hobbes, Locke, and Rawls as if they were writing for the world—not for their own societies. We call it “theory.” We call it “universal.” But it is neither.

In truth, every theory reflects a political context, a historical moment, and an ideological goal. Western theories reflect the needs of their empires. Ours, if developed and respected, would reflect the needs of our people. Yet we teach theirs and ignore our own.

Iqbal once said, “The ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something, but to be something.” But we have reduced the ego to consumption—of thoughts, systems, and values we didn’t produce.

Pakistan: A Nation Still Wearing the Chains of Thought

Our education system, legal framework, and even ideas of governance are colonial leftovers. They were never built for us. They were built to manage us. And now we try to modernize them with foreign vocabulary and donor-funded reforms, thinking that progress means being more like the West.

We don’t just suffer from colonial history—we suffer from intellectual dependency. We were given a skeleton and told to decorate it. But where is our own architecture of thought? Where is our blueprint?

Maududi envisioned an Islamic state grounded in justice, moral responsibility, and divine sovereignty. Iqbal dreamed of a self-aware Muslim nation, spiritually awake and intellectually sovereign. We inherited their dreams—but we sleepwalk through them.

The Role of Diplomacy: Successes, Failures, and Lessons

Our diplomacy today is reactive, not strategic. We wait for the West’s approval. We sign their frameworks. We celebrate symbolic wins while ignoring structural subjugation.

A true diplomatic strategy must be born from self-respect, not desperation. We must stop exporting talking points written in Washington and start crafting narratives rooted in Lahore, Islamabad, and Peshawar—narratives aligned with our values, our people, our future.

Until then, we remain spectators in the theatre of global politics—applauding actors who never speak our language.

The Human Dimension: Beyond Statistics

Palestinian children aren’t just statistics. Afghan refugees aren’t just numbers. Neither are the millions of Pakistanis living without dignity or opportunity. These are the consequences of a global order built on domination, not dialogue.

And when we accept that order without question, we are part of the problem.

Conclusion: The Pakistani Cause is a Philosophical Struggle

Our crisis is not just political or economic—it is ontological. We have lost the ability to define who we are, what we believe, and how we ought to live. We outsource our thoughts. We mimic without meaning. We obey without understanding.

But there is a way out: philosophical rebellion.

We must read the West—but not worship it. We must study Iqbal, Maududi, Shah Waliullah, Al-Ghazali—not as nostalgia, but as blueprints for the future. We must stop asking the world to recognize us, and start recognizing ourselves.

Because a nation that cannot think for itself will always be ruled—no matter how loudly it says it's free.