Pakistanis might have more freedom than Americans

Imagination transcends knowledge, shaping our understanding of freedom of speech and thought in democracies.

Einstein once said that imagination was more important than knowledge. He was absolutely right about that. Knowledge can have limits in being confined to knowing about what's already available. What's beyond that frontier is the world of imagination. It's the humans' foray into the unknown and untested world and poking a finger into that unaccessed truth.

Similarly, thought itself is more powerful and with more reach than speech. If speech is the speed of sound, thought moves at the speed of light. And it can reach far and wide.

I remember working as a car salesman once. One of the first training sessions I received was to stay quiet during a sales pitch and try to think what the customer wants. And that the person who talks first and talks more loses in the end. So, if you wanna make the sale, let the customer do the talking, while you assess and think.

This idea is almost like an absolute truth when it comes to American democracy. Americans enjoy freedom of speech. They can say pretty much whatever they want. However, they can't think about what they really want or what would be better for their democracy. Pakistanis don't have that freedom of speech. They can't say what they want. Yet, they can think whatever they want and they usually take refuge in that.

This American free speech is rather a low lying fruit that upon having, there's a realisation on part of the Americans that they've had all the essential ingredients that they needed for a healthy democracy. And such high-headedness prevents any further action toward improving the health of democracy and free thought.

There's more need for propaganda in democracies than in non-democracies because as Chomsky says it doesn't matter what the citizens of non-democracies say. Since their speech has no value or impact on governance, there's no need to subject them to propaganda and mind control tactics.

In democracies, however, since speech is without any bounds, the shackles are put on the mind and thought. Citizens aren't allowed to think freely. And that's when their free speech becomes one without any fangs.

When it comes to Gaza, Israel, Indian actions in Kashmir and lots of other issues where the US government has been, the people of many countries such as Pakistan and others know full well who the victims and culprits are. They just can't say it out loud but they're very well aware.

Americans, on the other hand, do not know that their government is using their tax money to support a state that in involved in a genocide and ruthlessly kills children. They've been made to believe that even children in Gaza have been members of Hamas, which they've been groomed to label as a terrorist organisation.

The Holy Bible says that the truth shall set you free. I can't agree more. The Americans being citizens who don't know the truth about their country's foreign policy can't be called free while living in a world full of lies created for them by sophisticated propaganda campaigns.

Imagine a debate between a Pakistani and an American inside Pakistan. The Americans would be freely talking and the Pakistanis won't even have the freedom to tell their American friends how ridiculous and foolish they sound. It would be the battle of free words and free thought. No wonder America is always making noise about suppression of the freedom of expression in some foreign state while never invading lands for that country's leadership controlling the minds of its citizens. Had that been a major crime, and it should be, every country in the world could make an excuse to invade this land for egregious violations of free thought.