Dealing with People who can’t Think!
By Anthony Ochan
Most South Sudanese can’t think. This is a much more serious handicap than you might think.
Most South Sudanese don’t think for themselves. This doesn’t mean they are incapable of employing their reasoning and thinking capacities in figuring out difficult situations.
It is just that they seem to choose not to think for themselves, simple as that. Call it laziness. Come to think of it, this is a very serious form of disability. But then the majority of us would be people with disabilities or special needs.
Of course, reasoning, and critical thinking are major challenges even in so-called first-world countries. A 2018 survey by Pew Research Center found that “when it comes to where Americans place their trust as they gather information before making an important decision, a big majority, 81 percent, say they rely a lot on their research – many more say they rely a lot on friends and family 43 percent or professional experts 31 percent.
This leaves only 15 percent who say they rely on their thoughts and reasoning as they make major decisions,” and this is very frightening in circumstances in which public opinion can shape draconian decision making by those in positions of influence – the internet, media help shape opinions.
Governments around the world prefer citizens who don’t think for themselves but rely on those in positions of opinion leaders, the media, and what they see in the media to make up their minds on potentially crucial matters.
I am inspired to pen this article by social media discourse on the crackdown on women dressing in Bor enforced by holier than those claiming responsibility for charting the way for the second coming of Christ.
Top of their reasoning is restoring decency there – although decency or the lack of it, is a very relative concept in a country whose constitution makes no attempt to define what is ‘decent, and indecent behavior, dressing.
A friend, considered well-read, posted on his Facebook wall.
“The general is mandated by community chiefs to restore decency in Bor. indecent dressing by women is immoral and against our culture.”
A comment read “These women import immoral western values that soil our pure cultures, they must be fought, kudos to the general.”
This is not a laughing matter, it’s a national tragedy that this evident clamp down on the right of women just as everyone in our society to dress as they see fit is being applauded by people we should be leaning on for sanity during times like this – much to the delight of general Ajak Ayuen.
But I am rather interested in the spectacle itself, call it marvel or phenomenon. I remember months ago when I put a small poll on Facebook asking members of a closed group to vote on whether the government should regulate social media.
My argument was that free speech can only be exercised responsibly and it is the government’s job to decide what is responsible for social media use. Of course, I was pulling their legs.
Free speech is part of our delineable right to express ourselves without any form of derogation, or government censorship. But behold! They fell for it. The post-poll threat was filled with all sorts of arguments for and against regulation, and how free speech must be severely constrained, so people express themselves responsibly.
Once I gathered all the sides of the argument, I remembered to put my side of the story. That in any sensible democracy, the most honorable thing to do is uphold basic rights and respect them as they are – as any self-respecting person would.
That’s when I discovered that I was dealing with one of those people who have a problem thinking on their own. I had put it clear that the constitution guarantees free speech as a right from which a very limited set of derogations can be made and none of those have to do with what one can argue is the responsible use of free speech.
But once the first lady on the thread made a very compelling argument for regulation, almost everyone else who commented afterward was insisting that our right to freely express ourselves must be restricted…To Be Continued. Friday
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