Get your scepticism on
Sunday, 31 Mar 2019
by marina mahathir
SOMETIMES when I read the horrific toxic messages that go around WhatsApp groups, I have to wonder about my people. Do we enjoy being whipped up into agitation? Do we find reading bad news pleasurable? Is it really blissful to wallow in ignorance? Don’t we mind being manipulated by irresponsible people?
I once came across an old handbook of “bazaar Malay” produced by the British Allied Land Forces in 1945 as they prepared to return to Malaya after the Japanese occupation ended. Besides the instructions on how to speak simple Malay, albeit not always grammatically or pronounced correctly, there are guides to “knowing Malays”. It seems that Malays are friendly “mannered” people who are quite happy to help, “provided they are not intimidated, shouted at or insulted”.
Why they did not refer to the other people living in Malaya at the time remains a mystery. Perhaps they meant to condescend to one lot of folks at a time.
What interested me is that trope of how we are really nice people until we are intimidated, shouted at or insulted. There is probably some truth in this, because it suggests that we have some dignity and pride in our psychological makeup, that we will stand up to any form of affront from other people. We are cooperative if we are asked politely and we won’t stand for any insults. All well and good.
But what do we find these days? First of all, we are intimidated, shouted at and insulted by our own people. Was this something we learnt from our former colonisers on how to “control” people?
Just use heavy-handedness and loudness, never mind who’s right or wrong? Insult people by telling them they’re ignorant of democracy, while at the same time limiting democratic space? Rush to the police station to make reports, without ever bothering to find out what the actual issue is?
I am really puzzled by this. But even more, I am bemused by the willingness of so many people to be intimidated and to swallow whole whatever is fed them, despite the fact that what is being shoved down their throats are really insults to the intelligence. Have we become so indolent that we are unwilling to use our brains to be a bit more sceptical of what we are told?
I see people who accept the mis-characterisations of very simple events as gospel. A women’s march becomes an LGBT march. An international convention becomes a threat to sovereignty. A plan to save an institution becomes a conspiracy to destroy it instead. Some of these are things made up by people with evil on their minds, people who are intent to destroy, not support and develop a nation. Some are paid to pass on these disgusting messages especially on social media. They are soldiers of unhappiness and despair whose only aim is to make us disgruntled and frustrated.
I’m not saying that everything we are facing now is wonderful or that our new government is getting everything right. Very often our current ministers are also capable of insulting our intelligence. But nothing beats the outrageous lies that are being perpetrated on social media which people pass on and on. Everybody really needs a good dose of scepticism. Or do we just love to believe conspiracy theories, even the most unlikely ones, because they sound so fantastic that they must be true. Fact is supposed to be stranger than fiction, right? So, if someone tells us that a two-headed half-cat half-dog appeared in their backyard, we must believe this. Because these things happen.
And we think this makes us smart?
There is already so much misery in the world without us needlessly adding to it with false stories. There are still people starving, being bombed, having to run away from their countries on precarious journeys, being beaten up daily, that we don’t need to drown people in more depressing stories which aren’t grounded in fact.
Or worse, twist facts to suit our own ends, even when the net result is actually more unhappiness.
The thing is, some of the spinning that is being done online and viralised is only meant to make a few people happy and the majority forever in chains, if not literally but at least mentally. I don’t understand why we don’t worry about our people’s lack of scepticism and critical analysis of anything they are told. Our students who go overseas often find that they are severely handicapped by their inability to look at anything they are taught with a critical eye. Their overseas counterparts then shine in class while they flounder. It is the result of our woeful education system but we don’t seem to see the long-term impact of this. We are breeding robots who are only able to think, do or say what they are programmed to.
I saw opponents of a particular international statute cite the arguments put forward by some white guy as justification for not signing it. It’s interesting that in wanting to defend so-called sovereignty and privileges they still needed to refer to a Western person as if that is the only way to establish authority. But nobody seemed to have taken the trouble to look up the guy and see what a dubious person he is. Incredibly, white guys are considered really good when they support whatever position you want them to regardless of whether they actually have any credibility at all. This must account for the number of people who think Hitler was cool, without realising that the Fuhrer would just as soon send them to the ovens too for the simple reason of not being Aryan. By the way, white supremacists would secretly admit to admiring old Adolf as well if they wouldn’t get arrested for saying it publicly. You know, the type that shoots people up in mosques. All bred from the same Hitlerite petri dish.
When I see the type of nonsense that passes for news going around social media and WhatsApp, its hardly surprising that there is such a mental health crisis these days. More and more people are depressed and I’m pretty sure that it is because, besides actual bad news that floods them daily in the media, of all the fake and distorted stuff that pings into their chat groups relentlessly every minute of the day. None of it is happy news. None of it makes you feel better about yourself or about your neighbours and country. Sure, occasionally there are some well-meaning homilies about friendship or gratitude or cute cat pictures. But the majority of the stuff is guaranteed to make you ill. Considering that some of these things come in all night, don’t you wonder about the health of people who never seem to sleep?
I think we need to get a grip and really examine what we are doing to ourselves. Sure, we need to voice out our concerns on what we think is not right. But can we at least promise ourselves to first take a deep breath and not jump on the online podium the minute we read something; second, find out whether what we’re reading is true or not, and third, write a cogent argument against whatever we disagree with, backed by facts? Can we remember that the “information” we get are often sent by people who are paid to make up stuff just to make us angry?
Can we honestly call ourselves an intelligent people, rather than a gullible one?
Sunday, 31 Mar 2019
by marina mahathir
SOMETIMES when I read the horrific toxic messages that go around WhatsApp groups, I have to wonder about my people. Do we enjoy being whipped up into agitation? Do we find reading bad news pleasurable? Is it really blissful to wallow in ignorance? Don’t we mind being manipulated by irresponsible people?
I once came across an old handbook of “bazaar Malay” produced by the British Allied Land Forces in 1945 as they prepared to return to Malaya after the Japanese occupation ended. Besides the instructions on how to speak simple Malay, albeit not always grammatically or pronounced correctly, there are guides to “knowing Malays”. It seems that Malays are friendly “mannered” people who are quite happy to help, “provided they are not intimidated, shouted at or insulted”.
Why they did not refer to the other people living in Malaya at the time remains a mystery. Perhaps they meant to condescend to one lot of folks at a time.
What interested me is that trope of how we are really nice people until we are intimidated, shouted at or insulted. There is probably some truth in this, because it suggests that we have some dignity and pride in our psychological makeup, that we will stand up to any form of affront from other people. We are cooperative if we are asked politely and we won’t stand for any insults. All well and good.
But what do we find these days? First of all, we are intimidated, shouted at and insulted by our own people. Was this something we learnt from our former colonisers on how to “control” people?
Just use heavy-handedness and loudness, never mind who’s right or wrong? Insult people by telling them they’re ignorant of democracy, while at the same time limiting democratic space? Rush to the police station to make reports, without ever bothering to find out what the actual issue is?
I am really puzzled by this. But even more, I am bemused by the willingness of so many people to be intimidated and to swallow whole whatever is fed them, despite the fact that what is being shoved down their throats are really insults to the intelligence. Have we become so indolent that we are unwilling to use our brains to be a bit more sceptical of what we are told?
I see people who accept the mis-characterisations of very simple events as gospel. A women’s march becomes an LGBT march. An international convention becomes a threat to sovereignty. A plan to save an institution becomes a conspiracy to destroy it instead. Some of these are things made up by people with evil on their minds, people who are intent to destroy, not support and develop a nation. Some are paid to pass on these disgusting messages especially on social media. They are soldiers of unhappiness and despair whose only aim is to make us disgruntled and frustrated.
I’m not saying that everything we are facing now is wonderful or that our new government is getting everything right. Very often our current ministers are also capable of insulting our intelligence. But nothing beats the outrageous lies that are being perpetrated on social media which people pass on and on. Everybody really needs a good dose of scepticism. Or do we just love to believe conspiracy theories, even the most unlikely ones, because they sound so fantastic that they must be true. Fact is supposed to be stranger than fiction, right? So, if someone tells us that a two-headed half-cat half-dog appeared in their backyard, we must believe this. Because these things happen.
And we think this makes us smart?
There is already so much misery in the world without us needlessly adding to it with false stories. There are still people starving, being bombed, having to run away from their countries on precarious journeys, being beaten up daily, that we don’t need to drown people in more depressing stories which aren’t grounded in fact.
Or worse, twist facts to suit our own ends, even when the net result is actually more unhappiness.
The thing is, some of the spinning that is being done online and viralised is only meant to make a few people happy and the majority forever in chains, if not literally but at least mentally. I don’t understand why we don’t worry about our people’s lack of scepticism and critical analysis of anything they are told. Our students who go overseas often find that they are severely handicapped by their inability to look at anything they are taught with a critical eye. Their overseas counterparts then shine in class while they flounder. It is the result of our woeful education system but we don’t seem to see the long-term impact of this. We are breeding robots who are only able to think, do or say what they are programmed to.
I saw opponents of a particular international statute cite the arguments put forward by some white guy as justification for not signing it. It’s interesting that in wanting to defend so-called sovereignty and privileges they still needed to refer to a Western person as if that is the only way to establish authority. But nobody seemed to have taken the trouble to look up the guy and see what a dubious person he is. Incredibly, white guys are considered really good when they support whatever position you want them to regardless of whether they actually have any credibility at all. This must account for the number of people who think Hitler was cool, without realising that the Fuhrer would just as soon send them to the ovens too for the simple reason of not being Aryan. By the way, white supremacists would secretly admit to admiring old Adolf as well if they wouldn’t get arrested for saying it publicly. You know, the type that shoots people up in mosques. All bred from the same Hitlerite petri dish.
When I see the type of nonsense that passes for news going around social media and WhatsApp, its hardly surprising that there is such a mental health crisis these days. More and more people are depressed and I’m pretty sure that it is because, besides actual bad news that floods them daily in the media, of all the fake and distorted stuff that pings into their chat groups relentlessly every minute of the day. None of it is happy news. None of it makes you feel better about yourself or about your neighbours and country. Sure, occasionally there are some well-meaning homilies about friendship or gratitude or cute cat pictures. But the majority of the stuff is guaranteed to make you ill. Considering that some of these things come in all night, don’t you wonder about the health of people who never seem to sleep?
I think we need to get a grip and really examine what we are doing to ourselves. Sure, we need to voice out our concerns on what we think is not right. But can we at least promise ourselves to first take a deep breath and not jump on the online podium the minute we read something; second, find out whether what we’re reading is true or not, and third, write a cogent argument against whatever we disagree with, backed by facts? Can we remember that the “information” we get are often sent by people who are paid to make up stuff just to make us angry?
Can we honestly call ourselves an intelligent people, rather than a gullible one?
