---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Gaffar Peang-Meth <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 11:23 AM Subject: Opinion not the same as thought To:
*PACIFIC DAILY NEWS* September 30, 2009 Opinion not the same as thought A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D. Last week I wrote about an emerging culture of intolerance, characterized by an increasing tendency of debaters to clutter discussion with insults and replace thoughtful discussion with a demonization of one's opponent. "Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated," said Coretta Scott King. Chinese philosopher Confucius counseled, we must "cultivate our personal life, ... set our hearts right." Professor Jonathan Haidt's research looked for "ways to transcend 'culture wars,' ... to foster more civil forms of politics." His CivicPolitics.org <http://politics.org/> Web site begins with the question: "Can't we all disagree more constructively?" Diversity and disagreement are healthy in a democracy. When 1,000 critical and creative thoughts bloom, a society has the opportunity to probe, to seek to understand, and to generate new ideas among a long list of options to advance humanity. However, unrestrained free expression invites licentiousness, found in the state of nature, that threatens human rights, freedom and survival. Opinion is not to be confused with thought. As Tim Hurson -- founding partner of a firm that provides global corporations with training, facilitation and consultation in productive thinking and innovation -- posits, "truly focused thinking" includes mental activities such as "observing, remembering, wondering, imagining, inquiring, interpreting, evaluating, judging, identifying, supposing, composing, comparing, analyzing, calculating, and even metacognition (thinking about thinking)." As Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think." But man can learn, and Hurson assures us, "Every brain, regardless of its intelligence quotient or creative quotient, can be taught to think better: to understand more clearly, think more creatively, and plan more effectively." So, critical and creative thoughts can be cultivated to yield a thousand blooms -- not just to make the garden beautiful, but to allow a selection from among the best. Thus, international law is careful in finding a balance among freedom of expression, debate on matters of public interest, and respect of the rights and reputations of others, as found in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Without this balance, liberty itself is in jeopardy, oppression raises its ugly head. A Web site tells its readers that it "loves to hear from you, and we're giving you a bullhorn. We just ask that you keep things civil. Please leave out personal attacks, do not use profanity, ethnic or racial slurs, or take shots at anyone's sexual orientation or religion." But "personal attacks, ... profanity, ethnic or racial slurs" and expletives are found in comments left in cyberspace in the name of free expression by a growing family of "anonymouses." A Khmer saying goes, "Somdei sar jiat" -- literally, "words reveal one's race," or words reveal the kind of person the speaker or the writer is; his or her values and human dignity. A Turkish proverb says, "A knife wound heals; a wound caused by words does not." The story of a "Bag of Nails" is worth retelling here. A father gave a bad-tempered little boy a bag of nails, and told him to hammer a nail into the fence each time he lost his temper. On the first day, the boy hammered 37 nails, but with each day that passed, the boy hammered fewer nails into the fence. The boy learned it was easier to hold his temper than to drive each nail into the fence. Finally came the day he didn't have to hammer any nail into the fence: he didn't lose his temper. The boy was happy and he proudly reported to his father. Then the father told the boy now he needed to pull out a nail each day he could control his temper. Days later, all the nails were pulled out. The father took the boy by the hand and they walked to the fence. "You have done well, my son," said the father, "but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out; it won't matter how many times you say, 'I'm sorry', the wound is still there." Haidt sees man's "natural self-righteousness" as a "candidate for 'biggest obstacle' to world peace and social harmony" -- "My group is right ... Those who disagree are obviously biased by their religion, their ideology, or their self-interest." Haidt asserts it's "most universal ... advice from across cultures and eras ... that we are all hypocrites and in our condemnation of others' hypocrisy we only compound our own." He used anthropologist Clifford Geertz's "man is an animal suspended in webs of significance that he himself has spun," to explain, "the world we live in is not really one made of rocks, trees, and physical objects; it is a world of insults, opportunities, status symbols, betrayals, saints, and sinners. All of these are human creations." Haidt referenced Chinese Zen master Sen-ts'an's call for nonjudgmentalism -- judgmentalism is "the mind's worst disease," that "leads to anger, torment, and conflict." Buddha teaches that the human mind's "incessant judging" can be stopped, the mind can be trained to do the right things. Man can learn, and meditation is one way to do so. "By seeing the log in your own eye," Haidt says, "you can become less biased, less moralistic, and therefore less inclined toward argument and conflict." A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at [email protected]. http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200909300300/OPINION02/909300317 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
