I’ve
recently been doing a bit of scribbling in one form or another and not wishing
to overestimate my capabilities, I’ve been fairly cautious about estimating the
value of any of these efforts. But at least this did cause me to reflect on the
fact that we do not hear nearly enough from ‘ordinary people’ as to the views
that they hold on important matters.
This
is especially true when these views diverge from ‘expert’ opinion, received
‘wisdom’, what leaders (elected, unelected, members of special interest groups
or simply self appointed) and the wealthy owners of the press tell us and what
we are supposed to accept as true. All too often, the people are manipulated by
these privileged individuals and are not respected. This is not how it should
be.
I
for one would like to hear more from this needlessly silenced majority drawing
on the wealth of experience that they hold and the abundant common sense that
they have acquired. I say ‘silenced’ rather than ‘silent’ for good reason. People
tend to be reluctant to say what they think on many subjects of substance, sometimes
because they have been made, by various social pressures, to feel inhibited or
embarrassed about expressing their own sincere views.
It
is unfortunate that there are many people who may have very interesting things
to say but who are silenced by this sort of anxiety, a fear that is often,
sometimes deliberately, put into them by critics who, superior beings that they
no doubt are, would much rather hear echoes of their own voices.
There
are those with power and influence who without a second thought imagine that they
speak for the people at large and take the liberty of doing so, invited or not,
whenever they feel like it and who do not relish being told to ‘hold on a bit’.
But
each person is distinct from all others and accordingly will have a unique
perspective on life and singular experience of the issues that it inevitably
raises. It is true that one risks looking rather odd when, at a certain stage
in life, putting personal understandings and judgments into the public domain. To
this I simply say ‘If this is the case, then so be it!’ No doubt I will find
myself amongst those people who I believe should be suffered gladly!
In
my own case (happily devoid of power and influence I hasten to add!) the stray
reader may also detect what might be seen as my tendency to attempt to square
circles! I admit that I find such exercises irresistibly tempting but, this
said, I am not sure that the strict geometric impossibility is the best metaphor.
Perfect
circles and perfect squares exist only as abstract concepts. What’s more, I
enjoy making seeming impossibilities possible. In the end, this may be so only
in some respects, or when viewed from unconventional angles. But once ‘imperfection’,
albeit slight, is allowed to enter the picture so also do far richer
possibilities come into being ‘amidst every perfection is a measure of
imperfection’.
Furthermore,
conducting the circle ‘squaring’ exercise can itself be revealing, and elements
that may in abstract have appeared to be irreconcilable are usually not quite
so in practice. Unsuspected affinities may come to light, and our understanding
of each may be much enhanced.
All
this, of course, being the exact opposite of, for example, tribalistic party political
propaganda, commercial lobbying or certain religious recruitment and conversion
processes – and so much the better for that. The divisiveness that these groups
can create damages and diminishes our society.
In
this light, I firmly believe that we should all take courage and make clear
what we think regardless of the pontifications of leaders. We should do this whenever
we can and in ways that suit each of us best, since all of us will have
something distinctive and worthwhile to contribute and our society will be all
the better for it.
