We brushed on this briefly on my group but talking about it in the big group really enforced the idea to me about how much is in shades of gray and how we are uncomfortable with that. We are uncomfortable with saying lies are okay sometimes but also uncomfortable with saying lies are never okay. Even I felt some of the latter because while I really strongly agreed with Bok, I could see that perhaps there were times where lying could be not appropriate, but justified.
But one thing that we brought in up in our group is "what is more dangerous: ignorance or panic". I think I tended to err on the side of ignorance. I have been raised to so and it seems to be a common theme in much literature, the dangers of ignorance and inaction. I like to think that even if you go with the idea that "the masses are asses", it's dangerous for them to be told by politicians that they know what's best for them and they don't need to know things they can't understand. Because what happens when something breaks the idea the politicians know best? The panic they were trying to prevent.
I also think that sometimes panic might even be a good thing despite the connotations being negative. It keeps people aware and on their toes and engages them. When the economy went bad and people started panicking about their money, they started paying more attention to what was going on in the government to fix these problems and so became more engaged. I also think that humans are capable of better things that we know of and so can come up with solutions when there don't seem to be any. It was mentioned if "the government can't fix it, why should the people know" but I don't think it should start and stop with the government. And maybe the panic can get what we called "the diseased system" that caused the need for lies to change.
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Brigit, I love the question your group came up with: "Which is worse, ignorance or panic?" I admit that I have never experienced a true panic, but I wholeheartedly believe that ignorance is one of the most tragic of all human vices, and one of the ones that has led to the most harm in the history of the world. I think you also said it well when you illustrated that a panic induced by correct information can lead to educating and edifying the populace.
ReplyDeleteA major part of existence is learning to adapt. We have all heard the expression, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." That mindset comes from the very real physical and psychological phenomena of adapting to harsher conditions. If your body is pushed, it becomes tougher. Muscles grow, the heart becomes stronger--even your brain is constantly reforming itself. Similarly, when the mind is pushed it becomes stronger. We learn more from school classes that demand for us to think about things and solve difficult problems than we do from easy ones.
In the same way, a people become stronger when they have to live through adversity. When an individual is sheltered or lives a comfortable life, that person becomes weak in mind and body. When a people is sheltered from all the realities of the world, that people becomes less able to adapt to changes or to handle adversity. Therefore, the political habit of lying, even if it is meant to protect, ends up weakening a nation in the long run and continually erodes that nation's ability to handle a crisis when it becomes too big for the government to hide it anymore.