Keep Calm & discuss.

Marina Mahathir in her article wrote, "The trouble with silence is that nobody knows what it means, so we can only make up reasons."

So much is meant when you leave things unsaid. Because then the masses have this 'criminal' act of assuming what they do not understand and what they never want to understand. Yes, assumptions can take you places but finding the truth or at least explanations to what might be true can take you to greater heights.

Assuming makes you make sense of things at that moment of time but don't tell me you never want to find out for real why apples are not oranges ?

Why is going on a quest for truth such a frowned upon act in this country ? Well at least in my fraction of the country where all future policy makers are in the making.

I have noticed that there seems to be this air of negativity circulating the idea of searching for the greater purpose on your own. It is as if you are dismissing every single thing you have known thus far in search of this truth.

And to some, the only way truth can be gained is when self-proclaimed experts run along your way advocating their concern for your ignorance and thus see the need to be the source of sometimes ill-advised information.

Then when are you actually allowed to have a mind of your own ?

Don't belittle a curious mind la...

Give them a pat on their back their initiative to look for truth. The brain deserves that respect. Don't just blindly feed it with information and force them to accept it. Don't take a way the voice out of their opinions.

"What is it about us that we can’t take anything just for what it is? Why does everything have to be a conspiracy theory of some kind? Apparently we Asians (and Arabs and probably Africans too) are incapable of ever thinking for ourselves and therefore if we ever demand things like freedom of speech and other basic democratic freedom, we must surely be manipulated by someone else. Never mind that we once fought for our independence without anyone else putting the idea in our heads.

It is a patronising and condescending, not to mention racist, attitude about our own kind. And it is really the upshot of an education system that is geared towards keeping our minds small, and an environment jail. that downgrades science and scientific fact in favour of superstition, rumours, whims and gossip.

Somehow, using our brains has fallen into disfavour, while the wackiest ideas spread like wildfire."

(A ‘cult of unthinking’ is spreading By Marina Mahathir)

No one is manipulating anybody. You can calm down now. The act of questioning one's faith/opinion/theory/whatever shouldn't give you a one-way ticket to Azkaban.

Another interesting I realized is that this sudden rush of emotions that surfaces whenever a person's opinion doesn't rhyme with mine or whoever John Doe is talking to. Just because I question something you didn't plan I had questions for or something that people don't ask out openly, one shouldn't jump into conclusions right away about the nature of the question. You go on to tackle the person and not his question and before we know it, we are already en route to discussing another issue that has no connection to the one worth discussing.

Keep calm and discuss.

Penat lah. Here I am trying to understand the gravity of the issue but then it ends up being run over and over time, avoided and forgotten.

Be open to criticism. Be open enough and give yourself room to look for information. Don't be blinded by the majority that enjoys the silence just because it creates less havoc than speaking up.

"Stand up for what you believe in even if it means standing alone."

Don't be cajoled by the mere attraction of being accepted by the masses. Instead be enticed by how your unique thoughts are actually yours and that you are making that effort to be more informed.

"Information can tell us everything. It has all the answers. But they are answers to questions we have not asked, and which doubtless don't even arise."

Jean Baudrillard