By *Jomo Thomas
“In fact, the only sin we will never forgive each other is a difference of opinion.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“Anti-intellectualism, camouflaged with civility and politeness, has blocked the means to engage in critical debate. Contempt for the life of the mind and an obsession with comfort has made public discourse virtually impossible. And, with the avoidance of critical dialogue, we end up hiding the truth of our understanding from ourselves and each other, which may prove to be the greatest tragedy of all.” — Ejike Obineme, Too Terrified to Enter the Arena of Ideas.
In times past, you entered a discussion at your own risk. Woe be unto you if you made a statement and could not back it up. Those were the days when all of SVG was teeming with ideas, conversations, discussions and arguments, when everyone held fast to their beliefs but was willing to put them to the test of investigation and inquiry.
Debate was everywhere, and it was not a test of debating skills. It was a test of ideas about what was wrong with society and what should be done to move the country forward.
Some of us were so thirsty for knowledge that we risked our liberty to get information. We eagerly awaited the arrival of illegal and banned Granma, the Cuban newspaper that highlighted the battles and successes of the Cuban Revolution; Soviet Weekly; the English language Russian paper that offered a glimpse into the socialist world; Thunder and Mirror from Guyana’s People’s Progressive Party that damned the blight of Burnham’s Co-operative socialism yet offered critical support for its progressive foreign policy: Ralph Gonsalves’ biting columns in the Barbados Nation Newspaper, as well as the bold and brave radicalism of Renwick Rose YULIMO and the United People’s Movement whose organs, Freedom and Justice newspapers, made the ruling elite quake with fear of exposure.
In those days, there was a serious battle for people’s minds. And then everything crashed. The Grenada Revolution imploded, resulting in negative fallout. The Soviet Union and the socialist countries disintegrated swiftly. The world changed for the worse.
The progressive movement was torn asunder. Many who claimed to be revolutionaries became careerists, pragmatists, accommodationists and apologists. Most settled for the honeycomb of power and merely genuflected to the pressing problems plaguing the people.
Some gleefully embraced the get-rich-quick, my-time-now, no-more-personal-sacrifice mantra. Nothing except family was worth fighting for. Commitment to anything meaningful was opportunistically timed to coincide with an electoral clock. The community was dismantled and suffered, and among the youth, there developed a strong nihilistic belief made popular in song by the artist 50 Cent, ‘Get rich quick or die young.’
In politics and across all social, economic and religious institutions, a radical form of control emerged. Confirm or be bent into shape, remain non-conforming and be ostracised. Rock the boat at your personal and professional risk. All too many meekly obeyed, citing the primary obligation of food, clothing, shelter, the mortgage to pay and the children to educate.
Groupthink, a tendency to seek consensus rather than foster dissent, has sadly gripped the land. As Yale psychologist Irving Janis notes, ‘Groupthink is the enemy of originality because people feel pressured to conform to the dominant views instead of championing a diversity of thought. The quest for unanimity overrides their motivation to appraise alternative courses of action realistically.’
Amazingly, many who found absolutely nothing to question during ULP’s 24-year tenure in power have found their voices and are yelping about everything and anything. They drive their opponents to the wall and do not permit a viewpoint to go unchallenged. As Bill Moyers, an experienced communications expert, said, there is a fine line between people sharing the same values intensely and operating like a cult.
In the family as in the larger society, unity is paramount. Unity must be cultivated and cherished, but a dogmatic approach to vital issues is deadly, especially if you take a ‘know-it-all’ approach to everything around you. As the NDP government settles into the art of governing, we must pay attention to the vibes it throws off. Would it be firm in the face of challenges from the official opposition but open to engaging broader society, with the understanding that nothing is settled for all time?
Plain Talk harbours no doubt that to solve problems, make wise decisions, and remain successful, groups need to encourage original ideas and dissenting views. Would the government frown on all attempts to engage in mind control that choke off inquiry and embrace Einstein’s maxim that ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge?’ The wise man reminds us that ‘knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.’
Even now, with the removal of a leader who spied on citizens and threatened suit against anyone who questioned his authority, too many citizens remain too terrified to enter the arena of ideas, sort out differences and push each other to think deeper about our words and work’s implications. We still whisper in private, refusing to raise our voices for what is right, fair and just.
More of us need to strengthen our conviction. Often, attempting to speak openly is misinterpreted as disruptive and an attempt to self-righteously and selfishly reassert oneself in the public sphere. The risk of allowing certain ideas to go unchallenged leads to misunderstanding and mass confusion so prevalent among our people.
Plain Talk will be forever convinced that the moral growth of a country has to be measured by its ability or failure to bring into public consciousness the plight of the silenced, oppressed and unremembered. Any serious change agent must take it as their solemn responsibility to publicly represent all those people and issues that are routinely forgotten and swept under the rug’
SVG must forever remain an intellectual wasteland. We must seize the time and fertilise our minds again.
This column, with some changes, was first published on Jan. 21, 2021.
*Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
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