Without Dissent, no life, no growth! Nature of Dissent!

http://almayasabdam.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/James-Kottor.jpgNote: What is it that differentiates Communities and societies from Oligarchies and dictatorships called One-man show? It is DISSENT! 

Dissent and assent  are different from descend and ascend although they sound the same. The second refers to going up and down in physical space, while the first means disagreeing or agreeing with another in mental space. Here we are dealing with the first, primarily with ‘Dissent’, disagreeing, and most specially on how to disagree in an agreeable way.

Dissent=Vice?

In popular parlance ‘dissent’ is equated with vice, not virtue, both in politics and religion. For example ‘Urban Naxals' is a term used to demonise dissent in Indian politics. In the Catholic church, the latest views of Cardnal Vigano and Lateran university professor, Levi, are called destructive bomb-shells of dissent hitting the ‘Bark of Peter’ comparable only to the iceberg that hit ‘Titanic’. 

Are debates in the Church good or bad? Extremely good! Debates do not mean decisions taken but warnings to steer clear of hidden icebergs that can only destroy instead of taking the safe path to right direction.

It is here that debates, dissent or assent, become timely, relevant and all important, nay a ‘sine qua non’ (indispensible) for readers, columnists and letter writers in CCV. A community without communication, vertical and horizontal, is like a dead body without blood circulation.

Church in India, living or dead?

Is the Catholic Church in India living or dead? There is absolutely no vertical communication between faithful and their bishops who hide behind an iron curtain of silence. Is the CCV, in comparison a vibrantly living body? Who does all the talking in the CCV? The chief/cheap editor? two associate editors? the columnists? the readers? Mostly the editors, and once in a way the readers. The chief editor’s role is to be that of an umpire, the whistle blower, to make sure the players in the field do not make foul, clash to hurt and disable another player. 

As in a living organism, which is what a ‘society’ is all about,  the readers for whom CCV is run should be most active, expressing their dissent or assent or better options they may have to suggest. The only constant in life is change, change for the better in our case. To bring about that, each one of us have to become that change first, to infect others with it.  

Light from above!

Listen to Cardinal Newman: “In a higher world it may be different. But here below, to live is to change, and to be perfect, is to have changed most often.” The oars that prompt change, make course correction and propel speed in the right direction and make real progress are discussion, debate and most of all well-considered DISSENT! It has to be so for the CCV, to the Church in India and the secular political society we live in.

May we therefore request all our esteemed readers to become the nourishing, circulating life-blood of the CCV? For more compelling and convincing reasons – rational, ethical and logical –  read attentively Sundar Sarukkai’s   lucid  article on “Dissent” below, published in Hindu, Sept.4, 2918. james kottoor, editor ccv.


https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article17342338.ece/alternates/SQUARE_80/sundarphoto

Sundar Sarukkai

Dissent is necessary not only for democracy — it is necessary for the survival of the human race.

Disagreeing with each other is a fundamental human trait. There is not a single individual who does not disagree with something or the other all the time. Philosophers argue that a baby meaningfully attains its sense of the self — its recognition of ‘I’ and the concept of ‘mine’ — when it first begins to say ‘no’. At a primordial level, we become individuals only through this act of stating our disagreement. There is no family without dissent between parents and the children, or between the siblings. A family which learns to deal with dissent rather than authoritatively dismissing it is a more harmonious family.

A way of being

We dissent at home, with our friends and with our colleagues in the places we work. It is through these ways of dissenting that we establish a relationship with them. Our relations with our friends are based as much on how we learn to live with our disagreements as on other things. The relationship between spouses is filled with many moments of disagreement. If our friends and family consist only of those who agree with us all the time, then we will not have any friends and family. Learning to live with others, the first requisite for a social existence, is about learning how to live with them when they disagree with us.

Dissent is so ingrained in us that we don’t even need others to disagree. We constantly disagree with ourselves. We argue with our own selves all the time as if each one of us is an individual made up of many selves. When we think, we are often dissenting with our own selves. When we stifle dissent within our own minds, we stop thinking. Many of our meaningful acts also occur from this dissenting conversation of our many selves.

Social dissent

Dissent is thus a condition of existence and the real problem is not dissent but silent assent. When we agree collectively, we are silently assenting, agreeing with what is being said and done. This is really not the existential characteristic of a human being but only that of a ‘bonded mind’. However, some might say that assent is the way societies come together, and it is needed for a stable society. But this is plain wrong. Just as a baby attains its sense of self through dissent, so too does a society get its own identity by learning to dissent. In other words, we will have a stronger identity of what our society and nation are through forms of dissent.

Moreover, every process of forming the social needs dissent. A group made up of people who agree to everything all the time is not really a society but an oligarchy. It becomes a society only through disagreements and dissent. Dissent, paradoxically, is the glue which makes a decent society possible.

A mature society is one which has the capacity to manage dissent since members of a society will always disagree with each other on something or the other. Democratic societies are the best of the available models in managing dissent with the least harmful effect on the dissenter. This is the true work of democracy; elections and voting are the means to achieve this. The essence of democracy is to be found in the method it uses to deal with dissent, which is through discussion and debate, along with particular ethical norms.

A democratic society manages dissent by trying to make individual practices of dissent into social practices. Academics and research are two important activities where dissent is at the core. No society has survived without making changes to what was present earlier. New knowledge and new ways of understanding the world, for good or bad, has always been part of every society.

How is new knowledge, new understanding, created? Many new ideas arise by going against earlier established norms and truths. Science, in its broadest meaning, is not possible without dissent since it is by finding flaws with the views of others that new science is created. No two philosophers agree on one point, and no two social scientists are in perfect harmony with each other’s thoughts. Artists are constantly breaking boundaries set by their friends and peers. Buddha and Mahavira were dissenters first and philosophers next. The Ramayana and Mahabharata are filled with stories of dissent and responsible ways of dealing with it.

Thus, when academics dissent, it is part of their job expectation to do so! Dissent is not just about criticism, it is also about showing new perspectives. The scientific community does not imprison scientists for dissenting although we are increasingly finding today that social scientists and artists are being targeted in the name of dissent. This has grown to such an extent that when faculty members dissent about unlawful hiring practices, they face harassment and suspension.

It is not that dissent is necessary only for democracy — it is necessary for the survival of the human race. Any society which eradicates dissent has only succeeded in eradicating itself. We cannot afford to forget the examples of Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia. A sustainable, harmonious society can only be formed from practices which deal with dissent respectfully and ethically.

Ethics of dissent

The importance of dissent is not just that it is good for democracy. There is also a fundamental ethical principle involved in dissent. Any society which muzzles dissent is acting unethically. Let me give two ethical principles associated with dissent. First, its relation to non-violence, a principle which is so integral to the unique Indian practices of dissent from ancient times to Gandhi and Ambedkar. Second, dissent is an ethical means of protecting those who are worse off than others. Dissent is not mere complaint which all of us, however privileged we are, indulge in. Social dissent is a necessary voice for all those who are oppressed and are marginalised for various reasons. This is the only thing they have in a world which has denied them the basic dignity of a social life.

The ethical principle is that the worse off in a society have greater right to dissent and protest even when the more privileged may not agree or sympathise with that dissent. This is the truly ethical principle that can sustain a mature society. Thus, when we hear the voices of dissent from the oppressed and the marginalised, it is ethically incumbent upon those who are better off than them to give them greater space and greater freedom to dissent.

Any of us, particularly the more well-off population, who support any government which wants to use its power to stop dissent of those who are suffering from injustice of various kinds are being used as partners in this unethical action. We act immorally when we sit in the comfort of our homes and abuse those who fight for the rights of the poor and oppressed. When we condemn them in the name of the nation, we are performing an unethical act of further condemning those who are already condemned.

(Sundar Sarukkai is Professor of Philosophy at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru).

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1 Response

  1. Isaac Gomes says:

    On 30th August 2018, the front page of the Telegraph Calcutta carried the following headline:

    "Dissent is the safety valve of democracy, if you don't allow safety valve, pressure cooker will burst" – Justice D.Y. Chandrachud to the Maharashtra Government

    In the UK the leader of the Opposition is given the same respect and may be pay, as the Prime Minister, for his criticism of the Government. His / her critical views are given great importance for course correction. In India, both the Central and State Governments show scant respect for the Leader of the Opposition and in most cases, lambast him/her. This is not at all good for our democracy.

    Socrates always encouraged his students to ask questions. Jesus Christ always raised pertinent questions on the social practices and customs (so-called traditions) of His time.

    In fact both Socrates and Jesus Christ paid with their lives for asking questions, which is nothing but Dissent. Of course, Church teachings say that the death of Jesus was pre-destined.

    As per Canon Law, there is a provision for Dissent during deliberations in Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) meetings.  But in most parishes, Parish Priests aided by his lackeys, stifle these voices and even virtually excommunicate them.  Most Church journals/ newsletters do not publish critical or dissenting articles by the Laity.  They only believe in the publication of all hunky-dory "Good News" on inauguration, conventions and pious talks. This is the reason many have taken to social network like FaceBook, Blogs, etc. Of late a few Church Newsletters/Journals are publishing voices of the Laity on a selective / case-to-case basis.

     

     

     

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