Minority overrulz!

Recently read the book "The Lucifer Effect" by Philip Zimbardo, the experimenter made famous by the Stanford Prison Experiment, the book made the topic of systemic-institutional power over its people within its control evident.

What is Systemic-institutional power? It is the power our legal system, government, culture and even religion had over our behaviors. It is these systems that shape our behavioral situation, giving them the social norms that people within them conform to.

As Psychologists, we are aware of the phenomenon "Fundamental attribution error", in which we inaccurately attribute others behavioral motive to their dispositions. It is this very phenomenon that affects the way conformers/majority perceived non-conformers/minority to be. For example, Homosexuality, which is a minority, had once been classified as a sexually deviant disorder and had been regarded as a "disease" by professional, purely because they are not the social norm. Another example, close to our Singapore context, People who are interested in politics and show passion in expressing their political view (a minority) had been viewed as social deviants and disrupter in social harmony and see as a "troublemaker", without noticing that they may be forced by external circumstances (e.g., being oppressed due to their anti-PAP political stand). The tendency to blame non-conformer is a powerful weapon and is most often utilised by our institutions, in which they try to make nonconformers look stupid or ignorant or even evil. This usually serves as tool for those who serve as a protector of the institution, for example, the press, police officers, teachers, prison guards, legal systems. Unfortunately, other than these protectors, civilians or normal citizens can sometimes act as an unknowing protectors as well. Those civilians who are ignorant or those who are susceptible to conformity obeyed the institution's perspective in viewing "nonconformers" and served as a social pressure to force nonconformers to conform. This is exactly what happened during Nazi Germany when people are forced by social pressure to give up the whereabouts of Jews and killed them.

“There are always bound to be some prisoners struggling to get out and others who are not at that point. Those who are not struggling at the time should learn to protect their interests without being a real obstacle to those who are struggling. A bad prisoner is one who cannot do this, who is only out for himself" (quote from The Lucifer Effect)

Singapore is based on a history of abandonment. From being abandoned by the British Troops during the Second World War, and the detachment from Malaysia, it is likely that the culture in Singapore is based on Insecurity. Highly uncertain about institutional decisions and plans, Singaporeans eventually developed a sense of helplessness towards their government. Helplessness, not because our government is ineffective, but that they is nothing much the citizens can do. After Learned Helplessness, the next in progress is Conformity and Blind Obedience towards Authority. With its institutional power, citizens obey and conform to the rules set by our institutions.

It is evident from human history that when a single person or a group of people had absolute power over a country, disaster is bound to follow. For example, Hitler-germany. Remember "groupthink", "self-limiting beliefs", "Self-bias"? All these phenomenon clouded the institution's decision-making processes, and will eventually lead to bad consequences. It is essential for anyone to stand up and voice out whenever they feel that a bad decision had been made.

This Post is titled Minority Overulz, because minority deviant is essential to overthrow groupthink. It is important for every human being to understand the fact that we are individuals with values. For a society to progress and for its people to grow morally and wiser, it is essential for every group to possess few deviant thinker to stimulate alternative thinking and to prevent unwise and immoral decision (eg, invading Iraq and the Abu Ghraib incident).

In this world, there are bound to be people who held different beliefs from us, be it religious affiliation, culture (collectivistic vs individualistic), political beliefs, or even sexual orientation. Makes me wonder, what gives anyone the right to claim a belief as moral/correct/righteous and criticising another as immoral/ignorant/evil? An idea that is held by the majority does not necessarily made it the right one (Remember that Earth had been once viewed as Flat by the majority). Human rights had been defined as rights and freedom entitled to all only if it didnt infringes the right of others. i believed any one can say and do what they want as long as they dun harm or hurt others in so doing. It is idealistic to imagine a society with heterogenous culture and an accomodating attitude to difference, especially when human rights is such a elusive matter. For example, whenever we say or do something, we are forcing others to hear or act to them. In a sense, we are forcing our right to voice out onto others, with no concern whether they want to hear them or not. It seem like Human right can only be exercised privately. However, even when we enclosed ourselves, we are depriving others their rights to speak and our right to listen (For example Japan's closed economy, in which America had blamed them). Sometimes, what "human rights" is, are also defined by our own institutions.

Taking this into account, people should recognise the fact that whatever they say can make a impact. We need to voice out our opinions time to time. Most importantly, irregardless of whether we are the majority conformers or minority nonconformers, we should not degrade those who withheld beliefs different from us. Like the quote from "Lucifer Effect", we should not interfere with the effort of individuals struggling in the systems. Similarly, we should not degrade those who are comfortable with the status quo. And We should not believe something as "truth" purely based on what the authorities had told us. We as individuals must possess critical thinking and not accept any information we are exposed to as truth, until it had been analysed skeptically and critically either by ourselves or several parties.

"Democracy is nothing more than a mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine" (quote Thomas Jefferson)

"Democracy is but a mob with electoral rights, the key is educating them" (from somewhere)