WHAT WE like about democracy that also annoys us is that everyone can say something about anything and has the right to express it. After all, “it’s a democratic country”.
The first democratic government emerged around 2500 years ago in the same place where philosophy and science originated. In Athens, the Athenians in Greece used a legislative and executive branch-based political system. It’s far from how we practice democracy today as they excluded a large portion of the population, including women, slaves, and foreigners. But while people around the globe kill one another for power, they already value equality of speech as they value their political rights.
We claim that the power is vested in the people in democratic countries like the Philippines. However, we human beings are different and so are our needs, and yet our tolerance for one another has grown so thin we’re not hesitant anymore to cut ties to people who hold opposing views. It’s understandable to be attached to our opinions but when it comes to public discourse, we should be mindful that opinions are not facts.
A fact is a verified truth like the sun rising from the East. Opinion, on the other hand, is simply an expression of judgment. Expert opinions decades ago about the use of plastics are not the same as they view it today. Chemist Baekeland discovered the first plastic in 1907 and further developed by other scientists later on. For years, experts, entrepreneurs, and even everyday people celebrated plastics for their durability and wide range of applications until experts discovered that plastics are now destroying the environment. From then on, movements have emerged calling for long-lasting solutions to plastic pollution. That’s the thing about opinions, they change over time.
As the election draws near, insults and attacks like dilawan, dutertads, and kakampinks intensify. Certainty is a must in these times of saturated opinions. We may be in a democratic country but then we’re also humans, and we love to be right. When it comes to public discourse, however, the logic we use will only become stronger if we listen to the other side and cater to their sentiments, too. It’s common to stand by your beliefs but when we hold unjustified contempt for the ‘other side’ as if they’re our opponents we must defeat them, that is bigotry and it’s not a good place to be in. Bigotry is an extreme intolerance for other opinions different from ours. It is when we think our opinions and needs are the only ones that matter. A place farthest from empathy and understanding.
Sometimes, some seemingly bigoted judgments may only be caused by a lack of access to information and evidence. In Ethics, students will be introduced to the principles of moral reasoning. They will be introduced to how to look at things from different angles. They will be able to relate to people better and see them as fellow humans with different needs and intellects. When our consciousness shifts this way, we will focus more on the right moral principles than merely ‘being right’.
Ethics is not the panacea for all the ills of politics. The pedagogical skills of the teacher and the interests of the student differ and there’s also a lot to cover in a three-unit subject. However, this three-unit subject is a good place to start. If the students are exposed to moral reasoning, they can practice how to civilly advocate for their rights and needs. And since they have a foundation about the moral law that binds us all, they will expect the government to uphold the same moral values they guide themselves. In this way, we can produce students who will not tolerate in the government the injustices and other immoralities that they do not accept in the classroom.
Hasmeyya L. Tiboron is a writer from Cotabato City
