People grow when they dissent and seek analternative viewpoint. Nations develop when there is debate over ideas andpolicies. And new thoughts and perspectives evolve as dissenting opinion aidsin making the majority opinion better, or at times, influences in rectifyingthe same. It shapes the intellectual landscape of a community. That’s why, itneeds protection.
Dissent or disagreement as such is notalways ‘wicked’, as usually labeled by dissent haters. A healthy practice ofexpressing one’s viewpoint cannot be just troublesome or irritating. But then,what is it that upsets the power whenever there is dissent? Why brush-off anydifference of opinion? Probably, the power structures seem unconvinced of theircorrectness. Or either the dissent haters are blind towards facts. The perceptualblindness, in turn, can be because of any prejudice or a vested interest thathas many favorable linkages to procure.
It appears strange as to why dissent voicesare silenced, so much ostracized and looked down upon. Can’t individuals thinkdifferently, and have different take on various issues? The whip to make themthink alike, aimed at establishing consensus opinions sounds bizarre!Dismissing disagreement for the sake of ‘unanimity’ is fallacious. Unanimity isnot unity. It is only a symbol of ‘common ground’ disguised as normal state.
The notion that dissent encouragesnoncompliance is again an alibi to suppress dissent voices. No worldly word isfinal. No law is an indisputable verdict. And no rule is an unquestionablecommandment. Obedience is obviously warranted but the same cannot be entailedor enforced by muzzling the dissent.
They say a dissenting opinion is often theproduct of the battle itself. The battle between the dissimilar parties orindividuals, arguing on a plane of right and wrong variable. Of course, boththe variables are definite, and cannot be relative. Right is just right, andwrong cannot be set as right. That’s why dissent acts as a pivot in the systemof checks and balances. It is a pointer for the brooding soul, an indicator tothe future which may get betrayed by the incorrect estimation or projection bythe power.
Societies, institutions and organizationsneed dissenters to save these from collapsing due to far lethal ‘consensusvirus’ that slaughters independent thinking and prolongs the culture ofmindless compliance. The concurring minds are never ingenious and innovativesince they have nothing to offer and hence, no dissent. They agree toeverything and sign in every decision. The ‘Herd Mentality’ is their hallmark.
To be a dissenter is not that easy andpainless. It needs courage to speak to power and disagree. It needs challengingtolerance to face victimization for committing the ‘sin to object’. It needsstrong self-sufficiency to withstand lobby pressures and not getting boggeddown by ruthless criticism. It needs indigenous merit and competence to goagainst the tide and face the music all-time.
Dissenters cannot hope to revamp thevarious systems operating in the nation overnight. Be it political, social,academic, administrative…blah blah. They can put brakes on the thought control;the growing process of degeneration and injustice; trying to slow it down tothe extent that nations don’t go nuts, altogether. And forestalling thesituation that will descend into anarchy; pushing us into a kind of chaos orselective rule, where what counts is merely the heads, and not what is actuallycontained in the heads.
Bottomline: They say ‘a dissenter is thegladiator making a last stand against the lions’. The gladiator is a defyingvoice, wrestling within and without…. ‘What we do in life echoes in eternity'(remember Maximus); struggling to create a sense amidst roaring noise. And thelions are shibboleths of arrogance, basking in power till it slips out suddenlyand rages a new order.