Nurture critical thinking to build cohesive nation
What you need to know:
Perhaps our suffocation of critical thought contributes to the violence we witness every day in this country.
Perhaps encouraging creativity and critical thought will result in sublimation of the violent instinct.
Perhaps help make our country not only more peaceful, but also more productive and prosperous.
Following discussions in multiple forums by the Kenya's so-called middle class, one is left with the impression that we are spectacularly uncultured and perhaps even quite uneducated. Discussions often degenerate into incoherent one-liners in which the point disappears and the interlocutors end up only insulting each other.
Very few Kenyans are able to sustain a meaningful argument in defence of a point of view they hold for any length of time.
DEFICIENCY
Very soon into an argument, logic breaks down and the matter becomes so personalised that civil engagement is made impossible.
The only way to keep a clean social media timeline is to post mundane stuff including ‘motivational’ quotes from non-controversial individuals, and jokes that have done more than their fair share of circulation on the Internet.
The problem, it appears to me, is that even in the most enlightened Kenyan circles, we have a deficiency of critical thinking.
DISCOURAGED
We are unable to separate an idea from its bearer, or to interrogate the idea on its own merit without feeling the need to peg it to the holder.
A common response to a ‘controversial’ statement is to ask the maker of the statement how they can say such a thing. “A person of your stature should never say such things!”
It is common knowledge that in many of our homes critical thinking is discouraged, and even punished when it rears its ‘hard’ head.
An argumentative child is branded negatively, and eventually nobody in the house pays any attention to her. On the other hand, ‘obedience’ is encouraged and elevated to the greatest virtue in the home.
Challenging the authority of an adult in the home is just not the done thing, however good an argument one may have.
HERETIC
This culture is enhanced in our religious institutions where the tradition is such that the word of the deity as passed down through the religious leaders is beyond question. It is received and accepted, and anyone who so much as raises an eyebrow is considered a heretic who is misleading the ‘flock’.
The same is perpetuated in social circles where one is not supposed to question ideas emanating from people of a certain stature in society, and when they do, their social progress is severely retarded.
Our schools are monuments to conformity. Everyone is expected to think and act the same way, and anyone deviating from this pattern will definitely not perform well in school.
VIOLENCE
In mental health, we know that when the mind has certain thoughts and feelings but lacks either the words or the opportunity to express them, they will unconsciously manifest in their behaviour.
Perhaps our suffocation of critical thought contributes to the violence we witness every day in this country.
Perhaps encouraging creativity and critical thought will result in sublimation of the violent instinct and help make our country not only more peaceful, but also more productive and prosperous.
Lukoye Atwoli is associate professor of Psychiatry and Dean, Moi University School of Medicine; [email protected]
