A Ridiculously Dangerous Flawed Concept of Respect and Politeness
Every year, I think I lose about a couple of facebook/real-life friends in and around the Lenten Season (at least, for the Catholics). Most of my acquaintances and friends are practicing Catholics and a lot of them see the kind of posts I have on my Facebook wall. I guess many don’t appreciate it when I point out that Catholics use the Holy Week as an excuse to take vacations in places like Puerto Galera, Boracay, or even abroad. There were some who even told me that I should be thankful for the Catholics’ celebration of the Holy Week because I will get extra days of vacation, even if I am not religious. But what was funny in that defensive stance is that I was merely pointing out that they’re not doing what they’re claiming they are supposed to be doing. I wasn’t even criticizing their practice of celebrating Lent; I was pointing out that they’re not celebrating it the way they say they’re supposed to. I guess I hit some raw nerves when I implied that it was actually the hypocrisy that made it funnier. So, every year, I continued pointing out this discrepancy on social media. If I lose some friends because of it, then perhaps, it should be left that way. At this age when we are all well aware of the freedom and responsibilities of being able to voice out opinions, then we should not confuse criticisms with hatred. And yet there will still be people who could get easily offended/insulted/disrespected by a mere observation, taking it as if I have completely disrespected his whole person. Sometimes, even simply mentioning that I do not believe in celebrating Lent would merit a block on FB. Many would say that it is wise to follow a mother’s advice: to keep your mouth shut if you aren’t going to say anything nice. I disagree to some extent, though. How can we make improvements in ourselves if we’re only going to hear the positive feedback and ignore the negative ones? Remember how the Emperor realized the true nature of his “new clothes”? It was because someone pointed out that he wasn’t actually wearing any. How are people going to find the truth if they have convinced themselves that they are already in possession of it?
Unfortunately, though, some have an allergic reaction to being exposed to diversity of ideas and has adopted a very narrow perspective that everything else that fell outside of that are considered harmful and dangerous. A certain Edwin de Leon wrote in the Opinion section of the Inquirer about how secularism is inevitable:
People are tired of sectarian violence brought about by divisiveness and intolerance which begin with religion. Implicit in every one of more than 4,000 different religions is a basic understanding that yours is the truth and the others are not. The innocent child is raised in this myth from the time he/she becomes aware of his/her culture right into adulthood. The mind becomes captive to a pervasive conditioning process that leaves it religiously incapacitated and irrational.
This article has 634 shares on Facebook and definitely would have more, if only it wasn’t reported and blocked by Facebook eventually.
Several have already sent feedbacks to Facebook on why it is a mistake to mark the article as a blocked link. No feedbacks received from Facebook and as of the moment, the article still is “un-shareable”. I just can’t help but think that may be there are just enough butthurt religious nuts behind the Facebook machinery that are easily offended by the mere mention of secularism.
Now, for me, this sort of behavior seems alarming. When a certain group, which almost always have a particular hold on something that is vastly utilized, tells you that you cannot do this or you cannot speak about that because it is offensive to their sensibilities and is insulting their personal values, it reminds me how situations like such can possibly escalate to dangerous levels.
Avijit Roy, a American blogger of Bangladeshi origin, was hacked to death in Dhaka by Islamists who threaten him because of his writings about religion and science. In one of his books, he criticized whether the Qu’ran contained any scientific principles.
” … Moreover, if a perfect book written by a perfect God having intention to reveal a scientific idea, it should not have been so vague and metaphoric, but accurate and scientific enough that it can be put in a physics /chemistry/biology textbook without the need of any change. Not a single verse in the Holy Books contain even one scientific term, like atom, electron, cloning, theory of relativity, uncertainty principle etc.”
A month after, another blogger known for his views on atheism (even if he was a theist), Washiqur Rahman, was murdered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He was said to be a believer, but his views differed radically from those imposed by the fundamentalist groups that he was considered an “atheist”. Roy and Rahman were just but two among the hundreds that have lost their lives because of political violence that has become more aggressive and dangerous as it intertwined with religious fundamentalism.
How can anyone even consider killing another human simply because of differences in beliefs? How can anyone think that unpopular opinion is a warrant to take another person’s life? When did mere words become death sentences?
The problem, perhaps, is more complicated.
In as much as we wanted to have amicable relations with everyone, our differences in cultural backgrounds, traditions, and upbringing cause a lot of friction, disagreements, and altercations. What may be polite and respectful in one culture can be considered as rude and disrespectful in another. Surely we cannot dictate all cultures to adopt just one set of beliefs, practices or traditions? If we do, who then decides which set of values are more important or correct? Unfortunately, many people will claim they hold the ONE AND ONLY TRUTH, and everything else is wrong. One just has to admire the conviction, but it strikes fear in me to watch how the same kind of people would be willing disregard other people’s right to live just to prove how much they are right. Many forget that ideas don’t have rights; people do.
As long as people will continue to put the rights of imaginary gods over human rights, we may yet continue to see thinkers losing their lives for simply thinking. And you may even also continue losing friends and acquaintances, if most people will still continue having a ridiculously dangerous flawed concept of respect and politeness.
