Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Disagree, don't be disagreeable

"Although I wouldn't go so far as to repeat what the French Enlightenment writer and advocate of civil liberties, Voltaire, said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." I respect the "right" of others to be different."

February 10, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)


To a thesis, there are antitheses; to the Chinese yin, there's a yang; Buddhists who see war also see peace, and peace pairs with war. After day there's night; after birth, there's death.

The concept of journeying is spoken as "samsara" in Sanskrit -- a cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. The cycle continues, as Buddhists, Hindus and adherents to Jainism believe. The interactions between thesis and antitheses bring a synthesis, the yang finds the yin, and the wheel of life turns. In common parlance, "your turn will come."

My mother, who died of starvation under the Khmer Rouge, taught me as a child that humans argue and don't always accept each other's views. But she insisted I would learn maturity if I disciplined myself to listen to what others have to say. She called the process, "learning to live a human being's life."

My father was taken away and executed on the day the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh. The man I thought had failed to comprehend a child's incapacity to absorb so much recited in his after-dinner evening teaching that only when different minds meet through humbly talking, listening and thinking does a man's true vision emerge.

Through trial and error, I grew up. Many years later, I read a Chinese proverb: "A teacher opens the door, but you must enter by yourself."

And I read French-born educator Jacques Barzun's words: "In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for 20 years."

Many years later, after I finished teaching my politics classes and held my office hours at the University of Guam, I drove my old, black, smoke-spitting Mazda to Asan Beach. The sky was blue and the afternoon breeze was heavenly. The ocean waters were green and clear; the waves slammed the reefs and washed ashore feet away. I pulled out reading materials from my backpack, rested my back on the trunk of a coconut tree, and became submerged in Nobel Laureate Elie Weisel's words in his speech to the graduates of Boston University in 1992.

He told them that he walked in the footsteps of those who lived before him, that he is "the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you."

A Holocaust survivor at Auschwitz, now an American citizen, this Jew from Romania said: "The knowledge that I have must not remain imprisoned in my brain. ... I need to pay back what was given to me. Call it gratitude."

And so I read and read, to learn what Weisel had to share with the world.

As I stared at the horizon where the sky and sea become one, I thought of what I had told my politics students about Greek philosopher Aristotle, who said, "All men by nature desire knowledge."

Do they, really?

I remembered some forced smiles on some faces, and I remembered telling them that a few weeks after I arrived in the United States for college I learned the saying, "You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink."

A student scratched his head, asked permission to speak: "Ecclesiastes 3:1-8! In due time, the light bulb in a person's brain will light up."

Ah, touché!

Patience is very much needed in education. It takes time to see the fruit. When a push on the button brings results, time and patience are in short supply. Yet the Chinese say, "One generation plants the trees, and another generation gets the shade." Someone presented an antithesis: What makes us think that the next generation would want the shade with all the problems the trees will bring?

Back to my mother and father. She taught me that people argue, people disagree and no one wants to be wrong. I must learn to listen to what others have to say. She called that "living." My father taught me to have humility, to be considerate and respectful of those with different views.

Now that some strands of my hair have turned grey, and with a doctorate degree I keep somewhere in the loft of my shed, the "light bulb" in my brain has lit up. I am reflecting on the words of those who raised me, as I had many doubts about their wisdom at the time.

Indeed, people disagree. But disagreements are healthy in a democracy where ideas and thoughts are allowed to bloom, providing opportunities for learning and picking what's best for development and progress and for the human species to survive.

Where disagreements are forbidden and a uniformity of thought is required, totalitarianism thrives. Modern autocrats love "unity" in thoughts and in actions. One who adheres to one's individualism becomes a "traitor" to the autocrats' dictates.

In the words of President John F. Kennedy, "The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion."

Although I wouldn't go so far as to repeat what the French Enlightenment writer and advocate of civil liberties, Voltaire, said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." I respect the "right" of others to be different.

Disagreements are not a problem. Gentlemen disagree -- they agree to disagree. But men of superior minds don't stop dialoguing, don't stop posing more questions and don't stop looking for more answers, until a multitude of options emerge before them to choose.

The problem lies in being disagreeable. To be disagreeable puts up a roadblock to knowledge. Nothing can get in. Period.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent wisdom enlightening...Thanks Dr.Peang

Anonymous said...

agree to disagree, a good philosophy to live with.

Anonymous said...

When I see the University of Guam in the google map, I understand why you have your PHD degree.

Anonymous said...

It's all well and good - nobody can't disagree with that. What will it do to saving Cambodia from the Viet's yoke right this minute and 10 years from now??? Khmer land will be YUON's!!! Can you help Khmer in any other way? Or is it that you don't know how, Dr. Gaffar?

Sincerely yours,

Somnawk

Takeo said...

All Khmer people and Khmer organizations must be respect, unity, organize, smart, strong, connect, safety, security, helping, protecting, commitment, avoid arguments, avoid fighting, avoid hates, avoid anger, avoid revenge, and etc. We as a Khmer no matter where you are living in this world you are still Khmer even though you don’t speak Khmer. You have to think twice before you are doing anything to harm or destroy your own people and country image. Today we are having so many problems in our society than others due to depression, recession, jobs crisis, housing crisis, Land Rights crisis, health care crisis, Human Rights crisis, foods crisis, farming crisis, polluted natural resources, polluted underground water, polluted water, humanitarian crisis, poor education systems, alcoholics, sexuality, uncontrollable behavior, Khmer growing rate decrease, Vietnamese growing rate increase, Vietnamization and etc.

Some people believed Vietnamese is better than Thai because the Vietnamese kept Khmer people as Khmer citizen but you have no freedom, no land to live, forced evictions, land-grabs, no pictures, no Khmer music, Vietnamese spy on you 24/7, no freedom of expression, no jobs, no Medicare and health care, Khmer are terrorists, and etc. They label you as Khmer citizen so they can eliminate you from your jobs search and ignore everything you need to survive.

Hun Sen must already know that land cannot be growing and nothing can live without land. You can make money but you cannot make land. Hun Sen must protect it now by resigning and transferring his power to Mr. Sam Raingsy peacefully. It is the only choice for Hun Sen and family to live longer and peaceful life by quitting or resigning now in order to save Cambodia from the Vietnamese expansion.

All the Vietnamese businesses, trades, border crossing, investments, sporting, farming, rubber plantations, and etc. are to supported and created jobs for the Vietnamese living in Cambodia while millions of Khmer people became very poor, homelessness, starvation, hardship, depression and dying from the forced evictions. Any Vietnamese investments even to $100 billion US dollars it is not going to help and create jobs for Khmer people. Vietnamese never care about Khmer all they do is to expand their own interests in every sector of the Khmer society. Vietnamese imports all poison foods and poison products to kill Khmer people, internal infections, stomachache, intestine infections and etc. to be safe don’t use the Vietnamese products even though it is cheaper than Thai products but it kill you.

Anonymous said...

Excellent piece Dr. Peang-Meth! Thank you for sharing your wisdom and Knowledge with us, you are truly a role model for present and future Khmer generations!We need you to help lead Cambodia out of this dark age period!
That is the problem with Cambodia under Hun Sen, there is simply no other views or opinions allowed under this totalitarian Dictatorship. Democracy is dead and only exist in hypocrisy stage by the ruling party.

Anonymous said...

4:40 am
I completely agree with you on that! The livelihood of our people and country are at stake. We have a ruling party that is selling out our people and our country for their own personal gain. We must do everything we can to stop the Vietnamization of Cambodia and stop these band of thieves from putting Cambodia up for sale!

Anonymous said...

Great read as always. The problem with our contempary Khmers mentality as I observe through my ages is that we can not agree to disagree.

Anonymous said...

How long are we going to keep looking up to man for help?

Will the minds of the Khmer people consider looking up to the mighty God, creator of heaven and earth?

He said that the earth is his foot stool. Maybe his one foot is resting heavily on Cambodia that it is being crushed and unable to get up?

How about crying out for his mercy to spare us from his crushing blow.

He is near unto those who are brokenhearted if we only call out to him for help in our distress.

My Khmer people, my God is a God of love and compassion. He rather show mercy in place of judgment. He is no respecter of people, for all the world are his. It is our sin that kept him from helping us.
If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

He knows all about the political rangling that goes on between Vietnam and Thailand. If he cares enough as to not see one sparrow falling into the ground without his notice: how much more does he cares about the fate of the Khmer people? Much more. We are more valuable than a sparrow.

I read my bible and I can assure you that he cares so much for all his creation, especially man, whom he made after his likeness and breath into him the breath of life.

But because of sin, man has lost his identity of where his power and life came from.

As Vietnamese is an enemy to Cambodians so is Satan an enemy to God who had caused man to sin in the first place so he can be the Master of man. And his is not a kind master. I am not saying that the Vietnamese are any worst sinners then Cambodians but what is in the physical is a manifestation of the spiritual realm. Therefore we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places. High places being in the heavenly realm. The spaces between where God's throne is and the earth below it.

Hinduism has the right concept of spiritual battle in the heavenly places, but the bible is a truer source that explains that warfare.

Ambassador of God's Kingdom

Wisconsinite

Anonymous said...

5:54 AM,

Alleluia!!! Now come and join me as an atheist, will you please 5:54AM?

Looking forward to seeing you there!
Don't be late now!

Anonymous said...

5:54 AM meant to say Agnostics in lieu of Atheist!

Anonymous said...

6:04am, thanks for making my day. I laugh non-stop.

Donation is not required, right?

Anonymous said...

5:54 AM, you need GOD to survive ?
You could be an idiot and dangerous.