Mr Man wrote:Should we be afraid of being critical? What do we do when self governing institutions misbehave or when those with the authority are complicit? Sometimes consensus is useful.
Yes. Consensus is absolutely critical in this day and age.
binocular wrote:Mr Man wrote:So we should be critical when they do something inappropriate for their position?
As with all complaints and criticism: one ought to complain to the person who is actually in the position to do something about it.
(emph. mine)
In the real world situations are not black and white binocular. You cannot apply one solution to fit all problems, it's not a 'one size fits all' world. There are situations that might arise where by you are not able to contact the person who has power to act in in necessary time. There are situations that arise where it is beneficial to spread the word far and wide, such as this current one in Thailand, a country where in order to save face - potential scandal is often swept under the rug without so much as a finger being lifted. What if you were the only one who knew about this and you
only took it to the person you thought had the power to act, and he just made the whole thing dissappear, as is commonplace in many S.E. Asian countries.
Life seems to me to be one of those things where you have to take it as it comes. To say: 'I would act this way' or 'We should always do this' betrays an uninformed conception of the way these things work, predicated I would warrant upon a lot of strongly held views as opposed to any real world experience. This viewpoint is all too common in the world, sadly. Especially amongst those who harbour a self-exceptionalism that results in an 'I know best' mentality.