On social media, everything converges. Every interesting kind of human being is on a parade every single day. Exciting, heartbreaking, agonizing, odd and bizarre stories pour in in a matter of minutes. As a result, we become confused about the truth in the face of a mess of information, agitated to get an answer. The hazardous compound of different groups holding competing ideas has bred a trend where the truth comes second and the legitimacy of one’s opinion comes first.
Almost two decades ago, Wang Xiaobo published his iconic essay “The Silent Majority”, borrowing from formal President of United States Nixon this later renowned term. Wang more or less altered the connotation of the word. In the essay, the silent majority stood for a resilient group of Chinese who chose to stand by the side of silence in a time when words failed humanity. In other words, they were the better of the people from their time.
Perhaps, since Cultural Revolution, no time can better than our time serves as an example of how words can fail us. But this time, the majority of us choose words over silence.
One of the spin-offs of a dynamic social media is an unprecedented self-civilized population. There is already a plurality of news accounts, independent and incorporated, as well as fact-checking, science-educating, rumor-smashing ones, and more are showing up. Immersed in the pool of information, we have moved away from our old selves who are either ignorant about or indifferent to the society. But sadly we also have evolved to what we are now: impatient, irritable, mean-minded onlookers. The fluidity of information that social media offered us has enlightened our population in such a shocking rate that we forgot ignorance and indifference used to be our past. So we feel ashamed of being lagged behind, disgusted by how those does think, jumping at any opportunity to make a clear cut between them and us.
This, then, causes problems. We have developed an urge to stand by the “right side” in every opinion standoff. That’s to say, we feel anxious to be seen as the “enlightened few”. So much so that we even make the best of all we’ve got to disparage the other side so that we could raise ourselves higher in the nonexistent measure of merit. The result? Ceaseless game of face-slapping. Following every piece of news is an outbreak of what is like an endless struggle from both sides to try to tag one another as the idiot. There will always be propositions and rebuttal propositions, arguments and counter-arguments, evidence and adverse evidence. Aggressive comments are exchanged; titles are placed; catchphrases such as “your country is doomed” are coined and drop on the daily. But everybody seems to lose sight of what touched off the squabble: the truth.
And some of us are so bewildered as to believe difference equals righteousness. Therefore, among almost harmonious voice you can certainly find them making bitter noises. Worse still, some of us with twisted minds decide to manipulate the mass with their own weaknesses. Rumors, distorted news reports are one of the many examples.
Not saying it’s a bad thing to have a civilized population. I’d like to see words taking the dominance as a phase. But I have decided long ago that, right now, I belong to the silent minority. This is, too, a mixture of hues. Some are silent because they don’t care. They just want to lead a simple and carefree life. Some are silent because they don’t an idea. I see myself as the last type. I choose silence because I don’t want to add to the volatility of words. There are always updates to a piece of news, another side of the story. And I don’t know sufficiently about logic or any other knowledge that is required in order to understand a piece of news. What I’ve learned in the past is that hastily taking a side isn’t the solution to the real problem, and speaking for the sack of speaking isn’t really a “noble” act, for unexamined words run out control easily. Think of the recent example of problematic vaccines. How many of us contributed to brewing public fear by taking a side way too soon?
Wang Xiaobo’s “The Silent Majority” has been for decades an outcry for the progressive. However, even though many of us claim to be the one of the silent majority of our time, not that many of us are truly silent.
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