"It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" ~ Baha'u'llahWe are all citizens of our country and our world so we should all be informed of any news that may have an effect upon our lives and well being but this is not done often enough. When we do receive it, most of the time, it is heard through the media (newspapers or TV generally), however it's been twisted to make it more interesting, the facts have been blown out of proportion and they generally show the writer's point of view, sometimes practically tell us what to believe. Scientists and politicians may seem very professional but many don't take into account all of the sides of any situation, sticking to their views and the views of their superiors because their the ones who at the end of the day, give them their wage.
To some extent, I can see why it is better to leave any complicated or serious issues up the experts in that field, however we should still be told about it and given our chance to have a say instead of being cut out completely and allowing the "experts" to make the decisions for us. It seems unfair that they should have all the say in topics that effects magnitudes of people just because of their profession and position in society. Just because they have a high paying job doesn't mean that they're good at it and are always right, everyone makes mistakes but theirs could have catastrophic effects. When something goes wrong, the scientists and politicians would rather blame someone else rather than admit to it.
Being a citizen is like working in a team, you need a mixture of people with different skills, ideas and views to get the best result because if its combination of these attributes and opinion. By allowing just the scientists and politicians to make our decision, any useful ideas or views that we "ordinary" citizens have are ignored and the final decision may not be the best for the entire community/country/world as a whole.
Being a citizen means that we have the right to know what is going on and to be informed about any changes that are being made that could effect our lives. We should be able to have our say in any important decisions, not influenced by propaganda in the media or the high-waged people in society because at the end of the day, we are all citizens and each of us are as important as everyone else because we all share this one world. Any decisions made should be made by the whole community and not only a privileged few.
References
Quote from: http://www.quotegarden.com/patriotism.html
INteresting although you need to be careful with what you mean...suggesting that there are a privileged few suggests that people have become experts by birth...usually people will get to decision making roles by hard work, commitment and ability...often it is therefore them that are best positioned, much better than an 'ordinary person' who perhaps doesn't even read a proper newspaper. yes decisions affect us but we need to trust people who have made the effort to get where they are.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's what I think