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Letter: Seek knowledge even unto China
Where there is freedom of expression, where people are fearless in expressing their opinion, there must too be people fearless in defending truth and justice if public order is to be preserved
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Where there is freedom of expression, where people are fearless in expressing their opinion, there must too be people fearless in defending truth and justice if public order is to be preserved.
Our judicial processes are designed to impartially establish the facts of a case and apply the law of the land. Laws in turn are established by our parliaments, which comprise popularly elected people. What part should public expectations and norms play in the formulation of legislation?
If most people who visit Disneyland are later persuaded that they saw Bugs Bunny there, does it make it so? If public opinion shows that most people think Valencia is in Spain or that the Great Wall of China was built to keep rabbits out, would it give parliamentarians a mandate to rewrite history or reliable countries in atlases?
In establishing the UN, government representatives did not seek to pander to popular prejudices or commercial interests. Rather, with the memory of two world wars fresh in their minds, they sought to establish high and noble principles around which all nations could unite. Whereas, in modern days, many would claim that a business case must be presented for any endeavor to be regarded as worthy. In 1948, nations saw it as their duty to firstly lay down the humanitarian and ethical bases upon which peace, characterized not by tyranny and fear but by opportunity and choice, could be waged.
While there may always be a business model or political case for sabotaging environmental accords or inflaming sectarian violence, there is never a convincing moral one. Politicians and media outlets who tend to pander to the shallower aspirations of constituents can never achieve noble works for their nations or for humanity as a whole.
Courage, fairness, mercy, valor and the protection of the weak and the poor were chivalric virtues that were said to have characterized noblemen of the middle ages. The idea of a Samaritan lending assistance to a Jew who had been beaten and robbed may on the face of it have seemed fanciful in the first century.
Even nowadays, on seeing someone of a different ethnic background disheveled and bleeding, there may be many who would look askance. Yet because of true statesmen and women, true people of integrity of all creeds and nationalities through the ages, we have the basis for humanitarian services and for international diplomacy.
Such things could never be achieved were we to confine our pursuits to that which was politically expedient or commercially enriching. Jesus never met a Muslim, and yet we can be sure he would have regarded them too as neighbors.
If an incorrect idea is given greater currency as a result of commercial or celebrity endorsement, what institutions or individuals can be relied upon to always guide the general public to higher ground, to a higher understanding? Who among our compatriots are willing and able to advocate that which is in the long term interests of the nation over promoting short-term personal advantage?
Just as there are people who choose to live in our countries and who love democracy but who we reject and judge as foreigners, so too are there unknown millions of people who are similarly potential allies in nations overseas.
Bruce Terry
Tasmania, Australia
