Last week, a relative of mine was worried sick that for the first time in her life, she might have landed herself a traffic ticket.

I too was kind of shocked to hear this news because the person in question never goes over 20km/hr, keeps her car in top notch condition and, would rather walk three miles to her destination than double-park for a few seconds.

But this is what happened: she had just exited the Regional Road tunnels and a few meters or so down the road, she realised that she had forgotten to switch off her car’s lights.

Incidentally, a warden who just happened to be standing by the traffic lights that lead into Paceville, signaled her to switch them off.

At that moment she thought that he wanted her to stop her car, but because of other cars speeding around her, she panicked and kept driving on.

She then switched off her lights and proceeded to worry herself into a stress ball thinking that she was going to get a ticket in the post for not switching them soon enough.

When I tried to explain to her that it is only important and illegal NOT to switch on your lights upon entering the tunnels and, that switching them off when exiting is kind of optional, she was incredulous.

Wide-eyed and visibly shaken, she replied, ‘but there’s a sign as you exit the tunnels, it tells you clearly to switch off your lights. I didn’t do that!”   

Needless to say, she never received the blessed fine.

Unless you leave this beautiful rock on a regular basis, it’s hard to notice just how obedient we are as a nation. This might not occur to you if you’re in a queue waiting to buy pastizzi, but obedience and ‘normality’ are all around you.

Even in this day and age, children are still socialised not to question authority, and though some of us eventually rebel, not enough of us do it constructively.

For as long as I can remember I was one to question everything under the sun. I got myself into untold trouble for being that child who questioned everything.

‘Why?’ was my favourite word in the world!

Mostly I questioned things because I hated the status quo being shoved up my nose like a God-given truth, but it took me a long time to figure out how to resist questioning until the appropriate time and, most importantly, how to stop what crosses my mind from exiting my mouth in the most unfiltered, incomprehensible, and inept way.

Admittedly, I’m still not an expert at that, and sometimes I still put my proverbial foot in it.

What’s more important however is that I never ever stopped questioning.

Sadly however, locally I’m still a rare specimen.

Students, especially undergrads, are still socialised to just listen. They are rewarded for not ‘causing trouble’ which most times translates into ‘not questioning.’

During a talk that I gave at MCAST last week, students found it unnerving even when I looked at them directly, and when I prodded them for questions, all two hundred of them look down at their knees in unison.

I spoke to a few of them after the talk, and it was clear that they do have the grey matter to question, but they’re still trying to shake off years of socialisation not to.

Even in their late teens, supposedly the most rebellious age of their lives, the indoctrination that they will be rewarded for complying, for coast lining, and for not standing out, lives on.

But it’s not just young people who struggle with this. It’s all of us.

In a democracy for example, all eligible citizens should have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. So how do we legally or even morally justify giving the two big political parties more airtime than the smaller parties?

If it’s based on the number of people that they supposedly represent, then the opposition should be allocated less time than the party in Government. 

But historically PN and PL are always allocated the same amount of time, and AD and any other smaller party are given the scraps of what’s left.

Is it because the three thousand or so voters that voted AD in the last election are not as important as the rest? 

Is it because whilst all animals are equal, some animals are more equal than others?

Or is it truly a case of majority rule vs. democracy?

It would be such a breath of fresh air if all parties were given equal amounts of time and importance during debates, not only because that’s what real democracy is about, but also because for the first time in forever we will get to hear something new, not from the two big parties of course, because they’ve now run out of arguments, but from the others, especially AD who will finally get the time of day to explain their position. 

I guess the point I’m trying to make, and I do have one, is that whinging and whining will only get you so far, and it only works in the run up to an election, it is only through questioning authority and the status quo (which most will define as rebelling), that any real progress has ever been made.

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.