Heterodoxy, until a few years ago, and sometimes even today,
was considered a taboo and a path most feared to tread. Why? It is because
human beings are uncomfortable with change. There is an innate resistance to
question the way things have been and to follow reason to discover the truth
that may not only be unraveling but unsettling too. It is easy for us to
comfortably pretend that things are perfect the way they have been and that
ignorance is bliss. It is here that we surrender reason to superstition.
Perhaps, no symbol, or forms thereof, in the English
language is as wonderful as ‘?’. The power to ask questions, to look for
answers and to challenge notions has played a far greater role in the
development of civilizations than all of man’s other tools put together. While
we were being taught the fundamentals of research, at our orientation in CCS, we
were told that every good research project begins with a good research question
– a ‘?’ seeking answers to or challenging pre-conceived notions about the way the
society works. This would not only serve as the keystone of our research here
but also for any other task that we would embark upon in our future.
Whether it is laying down rules and policies for the world’s largest democracy, delivering products and services to millions as a corporate entity, as a liberal think tank or even as an individual fighting for his/her rights, we must realize the immense power of asking the right kind of questions. Rather than accepting things at face value, we need to approach things with positive criticism. We need to question why things are they way they are and vision what if they were different. We need to look for solutions beyond what our surroundings have conditioned us to.
The only thing that
separates man from animal is his ability to reason beyond the obvious, and if
we surrender the one faculty that sets us apart, we would send the civilization
back a million years.
A recent article that I came across on the Web, which
triggered this chain of thought:
Simpler Graphic
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