It comes from our instincts, to seek harmony, for example. Psychology confirms that culture can shape the way people think. This finding has gained traction over the past two decades and is a departure from the previously held judgment that basic cognitive processes are universal.
Settlers coming from another region within the same country can be different from locals, especially when their purpose is to seek fortune. They develop the frontier spirit of individualism, a subculture if you will. [https://www.apa.org/monitor/feb06/connection].
Does this also explain why Chinoys dominate the Philippine economy? While they have embraced Pinoy culture, given their ethnicity, they have a lesser tendency to conform with the rest of us to a tee.
Consider: “Conformity is the tendency to align our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those around us. It’s a powerful force that can take the form of overt social pressure or subtler, unconscious influence. [We] like to think of ourselves as individuals, the fact is that we’re driven to fit in and that usually means going with the flow.” [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/groupthink]
Let’s then ask ourselves: Why is ours a culture of impunity? As the blog maintains, it comes from our instincts to wit: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism, rely on political patronage and oligarchy, that at the end of the day, ours is a culture of impunity.
Unsurprisingly, we applaud EJKs in the name of the war on drugs despite the condemnation by the community of nations. Worse, we can’t offer a prognosis, i.e., will we eliminate the drug problem by this path we took? In other words, because of the pressure to conform, we suffer from groupthink.
“Groupthink occurs when a group of well-intentioned people makes irrational or non-optimal decisions that are spurred by the urge to conform or the discouragement of dissent. This problematic or premature consensus may be fueled by an agenda or simply because group members value harmony and coherence above rational thinking.
“In a groupthink situation, group members refrain from expressing doubts and judgments or disagreeing with the consensus. In the interest of making a decision that furthers their group cause, members may ignore any ethical or moral consequences.
“Risky or disastrous military maneuvers, such as the escalation of the Vietnam War or the invasion of Iraq, are commonly cited as instances of groupthink. But while it is often invoked at the level of geopolitics, groupthink can also refer to subtle processes of social or ideological conformity.” [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/groupthink]
Consider: Why can’t we traverse the road from poverty to prosperity? The American Psychological Association confirms that recent research suggests that Westerners and East Asians see the world differently.
“The researchers have found increasing evidence that East Asians, whose more collectivist culture promotes group harmony and contextual understanding of situations, think more holistically. They pay attention to all the elements of a scene, to context and the relationships between items. Western culture, in contrast, emphasizes personal autonomy and formal logic, and so Westerners are more analytic and pay attention to particular objects and categories.”
What’s the bottom line? Our neighbors awed the rest of the world and earned the recognition as Asian Tigers, because of the economic miracles they demonstrated.
In the meantime, they left us in the dust as the regional laggard because our instincts spell conformity. “Pinoy kasi” is to conform.
Why can’t we decide to learn from our neighbors instead of reinventing the wheel? “Beg for Western money and technology,” the mantra Deng heard from Lee and Mahathir and China did and so did Vietnam. The outcome? They were able to jumpstart industrialization that brought them well on their way to prosperity.
Here’s what Psychology says about decision-making: “We make some choices quickly and automatically, relying on mental shortcuts our brains have developed over the years to guide us in the best course of action. [When] making a decision, we form opinions and choose actions via mental processes which are influenced by biases, reason, emotions, and memories.
“Decision-making usually involves a mixture of intuition and rational thinking; critical factors including personal biases and blind spots are often unconscious, which makes decision-making hard to fully operationalize, or get a handle on.
“A heuristic is a mental shortcut that allows an individual to make a decision, pass judgment, or solve a problem quickly and with the least amount of mental effort.”
Let’s pause and reflect on how our instincts have influenced not only our “kuro-kuro” but also strong held beliefs, and consequential decisions we’ve made as a people and nation. For example, why can’t we demonstrate and proactively seek FDIs? We wrote the Constitution not to attract FDI, a confirmation of our parochial and insular bias that we rationalize as the expression of patriotism and nationalism.
Enter: leadership. We need guidance that can lead us to overcome groupthink.
Consider: “How could I have been so stupid?” President John F. Kennedy asked that after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. He called it a “colossal mistake.” It left him feeling depressed, guilty, bitter, and in tears. One historian later called the Bay of Pigs, “one of those rare events in history — a perfect failure.”
“What happened? In 1961, CIA and military leaders wanted to use Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro. After lengthy consideration among his top advisors, Kennedy approved a covert invasion. Advance press reports alerted Castro to the threat. Over 1,400 invaders at the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) were vastly outnumbered. Lacking air support, necessary ammunition and an escape route, nearly 1,200 surrendered. Others died.
“Declassified CIA documents help illuminate the invasion’s flaws. Top CIA leaders blamed Kennedy for not authorizing vital air strikes. Other CIA analysts fault the wishful thinking that the invasion would stimulate an uprising among Cuba’s populace and military. Planners assumed the invaders could simply fade into the mountains for guerilla operations. Trouble was, eighty miles of swampland separated the bay from the mountains. The list goes on.
“Yale social psychologist Irving Janis felt that Kennedy’s top advisors were unwilling to challenge bad ideas because it might disturb perceived or desired group concurrence. Presidential advisor Arthur Schlesinger, for instance, presented serious objections to the invasion in a memorandum to the president, but suppressed his doubts at the team meetings. Attorney General Robert Kennedy privately admonished Schlesinger to support the president’s decision to invade. At one crucial meeting, JFK called on each member for his vote for or against the invasion. Each member, that is, except Schlesinger — whom he knew to have serious concerns. Many members assumed other members agreed with the invasion plan.
“Schlesinger later lamented, ‘In the months after the Bay of Pigs I bitterly reproached myself for having kept so silent during those crucial discussions in the cabinet room.’ He continued, ‘I can only explain my failure to do more than raise a few timid questions by reporting that one’s impulse to blow the whistle on this nonsense was simply undone by the circumstances of the discussion.’
“Have you ever kept silent when you felt you should speak up? President Kennedy later revised his group decision-making process to encourage dissent and debate. The change helped avert a nuclear catastrophe.
“Stung by the Bay of Pigs debacle, President Kennedy determined to ask hard questions during future crises. A good opportunity came eighteen months later.
“In October 1962, aerial photographs showed Soviet missile sites in Cuba. The missile program, if allowed to continue, could reach most of the United States with nuclear warheads. Kennedy's first inclination was an airstrike to take out the missiles. His top advisors debated alternatives from bombing and invasion to blockade and negotiation.
“Kennedy's decision-making process — though imperfect — had evolved significantly. He challenged military leaders who pressured him to bomb and invade. He heard the CIA's case for airstrikes and Stevenson's counsel for negotiation. Advocates for different views developed their arguments in committees then met back together. Robert Kennedy later wrote, ‘The fact that we were able to talk, debate, argue, disagree, and then debate some more was essential in choosing our ultimate course.’ Many groupthink mistakes of the Bay of Pigs, in which bad ideas went unchallenged, had been avoided.” [https://probe.org/jfk-and-groupthink-lessons-in-decision-making/]
Note all it took is eighteen months for Kennedy to revisit his decision-making process. On the other hand, over a hundred years ago, Rizal already admonished us re our love for tyranny. “Pinoy kasi” is to conform.
Look around us. Do we see anything on the horizon that says "Pinoy kasi" has the propensity to overcome groupthink?
Gising bayan!
“Now I know why Paul dared to speak of ‘the curse of the law’ (Galatians 3:13). Law reigns and discernment is unnecessary, which means there is little growth or change in such people. When you do not grow, you remain an infant.” [Faith and Science, Open to Change, Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, 23rd Oct 2017]
“As a major component for the education and reorientation of our people, mainstream media – their reporters, writers, photographers, columnists and editors – have an obligation to this country . . .” [Era of documented irrelevance: Mainstream media, critics and protesters, Homobono A. Adaza, The Manila Times, 25th Nov 2015]
“National prosperity is created, not inherited. It does not grow out of a country’s natural endowments, its labor pool, its interest rates, or its currency’s value, as classical economics insists . . . A nation’s competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade.” [The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business Review, March–April 1990]
“You have to have a dream, whether big or small. Then plan, focus, work hard and be very determined to achieve your goals.” [Henry Sy Sr., Chairman Emeritus and Founder, SM Group (1924 - 2019)]
“Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” [William Pollard, 1911-1989, physicist-priest, Manhattan Project]
“Development [is informed by a people’s] worldview, cognitive capacity, values, moral development, self-identity, spirituality, and leadership . . .” [Frederic Laloux, Reinventing organizations, Nelson Parker, 2014]
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