Havana, Tuesday Feb. 26, 2013. Year 17 / Issue 57

Excuses for shutting up

Yaima Puig Meneses

“What’s the point in being upset about orders received from on high?", some Cubans frequently argue in the most unexpected environments and places. Such a question gives them the “best” of excuses to shut up rather than state their views, never mind that afterwards they talk nineteen to the dozen, off the record, against what they themselves had approved not long before. Some go so far as to raise both their hands to say “yes” to something even if deep down they believe that they need to go further into the matter, do more calculations, or look at it from another perspective.

It’s a shame to see someone in the streets or right outside a meeting room whispering or shouting to all and sundry what they should have told their boss or asked their coworkers what they thought. And this reluctance to contradict the higher-ups or the majority sometimes lets important viewpoints vanish which would otherwise be the solution to a problem and a key to more options.

Perhaps keeping quiet is the easy way out to many people, or perhaps they just get cold feet, with the memories of others who were branded as “rabble-rousers” for “swimming against the stream” still fresh in their minds. What’s certain is that it’s high time we stop the usual hallway gossip and start having our say in the right place at the right time. Only then will silence be a definite no-no.

Not by chance has Army General Raúl Castro Ruz often insisted that we should never be afraid of disagreeing, as an exchange of differing opinions –as long as they are responsible and well-intentioned– has always been known to yield the best solutions.

As a rule, absolute like-mindedness is deceiving and therefore harmful. As the President of the Councils of State and of Ministers has also pointed out, contradiction, when not antagonistic, is the driving-force of progress, as irrefutably evidenced by the outcome of plenty of debates we’ve had in the last few years.

However, some people still choose to “bite their tongue” rather than speak out, nodding their head in perfunctory agreement when their attitude should be “let’s talk about this” instead. And right by their side are those who fake an interest and turn into sycophants, trying not to annoy anyone but in the end doing far more harm than good.

Why think that a judgment is of itself enough to prove the effectiveness of a decision or a viewpoint? Why believe that an opinion is foolproof or absolute? Why take for granted that nobody will heed our remarks? We’ve been long called upon to discuss and state our opinions, so why do we continue whispering behind society’s back, behind our country’s back, behind our own back?

Nonetheless, this silence is just part of the story. Those who become tight-lipped at meetings or in front of their boss’s desk are by no means the only ones responsible for making the most of the many spaces we have to talk about or bring to light daily life’s problems. Whoever is up there conducting the meeting has a major role to play in this respect, for they’re not always qualified or willing to ask for and accept opinions about or criticism at the topic at issue. To do that, they must learn to appraise and ponder other people’s views and create an atmosphere of trust in which they can be heard without prejudice. That’s the right formula that we have more than once been urged to internalize.

Only in a setting of respect and commitment can the expression of a diversity of ideas and concepts make it possible to take on discrepancy as a natural thing. It’s the only way that a discussion of opposing points can truly help us grow and improve without risk of making any room whatsoever for the opposite effect.