By Abdulillah
I would like to stray a bit in today’s column to discuss some social aspects of society. It revolves around three basic types of people and personalities that exist in today’s culture. I like to call them the Pontificators, the Doers, and the Sitters. But before I start I must tell you this is my opinion and my opinion only.
The Pontificators
They are basically people or writers who relate to us the news, gossip, and analysis on a myriad of issues, and in full disclosure, when I write, I am one as well. Some are very good and many others not; at relating his or her story to others, either through written and or televised media. We use many differing means of publicizing our ideas; even to the degree that some of us believe that we can convey the entire picture of a story in 140 characters, with a few pictures, or less (see twitter).
Many of us pontificators start out doing this because we believe that we have something to say to our people and the world at large that can possibly make a change in the way they and society as a whole view or react to an issue. We give our stories characters such that we try to humanize the story. We pull at your conscious and reason. We pull at your heart strings and in some cases we pull not for good but for bad ideas, because in reality, few of any of us is an expert at any of the subject matters we write about.
Many of us have little clue about what we are talking about, and we attempt to sell it to the general public as truth, and in many cases the only way forward. However; unfortunately many of us use lies and poor analysis to sell our stories. Worse we have a few whose only desire is to propagandize and spin a story in such a way that will instigate strife and discord between ourselves and others.
On the other hand there are a few of us who really do care about what we write about, and in many cases, we do this to better the general public’s mind about issues that mean a lot to us as individuals and our society as a whole. However altruistic this may be on our part, we nonetheless always spin the story, so as to convey our own feelings and thoughts on a particular issue.
Is this bad? It can be, when we instigate discord, which is why it is very necessary to police ourselves making sure that we do not write untruths or analysis based on untrue facts selling them as news and not just opinion or simply fiction pieces.
As for the reader, my only recommendation is reader beware. Check the facts of the story, make sure the analysis is not based on smoke and mirrors, poor facts, and has been thoroughly researched by someone of knowledge of the subject matter. But always, always, check the facts!
Know that with any story written, regardless of it being news or a view point, it is generally fraught with opinions of the writer attempting to sway public opinion one way or the other.
Also, know that almost all pontificators are just that, no more and no less; they write to instigate debate, hopefully to change public opinion for the good, or worse towards the bad and evil. They rarely are doers, nor practice what they preach. They are no better than the politicians they cover. Basically wind bags of the second order.
So keep this in mind when you read, making sure you are not swayed immediately by rhetoric and spin. Go and try to discern the facts on any subject yourself. Also never look for any pontificator to be on the front lines with you when it is the time to physically confront anything. They are typically in the rear, leading the charge next to the politicians they love to cover.
The Doers
They are typically the action makers of any society. Unlike bees however, who know nothing else but that they are foragers or guardians of the hive. The doers are those who typically have chosen a side for ideological purposes and will physically try to make a change towards the ideological side they have chosen.
Doers are made up of workers, elites, business owners, soldiers, students, farmers and any other walks of life in any society. They are the hard core of believers. They typically will not stop until they win the battle for their cause or lose trying.
These are the people that pontificators and others are trying to sway. They are as one person has stated, “the sharp edge of the sword”. In the right hand and for the right ideology they will make the necessary changes they deem necessary.
Although they deem themselves educated, or smart enough to know the truth from lies, they are not typically prone to checking anything. They are generally quick with making up their minds and many see the situation as a black or white one.
There is nothing wrong with this attitude or way of thinking and acting, except when it strays away from the total goodness of a society. Take for example many leaders and societies who fit this mold. Some are ones that want to cleanse their society from what they believe are people of the inferior race. Hitler, Goring and Himmler of the Fascist Nazi regime come to mind and so does the old South African and today’s Israeli regime. They are doers in the sense that they make things happen, yet they can be on the dark side of an evil ideology.
To you what a doer can do, I read this in quote in the Harataz Israeli paper dated October 4, 2013 the other day, under the article” Drafting the blueprint for Palestinian refugee’s right of return” by a man name Amnon Neumann, a proclaimed fighter for the Palmauch- of the pre-Israel commando/terror forces of the Hagganh, who took part in the expulsion of Palestinians off their ancestral homeland in 1948 and regrets it.
“In all the Arab villages in the south,” he said in the clip, “almost nobody fought. The villagers were so poor, so miserable, that they didn’t even have weapons ... The flight of these residents began when we started to clean up the routes used by those accompanying the convoys. Then we began to expel them, and in the end they fled on their own. They didn’t think they were fleeing for a long time. They didn’t think that they wouldn’t return. Nor did anyone imagine that an entire nation wouldn’t return. We began expelling them, and then we began to spread out to the sides ... We expelled them because of Zionist ideology. Plain and simple: We came to inherit the land and that’s why we didn’t bring them back ...
“I don’t want to get into these things, these aren’t things that you get into. Why? Because I did it. During that period, I didn’t see anything wrong with it. I received the same education as everyone else. I carried it out faithfully, and if they told me things that I don’t want to mention, I did them without having any doubts at all. Without thinking twice. I’ve been eating myself up for 50-60 years already, but what was done was done. It was done on orders.”
So a doer is someone each and every society needs, however; they cannot make themselves as robots believing everything they are told and fulfilling it blindly. They must never lose sense of something greater than themselves that they must answer to.
The Sitter
These individuals are typically personified by those who for some reason or the other are never motivated to do anything. They are willing to talk till the cows come home or the chicken have come back to roost.
They generally have no said agenda on anything, and are never intrinsically ideological about any subject. They will dance around a topic or issue at hand, delaying it moving forward, be it good or bad. They are always paralyzed by analysis one way or the other.
They too come from every part of society like a Doer, but generally all are on the public dole in one fashion or the other. They see no reason why they have to work for anything. They prefer others to do the work and either demand their share or ask for a handout.
I have heard others call them as useless as” A Glass Hammer”, but we need not go that far. It suffices to know that they can be counted on very little to moving the society forward.
My fellow brothers and sisters, you may be asking yourselves why Abdulillah this subject now. Well first I have been reading and listening to way too many pieces in our newspapers, television commentary and public and private discourse that border on sowing discord between the people, and in some cases polarization of our society for one goal or another.
Some are noble, while others are wacky and stupid. Some by altruistic people and others who want their fifteen minutes of fame, while others simply for evil and nefarious acts.
So please make sure you educate yourself always. Hold fast to goodness over evil, but never be a sitter when you have come to conclusion that something needs to be done.
God Bless Jordan and its People
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