RCHK’s Conformity Conundrum
Hillary Lee
The renowned French philosopher and satirist, Voltaire, once explored the effects of religious obsession in regards to Roman Catholicism’s power and how ignorance drives the world. He describes four individuals, each with their own interpreted method of worshipping their deity. When the four leave the temple, they spread terror and delusion across the world. As Voltaire writes, “Only let a single people be thus fascinated and agitated under the guidance of a few impostors, the seduction will spread with the speed of wildfire.” They are willing to go to great lengths to spread the so-called enlightenment that they’ve gained from blind faith. Before long, these ideas are woven into the very ideology of new generations, intertwining with culture and tradition in pursuit of blind faith. RCHK’s ideology is called Wellbeing.
RCHK places one of their well-being slogans above the auditorium (PAC), “We strive to build a culture that promotes peace and democracy, values diversity, and works towards a sustainable future for all.” While the intentions may be lighthearted, it comes off as propaganda to so-called weirdos. William Blum, an American author and critic of US foreign policy, once said, “Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship.” But that goes against everything the slogan says. We’ve essentially conditioned the students to strive for a better tomorrow with limited meaning.
Even before the Behaviour Guidelines came into place, there were virtues. The Egyptian’s goddess of order, Ma’at, the Greeks with Aristotle and Plato, conceptualising virtue. Their greatness defined it as the way of living, and the entire world followed these ancient figures in search of an ultimate system of order. Thomas Hobbes portrays humans with their passions and instincts, yet the idea of such has turned into a political camaraderie to curb the masses. While the power of rationality is undeniable, it fails to fully acknowledge the inherent desires of humanity.
Concepts, rationality and virtue remain as the glorified idols of the world because the government likes control. Education institutions like ours follow their example by preaching to us this ideology as a means to success through rationalisation and forward-thinking. It’s not rocket science to know that people, especially nonconformists, fail to establish themselves because of Well-being. Why wouldn’t they? When everyone walks on a premade path most have already walked, who is there to tell a student that they are more important than getting a ‘safe’ degree?
Self-actualisation isn’t abandoning all ideals either, we humans are paradoxical creatures by nature. The existence of human instinct once saved us from dangers and taught us change. Isfet, the embodiment of darkness and disorder, is the counterpart to Ma’at. The mind is not without heart, and the rational is not without the irrational. If ancient us recognised the duality and irrationality that came with existence, we could understand both order and chaos. We are weird, we are strange, that’s what makes us human.
RCHK’s emphasis on conformity through the well-being ideology is the problem, well-intentioned but stifles creativity and individuality. There is no quick fix to this either, we’ve invested so much time and effort into maintaining the ideology that great change is needed to tear down the system to its basic components and rebuild. It’s just unfortunate that the people who we call outcasts can see past the ignorance and save us from a life of ignorance. If we want to foster a culture of true understanding and growth between students, we must create an environment where all thoughts are celebrated.