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Czechs and (Public) Opinion

13. 10. 2010 / Michal Vimmer

Bohumil Kartous wrote about infection of the Czech public discourse - ... something that can be avoided only if we realize that there is something else out there, that alternative views exist -- which would require being able to read in foreign languages, to know what and where to look for... (Or else we can continue with our own ideas, trying to create anew things that have been created elsewhere, ignoring all that which already exists and has been working well for a long time...)

A Czech version of this article is in CLICK HERE

Just as I have read somewhere: "Czech society is basically consensual", which comes from a combination of ingredients. Like that very few people want to enter a discussion, if it generates conflict. Is it not because we are lazy to find concrete and logical arguments and that we have here a tribal mentality, where groups of people with similar views endlessly confirm each other's opinions and perceptions? Ot that we turn everything into a joke, poking fun at any deeper discussion? That we have the feeling that, no matter, what, life goes on and the important decisions are made somewhere far away, like Wall Street?

For that consensus we find among Czechs I use an expression from transplant medicine: "implied consent". That means that, if you haven't officialized the wish to not donate your organs in a notarized document, it means that you have nothing against parts of your body, after death, being transplanted to people who need them.

So we all here take as a sure thing, that one thinks according to that, which our media propagates... We basically act as is expected from us, so as to not make unnecessary waves.

Vytisknout

Obsah vydání | Sobota 10.12. 2016