Malta revels in controversy. If there is a hot topic, you can be assured that the island will be split down the middle passionately debating the pros and cons with practically everyone getting into the fray.
Whether it’s politics, football, Eurovision, festas, Renzo Piano, the Triton fountain, spring hunting, or the most recent issue of civil liberties, the country is thrown into high-pitched hysteria as the airwaves, the print media and cyber space are overtaken by the topic of the moment.
While the theme may differ, the common thread running through each subject is always the same: Our inability to tolerate the other person’s viewpoint when it differs to ours.
It is not enough to merely disagree, no, we must insult, harangue and resort to personal attacks and become incoherent with rage. In cyber space the comments board are replete with people writing in capital letters (the equivalent of shouting) while some discussion programmes degenerate into slanging matches, with whoever having the ability to keep talking loudly and relentlessly, interrupting and over-riding everyone else, being the one who is heard.
Can this really be called a discussion however? What do viewers at home glean from these types of talk shows? It is doubtful whether any new insights into the topic can emerge with everyone talking at once. It is not dialogue; it is a simultaneous display of ear-splitting monologues.
The worst thing about this absence of civilised debate which we witness on our small screens is that it spills over into real life. It is virtually impossible for people to have different viewpoints on a given topic, but then shake hands and let it go – instead they must try and somehow wrestle the other person to a point where he/she must agree with them. This lack of tolerance towards those who do not share our opinion seems to be growing, and it is manifesting itself in many ways, from verbal abuse to physical violence.
A lot has been said recently about the “disappearance of family values”, but we would suggest that there is something much more crucial which is non-existent: The value of tolerance. Tolerance covers a much wider spectrum of what is wrong with Malta and holds the key to resolving a lot of the disputes which often spiral out of hand. Tolerance indicates a certain level of maturity, a degree of intelligence and the skills to follow through on the logic of an argument without grasping at non sequiturs or ad hominem attacks to prove our point.
It is not a virtue which comes out of nowhere; tolerance has to be taught and learned. Perhaps our educational system should introduce debating societies in schools where children can learn how to argue the pros and cons of specific themes – and then be asked to change sides so that they can also learn how to argue the opposite viewpoint. That would certainly be one academic subject which would come in very useful in life.