A Christmas wish list

It's the time of the year when people make wish lists and tend to be more reflective. Between the drinking, partying, socialising and fraternising, some get a little time to think about life, perhaps spurred by the end of one year and the start of another.

It is good that we do. Our lives slip by so quickly. Before you know it, it's over! And what would have been the point of it? What's a worthwhile life? What are worthwhile projects? What should we care about? What should get priority attention? What is the meaning of life? These are deeply philosophical but also deeply practical questions.

We don't spend as much attention on these issues as we should and as they deserve. We are too caught up in the 'everydayness' and superficiality of life to separate the urgent and immediate from the truly important. At a national and collective level, what are some of the things we should commit ourselves to?

I have a national wish list.

First - and this is a big one for me - I wish we could develop a truly tolerant, open and diversity-respecting society. I wish we could have a society in which people are not victimised, defamed and humiliated because they hold different views, support different political parties and have conflicting ideologies and lifestyles. Tolerance does not mean endorsement. It does not mean acceptance in the sense that one embraces the other's position, lifestyle or ideology. Tolerance only becomes relevant and operative when one has disagreements, even sharp disagreements.

I wish we had a society where people could know that the fact that I don't agree with them and reject their views does not mean I reject them or hate them.

I wish I lived in a truly cosmopolitan society. Or a society where at least more persons in the intelligentsia were more sophisticated, more exposed to alternative worldviews and more intellectually curious and adventurous. The quality of public discourse would be considerably different if we had a society with a better-read and more philosophically aware intelligentsia.

Tolerant society

I have written before that a society as tribalised, intolerant and disdainful of difference as ours does not provide a sound foundation for democracy and press freedom. Our civic foundation is not as strong as it should be to support democracy and press freedom, despite our high ranking globally. If we have a society which does not treasure iconoclasm but which would seek to punish it, then that society is not providing enough lubricant for press freedom and political pluralism.

I wish we had a society which had a greater respect for ideas rather than material things. A society less caught up with bling and hedonistic pursuits and one more concerned about the quality of life rather than its quantity; one in which value is not measured by possessions but by intrinsic human worth and moral action.

I wish that we would experience a moral revolution; one which makes it unnecessary to legislate morality; one that would not make it imperative to make more and stiffer laws with more watchdogs like Greg Christie to ensure that people do what they should do and not do what they should not.

A moral revolution which would cause more Jamaicans to internalise certain values, making them less vulnerable to corruption. Too idealistic?

The fact of the matter is that there are societies less corrupt than our own and that is not just due to the fact that they have more laws and better enforcement. Those societies have internalised certain values and ways of operating. There is nothing genetically determined about us as Jamaicans which make us wired to corruption, greed and shiftiness. Cultural bad habits can be unlearned and new habits formed.

Pursuing excellence

I wish we had a society which was more obsessed with excellence - for its own sake, for its sheer value. I wish we had less of a proclivity for finding the easier and not the best ways of doing things. I wish we thought less of how much we could get away with, or how little we can give while still retaining our jobs and fulfilling our commitments.

I remember long ago reading the following lines and falling in love with them:

"No endeavour is in vain

Its reward is in the doing

And the rapture of pursuing

Is the prize, the vanquished gain."

Excellence is its own reward. And excellence, as Aristotle said, is a habit. I wish we would develop that habit in Jamaica. I wish it were second nature. It is to some of us, but we need far more Jamaicans in that army.

I wish we had a commitment to the poor, oppressed and marginalised. I wish we saw it as an obligation of a truly human and just society to take care of the marginalised, the downcast, the underclasses. I wish we saw equalitarianism as not just some socialist throwback, but as an obligation of justice. I wish we saw inequality as a blight on our humanity and our claims of decency.

This year, we lost three giants in the advocacy of justice for the marginalised - Rex Nettleford, Barry Chevannes and John Maxwell. Their voices were relentless, potent and poignant. They cannot be stilled by death. They still echo to us those strains of justice, equality and liberation. We need to honour their memories by committing to their cause - and their cause was just.

Personal integrity

I wish I lived in a society with more people who were committed to personal integrity over expedience. Where people would be willing to suffer personal loss - tremendous loss - just to maintain integrity. Too many of us are crude pragmatists who don't stand for anything beyond our own selfish material interests. I wish we had a society in which far more people were willing to give up their privileges, comforts and status just to maintain their integrity. Yes, it's easier said than done but unless more of us do it, it's useless to wish people a happy new year.

I wish I lived in a society where people were more gracious, civil, generous in spirit. Where there was more goodwill and peace among men and women - and not just at Christmas time. Why can't we be more forgiving, more charitable, more embracing throughout the year? Why confine this to Christmas? Is it too much to hope that we make this spirit of goodwill permanent? Can't our political partisans battle with intellectual fierceness and rigour but with more graciousness? Could we be less tribal and more united in 2011?

We are too eager to draw lines in the sand for others, too all-or-nothing in our thinking, too nauseatingly intolerant of those who have a diffe-rent point of view. But I must be tolerant. And gracious to those who refuse to show me tolerance and graciousness and who malign me. Keep me honest by monitoring how well I do on my own wish list. Happy 2011!

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at ianboyne1@yahoo.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.