The father decides that out of his three sons, the youngest, who seems bright and intelligent, should go to school while the other two should help him in farming and maintaining livestock. Fast forward two decades, the youngest son has become a university teacher, while his elder brothers are illiterate farmers. They find it difficult to engage in a conversation when they meet once in a blue moon, and their descendants live a world apart.
All of us will probably agree that the farmer’s decision is wrong. Right or wrong, his decision changes the course of life of many individuals down the timeline. And that is only a decision at the family level. Decisions made at the societal or national levels can impact the lives of thousands, millions, or even billions across generations.
Decision-making is actually choosing among the alternative courses of action in a situation, event, or issue. And those alternatives are the results of one’s cognition of the situation, event, or issue which necessarily depends on his/her knowledge, beliefs, attitude, etc. So, our farmer’s wrong decision is most likely due to his lack of wisdom and also due to his cultural values.
According to Psychology Today, “When making a decision, we form opinions and choose actions via mental processes which are influenced by biases, reason, emotions, and memories”. Thus, decision-making has the built-in scope of making wrong decisions.
If the decision maker is propelled by bias and emotion then in all probability the decision would be wrong. An example is Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to exterminate the Palestinian population in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on October 7. The decision is solely driven by overwhelming vengeance and an instinctive hostile attitude toward the Palestinians. Even the USA, a staunch patron of Israel recognized that. According to The Guardian, US President Joe Biden told Netanyahu, “I caution that, while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it”.
Such decisions abound in history. In 330 BC, Alexander “the Great” conquered the ancient Persian city Persepolis and decided to burn it down and indiscriminately slaughter the civilians apparently as revenge for the Persian invasion of Greece 150 years before. In 1221 AD, Genghis Khan ordered the massacre of the entire population of the city of Nishapur after he occupied it to avenge the death of his son-in-law. The city of Nishapur was located in modern-day Iran and its population at that time is estimated at more than 1.7 million.
[… … …]
This article was published in the Daily Sun on November 8, 2023. Please read the full article here or here.