The Betrayal of the Mind and Acts of the Intellectuals
An educated person must be fair from the mind, let alone the deed. It’s a quote’s Pramoedya Ananta Toer, reminded scholars to have fair thoughts and deeds so as not to betray their knowledge.
How many educated people cannot be fair, even on the contrary, betraying conscience and reason for an unjust plan, evil plan, fellowship with wrongdoers, or enrich themselves and their groups with corruption in state money. The knowledge possessed is not perpetuated for life, not to serve God, nature, and living things, especially humans. Instead it was used to betray everything, including his own reason and conscience.
In any country, the educated are considered respected, respected, used as role models and become a place of silly people to ask questions. They are considered to have advantages in the field of science, as scholars who have strengths in religious knowledge are considered as heirs to the prophet.
All knowledge possessed by scholars, is used to help and facilitate the lives of living things, protecting the preservation of nature, including maintaining human common sense. In essence, educated people maintain the balance of life.
However, history also proves the educated are considered as a circle that must be finished. See how the effort to erase educated people is done by Pol Pot. They finish off the educated in a cruel way. People with glasses are already considered representations of the educated people so they must be killed. When it comes to saving bullets, Pol Pot followers kill them by using hoes.
The struggle to maintain common sense sometimes has to sacrifice lives, although now it does not reach such a heavy challenge. The temptation to betray life and the ideal values of science now comes from power and economic power. Treasure and throne become the main source of the cause of scholars to betray their own common sense.
They defend the wrong people, look for propositions and prepare arguments that look rational to defend the irrational. In an authoritarian system of government, in an undemocratic region, the educated are in line with the authorities. In fact, religious leaders are also in the same line.
That situation occurs in any hemisphere, from the stone age to the digital era like now. There are always scholars and religious leaders who have mortgaged their common sense and conscience to the authorities.
If you watch the documentary film, A Cambodian Spring, you will find Loun Sovath — a monk who fights for the rights of citizens — is even expelled and not considered by other monks. "You have tarnished Buddhism with your action," said a monk to oppose Sovath's struggle. They must face each other in the field; one to fight for justice, and one to defend authoritarian rule.
Everywhere - both in developed and developing countries - educated people still maintain common sense and a lower conscience. Most of the few who choose the struggle as weak as faith, namely by staying silent. When educated people have betrayed a sense of justice, when educated people stand to see justice trampled on, then they become part of the tyranny itself. []
