The Boy Who Cried Wolf, one of Aesop’s fables, offers profound lessons about the dangers of disinformation. It chronicles how a wolf came to devour a shepherd boy and his village’s flock of sheep after the villagers decided not to heed a warning from the boy, who had lied repeatedly about an impending wolf attack.
Children who read the story learn that liars fall prey to their lies, eventually. In reality, temperance gives way to avarice and vainglory in the face of self-interest. Donald Trump whipping up supporters to attack the US Capitol was a case in point. Yet lies come in many shades. That is why employees reassure concerned mothers they have eaten dinner when they are working overnight. Lies that are intended to deceive and mislead for whatever reason are coined as disinformation. Disinformation is no new concept. The Catholic Church falsely explained the 1755 Lisbon earthquake as having been caused by “the wrath of God”. That vaccines cause autism is another misconception. And the list goes on.
Disinformation abounds, subduedly. Lately, some elections in the US have been won by propagating lies. Lies beget lies. Fringe beliefs that propelled Trump advocates to victory also fed into racial hatred. Having built a mental model that internal plights are a result of external repressions, US politicians conveniently focus fire on other countries. Ever-rising healthcare expenditures and a falling life expectancy remain the biggest paradoxes in the US. Little progress has been made since the Affordable Care Act, previously dubbed Obamacare. Sam Lebovic described in his book how the US and Britain sold the United Nations to the world to hide their underlying imperialism and world policing. Through such a lens, it is not difficult to understand why their allies find China-bashing legitimate.
The United States has asserted that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government is a “puppet” of the central government, which rules with an “authoritarian” bent and brooks no dissent. The 2019-20 riots in Hong Kong were fodder for such arguments. Among a raft of misguided rhetoric, “jailing of people for peaceful political expression” was a blatant lie. During raids, police found weapons and slogans to instigate secession. Oscar-winning director Malcolm Clarke released a documentary series that showed rioters cudgeling innocent people, and arsonists torching clothes on the tarmac. Economic engines of the city ground to a halt. Shops closed; banks shut their gates; offices suspended on-site work. Those were the darkest hours since the return of Hong Kong to China.
Correcting disinformation is also not as simple as it seems (Aesop did not explain the reason no one in the village attempted to correct the boy). Research shows that providing the correct information rarely dispels falsehoods. Humans perceive familiar information to be truer, and corrections to disinformation increase familiarity, as with the repeated theme in a rondo melody. Of late, some Western politicians have spared no effort to harp on about the trial of 47 individuals who are charged with plotting to overthrow the HKSAR government. They claim that those charged acted as “crusaders” of democracy — shorthand for Western ideology, specifically, leaving fundamental human rights issues in a morass while tussling over mental models. Notice which significant cases await hearing by the US Supreme Court: abortion; praying after a gridiron football game; asylum seekers; and “illegal immigrants”. Science gave solid answers to some issues such as abortion and gun ownership. Other issues are much less worthy of extended proceedings compared to feeding the people and giving shelter to the homeless.
By foisting their worldview on other countries, US politicians may hijack local values and culture. Anything goes. Take the national security case in Hong Kong for instance; they are essentially sending a message to the world: Work with our values or risk being toppled. That could be considered a humiliating blow nowadays given the significance that states place on national sovereignty. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly denounced separatists who plotted to derail the process of unifying Chinese people stranded on either side of the Taiwan Straits. Recently, US President Joe Biden emphasized the defense of US sovereignty in his State of the Union address. Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, raged against blatant interference in its judicial hearings into a journalist’s death.
Herein, Aesop’s parable offers another lesson — the prognosis is grim when disinformation sinks in. Correction often comes too little, too late. Both the liar and the receiving end suffer. Fallacy prevails. If countering disinformation with facts seems unlikely to sway fanatics, keeping the elephant in the room may be a sort of passive-aggressive behavior. In the face of inequality, the Chinese government is right to uphold a global rules-based system and universal human rights underpinned by the United Nations Charter. If that seems a cliche, defending national sovereignty and state autonomy may be the most challenging fine line to balance in the process of weaving in more interdependence. An overbearing populist state catalyzes its decoupling from the global order from which the world continues to benefit. Being a pushover signals weakness to political enemies within and without, and national interests can be ceded.
The tale could see a more blissful denouement. Blaming the blabbermouth is satisfying yet helps little when rumors have been spread. Word of mouth is a double-edged sword. Quickly assemble a group of truth-bearers. They shall find facts and share the gospel. Penalize the boy in the fable to deter anyone who wishes to sow seeds of confusion. Teamwork matters. So does globalization and world trade.
Many find Aesop’s fables instructive for our children. Alternative endings may prove equally if not more inspiring for grown-ups.
The author is a member of China Retold, and a licensed medical doctor with a Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins University. He is also a member of the New People’s Party.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
