Reasons Why Most Thais Have False Dilemma
According to Moore and Parker (1989), the False Dilemma Fallacy is the fallacy that people tend to perceive the world as white and black meaning that they only see goodness and badness. Besides, it also means that two choices are offered yet more exist, or a spectrum’s possible choices exist more than two choices. Therefore, they did not see the diversities of other elements in humans or media. Therefore, the main reasons why most Thais have the false dilemma fallacy will be discussed.
Firstly, Thai educational system is one of the main reasons why most Thais have the false dilemma fallacy. Thai literature is an obvious example to explain reasons why the Thai educational system became a cause since there were many stories portraying only the good and bad characters. For example, The Tale of Khun Chang Khun Phaen Siam’s Folk Epic of Love, War and Tragedy*, one of the Thai literature was taught in Thai school. Most of the teachers did not explain why Wan Thong (a name of female lead character) had to be executed and they did not even portray various views toward this story. They just taught students that Wan Thong was a playgirl who could not choose one man to be with and then she was executed in the end. Another example is lexical choices in literature. Literature teachers in Thai schools did not use proper words like “protagonist” and “antagonist”. They just use “Phra-Ek” (a male lead on a good side), “Nang-Ek” (a female lead on a good side), and “Tua-Rai” (meaning as a villain which most of the so-called characters are just “antagonist” not “villain”). Words have power, so they influence Thais’ mindset a lot toward the world. These examples were really effective problems toward the society since the use of words and the way teachers taught literature in school were like the earlier mentioned. These factors tended to shape Thai students to have a narrow mindset and see the world as white and black (seeing the world only goodness and badness) which the world is not always like that. The world does not provide only two shades but many shades.
Lastly, Thai media is also one of the reasons why Thais have false dilemma. Thai media is just like the Thai literature because most of them are only displayed to goodness and badness. They did not only display various sides of characters, but they also showed that good characters always receive the gift and bad characters always get punishment. For instance, a Thai drama called Fha Mee Ta is an obvious example to display how Thai media is because its plots were dedicated goodness and badness as being mentioned earlier. Thus, it proves that Thai media is also one of the reason why Thais have the false dilemma.
In sum, if Thais still have got this kind of dilemma, it will cause Thai society to become toxic because they cannot distinguish and see various shades of humanity. Moreover, it also leads Thais to have moral masturbation also which will make the society to become more despair. To be able to expand Thais’ perspective, Thai education and media must be improved improve as fast as they can.
*The Tale of Khun Chang Khun Phaen Siam’s Folk Epic of Love, War and Tragedy was a story about a woman named Wantong who had a tragic life because of men which were Khun Chang and Khun Paen. At the end of thestory Wantong was sentenced to be executed because of misunderstanding between Khun Chang and Khun Paen.
References:
Moore, B. N., & Parker, R. (1989). Critical thinking: evaluating claims and arguments in everyday life. Mayfield Pub. Co.
