Listening to the silent majority

[17]

Willie Ramoshaba was very emotional in the way he saw things, but I sympathised with him. Here was a black man who had lived under the system of apartheid and obviously been hurt by it, as millions of his compatriots were. But I could not forget Leibnitz's conclusions on the

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human mind^17. - that each person's mind has been coded differently and that the difference can principally be seen in differences in clarity of perception. What makes one mind superior to others, according to Leibnitz, depends on the ability to perceive more accurately and with less confusion, events taking place in the surrounding world. When thoughts are fuzzy and unclear, a distinct lack of perception is evident, and the inadequate interpretation of events leads to erroneous convictions.

When proper reasoning fails, an urgent need for greater truth arises. Psychoanalysis was one of the first methods used to help a person who has lost a balanced sense of reality to regain a true perception of the world around him.

In the course of my encounters with black and white South Africans, I often reflected on what I had read on the functions of the mind, and became painfully aware of the ignorance in this country surrounding this important field of research - a field which, more than any other investigations in the physical sciences, could make an invaluable contribution to the resolution of conflict in this part of the world.

17. GW von Liebnitz lived from 1646-1716. In those days the study of the brain had not yet begun and Science knew virtually nothing about it, compared to the 1980's