This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 25, 2024 - December 1, 2024

I have often wondered about the nature of “mediocrity”. We tend to think of mediocrity as something an individual chooses and should be accountable for. When considered collectively, we have skills and knowledge that we prefer to call “common sense”, and these may not be much different in quality from whatever is “mediocre”.

What has fascinated me is what it is that makes someone more prone to seek mediocrity than to strive to excel. This is a psychological question, no doubt; but as long as we see it only as such, we tend to place the responsibility on the individual. We forget that it is also a sociological — and sociopolitical — issue. In many ways, it is also a consequence of class struggles within a society.

Is it not in the nature of “power” to limit the ability of a population to excel, whether or not it admits this expressly, given that social stability relies on the majority population being fearful, defensive and divided? And law- and regulation-abiding.

Even with mass schooling, which intuitively suggests that we are progressive and we want our young to be literate and knowledgeable, it is doubtful whether we wish for them to excel, or to just be useful to the economic future of the country. Is schooling, to a large extent, not merely regimentation of the mind, and structuring of thinking? A learning of rules? Are examination systems not a superb way to stunt the imagination of the young, and to propagate the idea that brains can be properly ranked, already at a young age?

I would like to argue that finding comfort in mediocrity — in conformity, I suppose — is a modern pandemic encouraged by fast changes on all fronts of modern life, and by the very complexities faced in modern living.

Mediocrity is instinctively bred within societies because it brings socioeconomic predictability and political stability. In truth, do we not mean when we disdainfully brush aside “middle class values” exactly the defensive timidity that breeds and rewards mediocrity?

But what is at fault in societies is not the breeding and acceptance of this as a necessity for social harmony, but the overdoing of it.

My studies of social cohesion tell me that any society or polity, especially a new one, needs a high degree of regimentation to be carried out early, and by all possible means. However, if too successfully done, you get an army instead — regiments of minions who are either loyalists and stakeholders in the system, or who are fearful of punishment and retribution.

Therefore, a society that wishes to evolve and develop needs merely to aim for sufficient regimentation, and not more. It realises that overdoing it will curb inventiveness, hinder adaptability and stymie boldness in the population.

In order to evolve and to be innovative and flexible, it needs “fringes” from which unpredictable and challenging ideas and action can emerge. The Centre must recognise the central role played by a society’s “fringes”.

Maintaining mediocrity too well can lead to stagnation, while allowing too much anarchy can lead to, well, anarchy. But balancing the two can create an exciting symbiosis between artists and technicians, between designers and engineers, between mediocre minds and excelling brains, between conservatives and progressives. Fringes may actually be the bridges within society.

This balancing is no easy matter, and I presume that a search for the right poise usually results in the pendulum swinging over time from “too much” to “too little”. Meanwhile, the favoured practice would be that of conserving mediocrity in society and keeping it constant for as long as possible while the fringes and their unpredictability are explored, controlled and studied.

How power in general works to preserve itself is a much studied subject. Much has been said about that. But what does the psychology of a person programmed to seek the safety of mediocrity look like in a society that continuously encourages mediocrity? That is a more interesting and, I think, a more cogent question to explore.

Living in a modern, often urbanised, economy requires a lot of investment into gaining marketable skills and knowledge, acceptable behaviour and psychological resilience. The technics of power are highly developed in modern times, and there is really nowhere to hide.

You need to be “conventional” and “conformist” to avoid unwanted state attention and social sanctions.

Finding your niche in life becomes the thing to do. You do your studies, you get a job, you get a bank account, you get a mortgage, you get a wife, have some children. If one’s focus is only on that, then conformity also requires one to be mediocre, to think safe, and to play safe.

This niche-ism, wherein you play safe and you feel threatened and are therefore defensive is not inducive to synergy, to social interactions beyond niceties and polite conversations, to mutual inspirational conversations.

That is not the right state of mind for a person who wishes to excel as a matter of lifestyle to have.

Stating clearly that mediocrity is indeed a common ambition in modern sociopolitical life, and that the cost of maintaining that is the lowering of the cultural capability and personal tendency to excel in our general undertakings, we might be able to inspire young people to balance to their own advantage their need to find a comfortable niche in life with the personal need to excel and bring deeper meaning to their lives.

If you ask me, I think the present preference young people have for gig work is a search for such a balance, however vain that might turn out to be in the end.

Datuk Dr Ooi Kee Beng is the executive director of Penang Institute, and senior visiting fellow at ISEAS — Yusof Ishak Institute. His latest book is The Reluctant Nation: Malaysia and its Vain Quest for Common Purpose (Gerakbudaya), to be launched at the George Town Literary Festival which will be held from Nov 29 to Dec 1. Homepage: wikibeng.com.

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