A few weeks ago, my wife came to me and confidently said, “I want to let you know that I have decided to invest in the Kingdom's stock market.” Taking a deep breath, she continued, “All of my close friends and family members are doing it, and I feel that I should follow their steps. After all, I shouldn't be left out.” I gave her an admiring and sympathetic look and said, “I highly admire your courageous decision to explore the world of stocks. However, I am afraid that you do not know enough of what lies ahead of you.” I then asked her the following: • Can you tell me about your real reason for making such a decision? • What is your exact plan? • How much are you going to invest? • How much do you think you are going to gain from going through this experience? • Do you understand how a stock market or company works? • Who is going to be your reliable source of information? • Are you able to study the company reports and market indicators? She gave me no answer except for a sad look and a long period of silence. This exchange had me wondering about the general lack of independent thinking in Saudi society. One can argue that this is also true of the Arab world in general. We tend to go along with or follow others even if we do not really understand what we are doing. Our main concern is that we should not, under any circumstances, be different from the rest. Ask any Saudi to explain his or her actions, and you will hear, I would imagine, some version of: “Well, everyone is doing it, and why not me?” This attitude of following in the footsteps of others is best explained in a well-known Arabic proverb. The story behind this proverb involves a horse with a rider that was running after a couple of other horses without knowing where those horses were going. “Where are you heading?” one of the horsemen asked the rider. He replied that his horse was going with the rest of the horses. So, he himself did not choose the direction, but rather his horse did. This is exactly what people recently did here and are still doing, to a lesser extent. When the Saudi stock market boomed again, many Saudi citizens decided to invest in it. They decided to do so without sufficient investment knowledge or strategies, depending largely on novice investors among their family members and friends. They entered the local stock market untrained, unaware of the potential risks, overtly reliant on family and friends for investment information, and not knowing what measures to take when in a market crisis. I would also argue that a large number of these investors are not able to understand the market on a scientific basis or even how stock markets or companies work. On a larger scale and most importantly, this should direct our attention to a serious problem that we have in the Kingdom in particular and in the Arab world in general, which is the lack of independent thinking and of formulating our individual points of view. We seem to be inhibited, either for cultural or social reasons, from making our own independent, thoughtful decisions. Therefore, we mostly tend to see what people do and copy their actions. This can eventually turn us into flunkies or sycophants. The way out of this social dilemma is by reexamining how and what we teach in our schools regarding independent thinking. We also need to reconsider how we raise our children at home when it comes to allowing each individual family member to be different and have his or her own thoughts and ideas. Furthermore, the society as a whole should always welcome and encourage diverse perspectives.
The writer is a Saudi academic who can be reached at [email protected].
