Knight Of The Living Dead
“Fighting Lies That Refuse to Die”
In a world where so many seem to want peace and unity, it’s astounding that those who claim to want it most refuse to know what they’re talking about. I have seen a meme doing the rounds - again - regarding general statistics of women as it pertains to population, unemployment, poverty, parenting, pay, and land ownership with the tag line “In case you wondered why we still need feminism”. The stats are as follows: “Women are 50% of the population but account for 70% of the poor. They do 60% of the work, produce 50% of the food but earn just 11% of the pay and own only 1% of the land”
These figures are used to build a rather specific world view and the figures, themselves, are known as “Zombie Statistics”. A zombie statistic is a false or misleading data set that is repeated multiple times, and despite having no basis in fact, refuses to “die”. For example, we could talk about how studies done by Cheryl Doss, development economist at Oxford University, showed that across ten African countries, 39% of women and 48% of men reported owning land, both individually and jointly. Not the 1% referred to in the aforementioned infographic. Another example would be how a separate study, which compiled surveys across six sub-Saharan African countries, found that the average female labor share in crop production was 40%, not 11%, with wide disparities within countries as the agricultural sector is a complex, albeit integral, part of Africa’s economy. But let’s hang on for a second. This isn’t about debunking false statistics because anyone worth their salt can do that with a cellphone and an internet connection…for now. This is about a far greater problem.
Once the circulation of a zombie statistic gains traction, it becomes increasingly difficult to intercept as it is often weaponised at an alarming rate to fortify political agendas. This is thanks to the inherent nature of popular culture, where repetition alone can elevate the status of an opinion from “point of view” to “accepted fact”. Not only does this render any legitimate debate impossible, it ultimately makes discussions hypothetical because people end up working with data that doesn't’ exist. This is beyond damaging.
Our beloved Cheryl Doss said it best when she wrote in a 2014 blog addressing the issue, “Using unsubstantiated data for advocacy is counterproductive. Advocates lose credibility by making claims that are inaccurate and slow down progress towards achieving their goals because without credible data, they also can’t measure changes.”
This is a common theme in the field of activism, or as I like to call it “pseudo-activism”. When we make false claims in an attempt to win support or social credit, we end up shooting ourselves in the foot. Once we’ve been exposed, people will categorise us as just another entitled, social-justice-nut who doesn’t have a clue about what’s actually going on in the world. It’s embarrassing. It’s bullshit. Here’s why:
If we genuinely want to initiate change and we truly want to gain support for what we believe in, it’s in our best interest, and the interest of our cause, to do the research and share the truth. We have to understand what we’re defending or fighting for. We can’t assume that anyone who has written an opinion piece has done the critical or ethical thinking on our behalf. That is our job. We need to do it ourselves. If we step into the arena of debate, the burden of proof is on us and not our “opponents”.
And here’s the real kicker: we seldom ever have actual “opponents”. If you’re a person who frequently uses zombie-statistics, whether knowingly or unknowingly, the people you’re fighting against are most probably on your side. They want freedom, equality, opportunity and compassion for all, just like you do. You’d be hard pressed to find a sane person who doesn’t. However, the resistance you experience happens when you present views that are misguided thanks to your curated list of zombie statistics. This means that the solutions you offer are not only impractical but also irrelevant because they exist in relation to data that’s false. This doesn’t seem to matter because your reason for fighting isn’t about solution, it’s in an attempt to bolster your claims of relevancy and purpose.
I will happily stand with you against racism, sexism, homophobia and whatever else is crippling the efforts of an individual to experience individual success or safety. However, I can only do that if we’re engaging with the truth. Not what you feel is going on the world, not what you think is happening in the world, but what is actually going on. Point to the legislation that’s violating rights. Present legitimate evidence of crimes committed in the name of prejudice. Show me the injustice and we’ll fight the good fight. But if all you’re capable of doing is sharing memes and tweets from the echo chamber that validates your sense of virtue, then you’re just another pseudo-activist who can’t be taken seriously. And if that’s the case, you lose your seat at the table of those fighting for progress. Trust me, the discussions of how to implement ethical strategies that achieve equality of opportunity need to be had, but that can only happen if both “sides” take a deep breath and realise they want the same thing. We need to remind ourselves that it’s the self appointed task of a zombie statistic to sodomise debate over important issues. No matter how many times they’ve been definitively debunked, zombie statistics are continuously used as a battering ram to silence genuine discussions that could lead to tangible solutions.
So how do we remedy this? What measures can we put in place to prevent ourselves falling prey to the bewildering effect of a zombie statistic? The answer is fairly simple but can be quite difficult to accept. It starts with an honest look at ourselves. We need to understand who we are and how we are. As we grow through life, we are exposed to different notions of what it means to be a healthy member of society. What views are good, what views are bad. Who is wrong and who is right. Social pressures around us are constantly telling us to conform and it can be crippling. If we deviate from societal norms, even slightly, we are targeted. If we don’t agree to the terms laid out by the “good” majority, or even if we have simple questions, we’re labelled as “other” and our access to “kind” society is revoked. You are now the threat. Majority of the time, our unanswered questions are small. Too small to be significant enough to pursue them in spite of the social backlash. The result? We fall in line.
This happens throughout our lives and in many different ways. These ways are often small. We view their significance to be negligible so we allow them to die while we live the life society chooses for us. As the years go by, these small sacrifices accumulate and their replacements take up more space within us. And before we know it, we’re consumed. “For what is an ocean if not a multitude of drops?”
When we are able to understand and accept that many of the world views we have aren’t actually our own, but rather the views of those around us, we are able to move beyond them. We have to ask ourselves what we believe in outside of what the world tells us to accept. This will often lead to the death of everything we thought we knew about the world and it can be terrifying. After all, we’ve built our lives around the views and values that we hold most dear. Yet now all those views and values are changing. This can have a destabilising effect, where we ask ourselves if the things we want from life are actually our independent desires, or merely what society has told us to want. The car, the house, the job, the type of relationship we have, the food we eat and the clothes we wear; everything comes into question. And it should. It has to in order to be genuine. We have to be prepared to stand alone in the storm, without the shelter the herd provides. It is far better to be drenched as ourselves than just another dry number. In moving forward, we need to be able to discern where our values end and societies influence begins. If we are unable to distinguish these territories, we will never know who we truly are. If we can’t tell the difference, all we can ever be is a reflection of the people and world around us; not ourselves.
Alright, self-help segment aside, why is this relevant? Well, it’s straightforward: our support or rejection of certain beliefs or politics comes down to how we want the world to view us. If we are still at the mercy of social pressures, we’ll most likely support the things that reaffirm how we want to be perceived by society, for the sake of societies approval. It’s not about right or wrong, it’s about acceptable or unacceptable. It’s not about the situation itself, but more so “what will people think of me if I choose to support this?”. If this question is influencing your position on a matter, you’ve lost yourself. It means that where you stand on an issue isn’t determined by objective and critical analysis, but the shallow pursuit of societies validation. Should the question be considered? Absolutely, it’s important to know where we stand in relation to the world around us, but we shouldn’t allow it to dictate our position entirely. In order to stand with conviction, we have to be prepared to risk exile. This means that we will sometimes miss the mark, we will lose friends, we will get things wrong, we will mess up, we won’t always understand, but it is better to do all this as ourselves than bend to the will and influence of those around us.
In a time of such widespread political hostility we’d do well not to forget that we each still have much to learn. The unfortunate reality is that many people have grown to become terrified of discussing ideas. This is because debates have become boobytrapped with a plethora of radical claims, baseless accusations and too many zombie statistics to count. When debates are hijacked and weaponised, people who don’t toe the ideological line are thrown out, along with reason, logic and critical thinking. All that’s left after this kind of exclusion are blind people seated on their self-made moral thrones overlooking their fictitious kingdoms. And if there is one thing my life has taught me thus far, is that it is better to be an honest fool than a false king.
