The Hindu Business Line : Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus

RECENTLY, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) spent five hours debating the rate of interest payable to more than three crore subscribers. But the board could not reach a consensus on the issue.

On the other hand, consensus didn't seem so elusive at the meeting of the UPA-Left parties coordination committee and the Government was happy about the consensus on divestment in profit-making non-navaratna PSUs.

Similarly, the new Chief Minister of Bihar, Mr Nitish Kumar, has said that the JD (U)-BJP combine expects no problem in reaching consensus on a development agenda for the State.

While we are on the topic of consensus Kiran More, the chief selector, is reported to have said recently that the inclusion of Saurav Ganguly was a consensus decision.

There is an urgent need to communicate with the public and help explain where there is consensus, and where are there doubts about the issues of sustainable development, urges Prof Jeffery Sachs. "Projecting a persuasive image of a desirable and practical future is extremely important to high morale, to dynamism, to consensus, and in general to help the wheels of society turn smoothly," appeals Herman Kahn.

But a quote of erstwhile Israeli politician and prominent foreign minister Abba Eban cautions: "Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals." Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled," warns Michael Crichton. "Culture, which we put on like an overcoat, is the collectivised consensus about what sort of neurotic behaviours are acceptable," is a quote of Terence McKenna on www.brainyquote.com. "Reality of consensus is only a very small segment of the total range of what we could feel as real," is a quote of Carlos Castaneda from the movie Enigma of a Sorcerer, posted on www.allmyquotes.com.

"Consensus and cooperation — not cynicism and combat," prays Rick Perry. It may be difficult to reach a consensus on most issues; in the meantime we'll come to terms with the word consensus.

Consensus means general agreement, according to Concise Oxford English Dictionary. It is "unanimity, the judgment arrived at by most of those concerned," says Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary." Consensus is a generally accepted opinion or decision among a group of people, defines Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, and gives examples: "The general consensus in the office is that he's useless at his job. Could we reach a consensus on this matter? Let's take a vote."

Consensus is `majority of opinion, general agreement or concord, harmony,' according to www.infoplease.com.

Consensus is `broad unanimity,' says Encarta. It is "general or widespread agreement among all the members of a group," as in the example, "After hours of deliberation, they finally reached a consensus." Another meaning of consensus is, "A concept of society in which the absence of conflict is seen as the equilibrium state of society."

On that there may not be consensus. For instance, Margaret Thatcher says, "To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects."

Other quotes of the Iron Lady are: "Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus," and "There are still people in my party who believe in consensus politics. I regard them ... as traitors... I mean it."

Consensus is "an opinion or position reached by a group as a whole," defines The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. It may be wrong, and stay on for a long time too. "Those who know that the consensus of many centuries has sanctioned the conception that the earth remains at rest in the middle of the heavens as its centre, would, I reflected, regard it as an insane pronouncement if I made the opposite assertion that the earth moves," observed Nicolaus Copernicus, the 15th century Polish astronomer, about his heliocentric theory pitted against the traditional geocentric idea.

"Scientific truth by consensus has had a uniformly bad history," reminds David Douglass. "A long time ago a bunch of people reached a general consensus as to what's real and what's not and most of us have been going along with it ever since," points out Charles de Lint. "The areas of consensus shift unbelievably fast; the bubbles of certainty are constantly exploding," opines Rem Koolhaas.

"To agree on keeping a status quo that can't be kept has nothing to do with consensus. It's decadence," declares Hilmar Kopper. And Barbara Kruger suggests the watching of the news "to find out what everybody else is looking at and believing, if only because that's how consensus is constructed".

Consensus has two common meanings, states Wikipedia. "One is a general agreement among the members of a given group or community. The other is as a theory and practice of getting such agreements," it explains. "In computer science, consensus is sometimes used to refer to the problem of achieving coherency among nodes of a distributed computer system."

On the origin of the word, http://encarta.msn.com notes, "Mid-17th century. Latin past participle of consentire (see consent)." Online Etymology Dictionary has this entry for consent: "Circa 1225, from Old French consentir, from Latin consentire `feel together,' from com- `with' + sentire `to feel.'"

From `feeling together' is `agreeing, giving permission,' a sense evolution that apparently took place in French before the word reached English, postulates the dictionary. "Consensual is 1754; consensus is 1843." The root `sentire' is behind many words such as sensory, sentient, assent, insensible, sentinel, consent, resent, dissent, presentiment, scent, sensible, sentiment, sentence, sensitive, and sense.

Consensus means `Group agreement' on www.moneyglossary.com.

Consensus is "a result achieved through negotiation whereby a hybrid solution is arrived at between parties to an issue, dispute or disagreement, comprising typically of concessions made by all parties, and to which all parties then subscribe unanimously as an acceptable resolution to the issue or disagreement," defines Duhaime's Canadian Law Dictionary on www.duhaime.org. Consensus ad idem is a Latin phrase meaning an agreement, "a meeting of the minds between the parties where all understand the commitments made by each". This is a basic requirement for each contract, notes the dictionary.

Consensus is "a social process within which individuals or groups previously in conflict come to some agreement in regard to the rules, content, intentions, and form of future interactions between them," states www.webref.org. Consensus politics, the seeking for the middle ground on the assumption that society has shared values, is the opposite of politics driven by sharp ideological confrontation, according to Political Dictionary on www.fast-times.com.

Consensus is `general trend, consension,' says Hutchinson Encyclopaedia on www.tiscali.co.uk. Consensual means `based on agreement only'. "Agreement; accord; consent," notes Webster Dictionary, 1913.

In the context of a contract, consensual means `based on consent,' explains www.allwords.com. Of a part of the body, the word means `reacting to the stimulation of another part'.

Consensus forecast is "the mean of all financial analysts' forecasts for a company," explains www.bloomberg.com. For instance, `BNP Paribas Q3 net profit beats consensus forecast,' reported Reuters on November 24. Such a forecast may provide a safety net, explains http://glossary.global-investor.com. "The idea is basically that instead of relying on the forecast of one broker, you look at the estimates from a cross-section of brokers, and find a consensus. The assumption is that a consensus is more likely to be right." Consensus sequence means "a series of related DNA, RNA or protein sequences, the sequence that reflects the most common choice of base or amino acid at each position," says On-line Medical Dictionary on http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk.

The Washington Consensus refers to US's policies behind the formula for promoting economic growth in Latin America; and Copenhagen Consensus is "a Danish project which seeks to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using methodologies based on the theory of welfare economics," informs The Free Encyclopedia. Also, `Consensus reality,' is what may be understood "by studying socially constructed reality, a subject within the sociology of knowledge".

You'll find a few interesting comments on the term from www.brainyquote.com:

"It is the consensus of opinion among the bench and the bar here that the women's service as jurors has been quite as satisfactory as that of the men." — Florence E. Allen.

"There is zero debate about whether the world is getting warmer. That is a fact, a measured fact. There is some debate, although not much anymore, about what's causing the world to get warmer. And the consensus, by far is that it's us." — Peter Barnes

"Ethical systems are completely unlike mathematics or science, and no ethical system has ever achieved consensus." — Daniel Dennett.

"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a moulder of consensus." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Consensus decision-making "is a decision process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also to resolve or mitigate the objections of the minority to achieve the most agreeable decision," according to http://en.wikipedia.org. The most common and most successful model of consensus is called the prisoner's dilemma, adds Wiki.

Consensus decision making requires that everyone agrees with a decision, not just a majority as occurs in majority-rule processes, insists a glossary of International Online Training Program On Intractable Conflict on www.colorado.edu. "In consensus-based processes, people must work together to develop an agreement that is good enough (though not necessarily perfect) that all of the people at the table are willing to agree to it."

Disturbingly, however, the Glossary of Canoe Terminology on www.paddling.net defines consensus as "when the leader can't decide how to handle a problem".

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

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