On Mushrooming Silos

The silo mentality is a virulent pandemic that cripples our society in contemporary times. More than any other natural contagion, it is even more hazardous and menacing beyond compare. 

Because it is synthetic and man-made, there is no specific antidote to contain this tumour. Instead, in certain circumstances, it is deliberately cultivated for some mysterious intent. 

In truth, all of us are aware and at times, witness the scar due to this fungal infection of silos on every part of our society. Due to its occurrence ad nauseum, we are accustomed to breathing under its smoke even if it is strangulating. After all, who cares as long as the pain caused by the silos don’t hurt us? At the end of the day, everyone’s responsibility is nobody’s responsibility.

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However, what’s alarming is the variants of silos that keep mushrooming in our society. As a high-school schoolboy, I learnt in history about the geographical (regional) silos, where leaders of the different regions wrestled for dominance. Although not for power, we are still siloed with this syndrome these days in the form of social media groups such as WeChat or WhatsApp group, which draws latitudes and longitudes within the same community.

In the occupation world, we have a crisis of departmental silos. Every branch of the office is territorial and demarcated with high-voltage volatility. Inside the ecosystem of our profession, we encounter the calamity of partnership silos where people collaborate only if the labour they invest in, can translate their classified purpose into a success. What we often cry foul of sycophants is the harvest of these silos.

In the public functions and meetings, we are never spared from the rampage of hierarchy silos. That is, only the people of the same status, societal prominence, or similar league of nobility can network on one side to demonstrate the pyramid of our living. 

With the change in time, a mutated silo mentality variant, symbiotic silos (which I also refer to as reciprocal silos) is evolving. This mutant is highly lethal due to its potential capacity to adulterate the entire community massively. In symbiotic silos, one person takes full responsibility to defend another individual who is alleged of some misconduct or infringements. Because they live a life of symbiotic relationship (interdependence), watching a threat intended for another person would also mean inviting suicide for them as well. That’s how the chain of corruption in our system grows. That’s also how moneyed and powerful wrongdoers in our society are never castigated or penalised.

Unless we transform this culture in our system, these silos will keep mushrooming. With common people in the lowest rung of the society or workplace having no authority to voice for change, complacent leaders who suffer from leadership crises will only nurture such menace immortally. The greater risk is that, as society grows immunity to this infection, it may ultimately blur and shun the collective vision of growth for the community in particular and the nation in general. At that time, humans will grieve from the pain of this man-made pandemic.