By three methods we may
learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation,
which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest – Socrates
I have sat back for a week now (and didn’t write much on my
blog) just to soak in the many jaundiced events fleecing around my ears, eyes
and all these entirely have sourly invading my brain.
Somewhere, deep inside, I
just hope I can open my eyes one morning and see something different, hear
something entirely sane and possibly have the utopia we all crave for deep
inside. But such wishful thinking is for lazy armchair observer of events; never
in my kitty because sadly, it is not to be. It is not to because it can’t be but
because anthropological and existential balance requires evil and good to be
ever present, and with nature making sure that good wins. Evil however has been
coated into same seed as good and so they share embodiment and personification;
or so they want us to believe.
The movie Maleficient
is a very good example of good and evil sharing same container and I laughed
when I saw it in the cinema sometime 2 weeks ago. If you haven’t seen the movie,
this is a cheap advertisement for the movie and the movie’s director who
roundly destroys the original sleeping beauty story. It is the new line of
thoughts where there is no clear dichotomy between good and evil. Gertrude Elizabeth
Margret Ascombe, a British Analytic Philosopher, is one of the pioneers of such
thoughts. Not to digress too much, my main thrust has to be the events in
Nigeria today.
I want to really know; why can’t we as a nation simply learn
by reflection? All we need do is assimilate what has happened in the past,
regurgitate when wisdom is needed and reflect on these things. If we have history to
look upon, learn from and never make the same mistakes others have made, why do
we still have history repeating itself over and over again?
Today, it is the story of the Boko Haram menace, tomorrow it
is that Doctors are striking and ASUU (tertiary institution teaching body) is
following suit. We, as a nation can’t find lasting solutions to challenges
rocking us mad into delirium and we keep learning by experience, which Socrates
states as the bitterest. Even my line
of thoughts seems not to be so straight because there is so much to talk about;
it is confusing to hold down one single line of thought.
If nothing at all, two things are pertinent to me in this
write up; Twisted Understanding of Leadership in Nigeria and Twisted understanding
of simply doing right in the world. Our actions or inactions will always be
reflective of what others do to us. More matured people have found a way to
never respond immediately when actions geared towards them are negative. You are
bound to make error in judgment and as such you must be punished. For example,
if some sect of people are angry that the government killed their radical
leader who slit the throats of infidels and because of this they are causing
havoc, it locates no moral standing anywhere that such people should be
forgiven, except they considered their ways as wrong at some point and decided
to change. There are consequences for such actions and the law must take its
full course.
Same goes for corrupt leaders that embezzle public funds to
stupendous propensity and hope to buy back integrity by doing few good in the
society; history has told us that vanity
upon vanity, all is vanity. Power intoxicates and absolute power intoxicates
absolutely. When we steal with such impunity because of the looseness of funds
in government coffers, we have started a foray for restlessness and nothingness
because the more you gather illegally the less you own legally. For every crime
of making what was meant to be public, private; thereby hindering societal growth,
development and increment and evenly distributed wealth among citizenry, such
infidel has only set in motion rat race for a barbaric society.
Freud states that (and I always try to avoid academia type of
articles so that I don’t bore you but this won’t be long, stay with me on this
*wink*) once the psychic apparatus of the human id and superego cannot be
resolved by the ego, then we can be rest assured that defensive mechanism will
set in. Corrupt leaders use the ill maxim that ‘everyone does it’ which is to
mean ‘every public office holder steals public funds’ to excuse their own aberration.
So they go into repression. Freud defines Repression as ‘unconscious mechanism
used by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming
conscious’. You know that stealing public fund is wrong yet somehow you can do
it comfortably because all moral inclines are being repressed. The next stage
by Freud is ‘Denial’ and according to him, ‘this is blocking external events
from awareness; refusing to experience hard truth’. This is what the leaders
do, not minding their conscience that keeps imploring them to stop being ‘brutal’
and allow their humanity shine through. It’s almost as if they have sold their
soul to the devil and their conscience has been seared by hot iron.
If a minister that’s supposed to buy medical appliances for
general hospitals siphons money into private pocket, and the minister that’s
suppose to repair roads and build bridges divert such funds into private
coffers, for private pleasures thereby allowing motorist drive through deplorable
roads, and this results to an accident, coupled with the hospitals that are
ill-equipped; if the citizens lose their lives in such state, what account
would such leaders give when the maker of life require of them?
Not to sound so existential at all, there’s really so much
nothingness in every wealth we intend to acquire, especially the ones we
acquire wrongly. Don’t let experience teach you this lessons, let inner
reflections be the norms that guides us all.
Shalom!
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