21/04/2021
First, my note of congratulations is passed on to the 2020 graduation class. I can narrow this down and pinpoint specific individual exemplary cases, but I do not want to lay bare my subjective preferences or lack of thereof in those I might choose to and not to congratulate. To the Moi University Communication Class 2020 in particular congratulations. It will be ignorant and selfish of me not to acknowledge the fete you’ve all scaled both on an individual capacity and as a class collectively. However late I am to do so, I openly do say that, I was neither pulling a Vladimir Putin move nor was I pulling a Trumpist move of not admitting to the inevitable and doing that of which is necessarily required of one. To my defence against the charge I might face from the above. I do submit that my late note comes not from the just listed options, but from a scenario whose defining forces and determinants I had not the ability to control nor were the inner linings of my pockets able enough to do me any justice to that particular end. So, I do take my leave on that.
Why am I here really?
Quite a number of models, theories and analogies have been thought out through the entirety of this year (If we can all agree to refer to it as so). Much has equally been said in 2020 by those who chose out of necessity, to substitute the much popular reactionary impulses that define and characterize today’s forms of discussions, with the sublime, but devalued utility of silent observation. Much so to a point that, if we were to publish every single thought that was formulated, every single interpretation that has been put out in relation to 2020, many will agree with me that we’ll be doing the publishing world a great deal of justice, but much more an “injustice”to a world that is already overloaded with great works of literature and a great wave of information, that sieving through the available contents has proved to be a global problem to many, characterized and demonstrated by; Post Truths, Alternative Truths, Fake News and equally a proliferation of Sensationalized Tabloid Media Streams. What a Pity!?
Mine though is not a submission to the existing pool of information that has already been generated, nor is it in category with any of the just listed groupings. A thought might have crossed my mind to name this“a preview of a year that happened” or something more pleasant to the human ear to be fair, but corruption was to be committed to the established and therefore it was equally dropped. So a ritual is the terminal end that will be served in this case. (Layers on this will be peeled off, but only if the reader’s need dictates so)
A general analysis is therefore given in which, an analogy on a superficial level is drawn with respect to 2020, as a (2020) far much deeper and useful analogy to one of the fundamental elements that define our very Being. Our characters at the individual level andits very opposite in an equal measure, expressed clear and magnified manifestations of the dark fortresses we have guarded and gilded away so strongly from the consciousness of the Being we so treasure. But of course, some might seek to discredit this observation by making reference to the individual and societal acts of humanity witnessed within this period of analysis. Good enough. Credit unto Caesar is given thereof, but a debt is incurred therein.( I will explain.)
One cannot, even when the barrels of optimism were to be pointed at him, accept as charity an act(s) which uses humanitarianism as a preservation of a profiteering situation and which does not meet the standards of authenticity and basic humanistic generosity. Surely, as the cliché goes,“a charity that chastens to proclaim its good deeds, ceases to be charity and is only pride and ostentation”.So, it will be ridiculous of anyone to contradictorily accept such kind of references. And as Paul Freire wittily noted; “Any pedagogy which begins with the egoistic interests of the oppressors (an egoism cloaked in the false generosity of paternalism) and makes of the oppressed, the objects of its humanitarianism, itself maintains and embodies oppression. It is an instrument of dehumanization.” There is no way therefore, no matter how hard one might try to explain it away, that there can exist within such a punishing and suffering period, a people in dire need of help for their survival depends on it, and on the opposite realm, a people who ingeniously, can sit down and craft up a model through and with which they will swiftly swindle and suck away the very donation and aid that is particularly set aside or generously given to absolve, alleviate, and cushion those in theunforgiving extremes of pain and suffering . What has become of us really?
However corrupted one’s morals might be, it doesn’t take much for one to realize that; there comes a time in the affairs of men when an act has to be classified to be either right or wrong. It’s in this case therefore necessary of me to say that, when one goes to the extreme lengths to creatively craft a plan with such a “dark ingenuity” to not only steal, but to also steal from those who need help the most. Such isan act thatcan only be equated to passing a death sentence to a fellow creature. To such a degree, such an act is extremely WRONG at best and absolutely EVIL at its worst. Both do fit perfectly in this case, for dehumanization of one by the other is an act that cannot be euphemized.
We’ve managed for years and years to deceive ourselves with a blind form of optimism about the goodness of our nature (This year has proved this to be solidly true, much so in an exemplary and magnified version). It isto many, a case of lunacy and an act of clinical insanity for one to claim that, it is within our very nature as beings notto be wholly virtuous, selfless, and good human beings. And therefore as a result,for convenience purposes we assume the fragmented individuality in the Jungian sense. We have artfully inculcated the culture of instinctively resisting time and time again the ways that will lead us through obscurity and darkness. We only wish as Jung alludes, to hear only of unequivocal results, and forget that these results can only be brought about when we have ventured into and emerged again from the very darkness we revere.
What I’ve picked out of this year (One out of) is the very simple fundamental Jungian fact that, we are out of necessity a “shadowed” race. We do harbor within our very being, selfish, destructive, amoral and immoral impulses and capacities. However, due to the primitive religious interpretations, illusory sanctimonious claims, believes drilled into the heads of religious fundamentalists, and the disturbing nature of this dark force that lurks deep within the dungeons we’ve so enclosed it in, we are yet to gaze into and realize this part of ourselves which we have not hitherto seen or preferred not to see. But hope is offered, a way out is presented and it is upto us to execute it out. Jung says; “We may all need to become the exorcists of our innermost demons”. (Reference is made to; The Concept of The Shadow)
Amnesty is all there is, as noted by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. People needed hope this year and hope is what was given. And as I close this, I will also try to give hope as we move to 2021. This will not be in my words but in the words out of the Great works of Eastern literature in history -Tao Te Ching. As we move towards 2021, I call upon anyone who has managed to follow this far to consider these words with the intensity and care they so deserve.
“That which offers no resistance, overcomes the hardest substance. That which offers no resistance can enter where there is no space. Few in the world can comprehend the teaching without words, or understand the value of non-action.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 43.
Happy 2021.From me, all I can say is; I wish you all the very best as you pursue the course of action that might help you achieve results you desire in relation to the analysis I have just laid out.
Much with the “Free Floating Hostility”, here is something that brought me here really. A ritual was mentioned there above I believe. (Simply put, how I got through 2020)
The “magic” book list of 2020 (Standing separate from but in connection with the 10/10 list that I listed early this year)
The Ego and His Own – Max Stirner
Notes from the Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Pedagogy of the Oppressed – Paul Freire
Gulag Archipelago – Aleksandr I Solzhenitsyn
The Shallows (What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains) – Nicholas Carr
Where Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
The playlist that defined my 2020
Glass House – MGK ft Naomi Wild
Affection – Ci******es after s*x
Birdy& Rhodes – Let it all go
WHY – NF
Simple Man – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Butterfly Effect – Before You Exit
Programmes/ Shows& Documentaries
Goggle and the World Brain -(Documentary)
Vladimir Putin Interviews - (Documentary)
Making a Murderer - (Documentary)
Inside the Criminal’s Mind - (Documentary)
The Crown
Outlander
Central and nagging questions (Questions raised with the intention of furthering an ongoing dialogue, and an attempt to establish a point of departure that will make an attempt to solve the ambiguities that underlie the actions we act out in theory and practice.)
Whose fault is it or will it be for how people or events turn out in life?
How much of a fault is it for one who can’t understand, (for some reason(s) beyond their control) that of which is not given to mankind to fathom?
To what depths of humility can poverty reduce a man to? (And as a follow up) How is one to contend with and settle out the contradictions that underlie the essence of the suffering nature of human life?
If we are out of necessity, required to have to have the ability to question the value of our being and even being itself, with our primary intention being the genuine bettering of Being, how then are we to achieve this by use of the established without doing away with it? ( From a book not listed there above)
If we’re going to genuinely dispute the existence of a higher sphere of human life, (at least on the basis of definitions on the part of literate circles) how then are we to explain or puzzle out the human feelings of ecstasy, our base proclivity towards the belief in humanity and our harmonization of the elements that define the spring of human life as a whole?
As a human race, we’ve managed to bring to plausible levels the view of Man as a machine in the era of the computer. To this very end, what human qualities are we willing to sacrifice for us to achieve machine-like capabilities, and how are we to contend with the paradox that’s betwixt the awe-inspiring advance of knowledge in this age and the unparalleled magnitude and complexity of challenges we face, which defy solution by the existing knowledge?
AGAIN, HAVE A GREAT YEAR AHEAD.
