Skip to main content

Democracy 1-0 Intellectualism

Reacting to the result of the most recent referendum in Britain where they have voted to leave the European Union, I'd like to point out a positive lesson that is being ignored in the wake of the development. I am talking about the sheer honesty of democracy, albeit working against apparently superior reasoning. It is yet another example of how democracy takes power from the so called superior minority and places it in the palms of the vast and mostly ignorant majority, to do with it as they will. The people have spoken and history has been made. Whether it will be for better or worse is only a question of time.

This brings me to the issue that is weighing on my mind today. The right to Self determination is one of the core liberties of the individual as well as the society at large. If a person or people have that right taken away from them either blatantly or via proxy, such a person or people are automatically robbed of the imagination and courage required to develop themselves. In Africa, what we have in operation is a hybrid of pseudo as well as outright disenfranchisement. Consider Nigeria, Britain's erstwhile cash cow and the most populous black nation on earth. Here, institutions are no more than mere representations and relics of past and present elements of external control. Where access to quality education and government are strictly the prerogative of the rich who account for less than 5 percent of the population and for whose sole profit resources are distributed, to the mutual benefit of the external powers who dictate the tune at the very highest levels. Further down the spectrum of socio-political inequality we have the majority who mostly live in stark ignorance and fear.

Intellectuals and political critics in the western world like to lament about how the political elite employ all manners of underhanded tactics and ploys to manipulate their public into foregoing some of their rights. I laugh because the situation we have here is that the masses are practically dead to the fact that they posses these rights to begin with. What this does is to foster a truly cut throat,  jungle atmosphere where the strong conquer to rule whereas the weak wither and die, while the soul of equality is reposed in the degree of mass corruption across board.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sabali!!

The most rampant phenomenon in this fast paced world we live in today, is the absolute lack of patience in most people. It is in everything, some of us are too impatient for traffic so we drive way too fast, we are too impatient to eat healthy so we prefer instant noodles, we are heading to the future so damn fast, we don't care what composites our present. I am a typical example of this madness but lately, I have been learning about patience. It is a wonderful feeling to not be in a hurry, the problem is that we have somehow managed to convince ourselves that the only way to be successful or happy is by doing it first! It is a scam. Life teaches us, along with time that a true sense of fulfilment does not depend on the when but the what and the how well. As a victim of the Nigerian tertiary education system, I know firsthand what it feels like to not be in control of one's own progress at a certain time in life. I spent the greater part of the last two years at home because of...
Post a Comment
Read more

3005

How long till the future? Like most people, I am scared of the future and what it holds for me. I came to the realisation today that I am more worried about my "future" than about anything else, even death. I think modern day man has found a way to circumvent that bit of worry. Isn't it odd that we stay worrying about a time we are not certain to see? while trying so hard to ignore the cold fact of life which is that at some point between now and some distant "future" we are all going to die.  The subject of death is a very touchy one, nobody wants to dwell on the thought of the most unavoidable stage in all our lives, because it'll just bring everyone down and what's the sense in that right? It is totally out of our control so leave it alone. But I find that coming face to face with that bit of reality goes a long way in putting life into perspective if one is in need of that. Death makes us think about an even more important subject that we tend to be ...
Post a Comment
Read more