Nothing is as it was three decades ago. In fact many things have so changed from moments ago. Some have metamorphosed from how they were just few moments ago. Change, as they say, is constant.
So, everything has changed. The sad thing is most of the changes – negative and positive; do not have their origination in Nigeria. Most of them happened elsewhere after which they were shipped down to us here. Most have also taken place here due to circumstances, good and bad. In Nigeria today, like everywhere else in the world, up is down and down is up.
The first time I heard of this illustration was in a movie series I watched while waiting for admission into higher institution in 2007; Boston Legal. I am always fascinated by lengthy on-screen stories popularly referred to ‘series’ or ‘season films.’ Boston Legal is about the shenanigans of lawyers in a particular law firm and the strategies they apply to win court cases. I have been thinking about that expression since as it has taught me about how things have turned on their heads. How logic has lost its lustre leading to lack of capacity for critical thinking among the populace.
Critical thinking, Francis Bacon says, is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture. True as this quote is, I sometimes shake my head in disbelief over the number of zombie population the world has created. The rationality of the world is what is at risk. Too many people are taking advantage of because of their lack of critical thinking, logic and deductive reasoning. These same people are raising another generation without these same skills and in turn, creating a whole new generation of utter cluelessness.
Basically, when a child is born, the first thing to think about as a parent is the type of education to give that child. Quality parenthood begins with thinking of the type of values and norms to inculcate in such young, impulsive and impressionable being. This is usually the beginning of this generation turn up into down and vice versa. Today, the ignorance of most is caused by the type of foundation that has been created for them by their caregivers. These people could not infuse in the young ones the ability to think rationally.
It is therefore tragedy that such persons want to birth an offspring to a world where the ridiculous; the absurd; the anomaly; the scornful; all constitute the new normal. Up is now down; thanks largely to the technology and new media that came with the turn of the millennium.
As has been documented in many literatures, improvement in technology has continued over the years before now but there is no denying the fact that the new millennium has taken the growth of technology to another level with the development being a regular occurrence. In fact, many new innovations would have been created globally before you finish reading this piece.
However, novel as these technologies are, they have also brought with them vices that have made it easy to manipulate the society – mentally and otherwise. Faking a life and object is now about the will, not knowhow. One can almost learn anything today if the will is there. Thanks to the avalanche of audiovisual instructional materials. Thanks also to the internet. In fact, even intelligences are being faked in the world of today and it has swiftly affected the pyramidal spin.
It is now about capacity to churn out chaffs and mocks and everyone buys them hook, line and sinker. The Society has become so used to cutting corners and making celebrities out of nonentities. It is a phenomenon that has made it easy for public manipulation because the people have been preoccupied with what ‘trends’ than the substance. Information are now being digested using emotive appeal than rationalisation. It is now about the physical aesthetics of the passer of the information, his creed and wording than informational fidelity.
Fraud pervades the earth surface. Everyone wants to cut corners for the purpose of pole positioning. People are feeding on the fake with so much gusto. It is like several of us have become lost in the prevailing confusion and unmitigated flood of unreal that have helped turn the tide, causing it to flow rather than down.
I doubt if there was any time the level of decadence and value substitution and aberration was ever this high anywhere in the world, talk less in Nigeria. One can steal and become famous; celebrated by all – including religious leaders, as long as they get to share from the spoils. In fact, they even organise ‘prayers’ and ‘wealth cleansing’ for such persons who they know came about their wealth through dubious and dodgy means without fretting. When they are not supposed to have condoned such persons, they turn blind eyes and partake in the ‘sharing.’
Sadly too, many mothers of today hardly ever ask their non–working daughters how they come about the gadgets they use and the new dresses they wear. In fact, some of the mothers even descend as low as borrowing monies from such daughters. The same thing applies to parents whose children engage of advance fee fraud; some of them rather praise their wards for being ‘smart’ despite being engaged in the illicit trade.
The list of how lack of logical thinking and value replacement with ineptitude and total subjugation of right for wrong abound every moment of every day.
– Ahmed Yabagi
