Witoubou Newmai
It may not be too off-tracking to comment that our society has just begun 2020 with the air of ambivalence—hope and a measure of uncertainty. It may also not be too much to ask whether we really believe we know best how we should respond to the prevailing situations. There is enough and more to the present transition of our society.
The nub of the discourse is also about retrospection to check whether we have required answers at hand amidst these many things which are fast gathering into menacing storms, as ‘things of the past’ continue to reverberate the ‘present’.
With this and since ‘things of the past’ have also so much to do with the ‘present’ we need to learn as much as we can about our track of the past in order to have a smoother journey.
Danish thinker, Soren Kierkegaard might have said that “life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards,” we are also of the opinion that how best we can live our lives in future is also determined by how well we can realize (understand) our experiences so that we do not make choices on convenience.
Given the intense restructuring of the social configuration as well as the state, our society can no longer afford to be frivolous in its response to the prevailing situation or else it is bound to metamorphose into something we are not.
With this, our society also needs to remind itself in repetition that shutting to the truth will open up to itself to more deceptions.
As commented in this space last year, our society needs ‘organic’ relationship with its ‘aspirations’. Unless truth is the basis, any movement will fail because oligarchies will continue to take decision on conveniences. This is also where how people jump to fit in the situations and circumstances rather than addressing them. We have also commented earlier that when a society 'de-links' itself from its core aspiration, that society will spawn more ‘soloists’ rather than making a peoples’ moment a ‘symphony’.
The whole discussion is an attempt to say that a healthy relationship between the people and their core aspiration will inspire the people themselves to be selfless and also shun the use of subterfuge.
As such, our society needs to kick off 2020 by being more willing to ask and examine intensely on what have been just discussed above. Such an exercise can also be considered as an act of re-orienting the society.
