Witoubou Newmai
A problem in a society can be just another problem as long as it is a mistake or misadventure. But the danger begins when people start “rationalising their mistakes” and motives. Once people are convinced by rationalisation of mistakes and motives, a society is put in a high-octane adverse situation. This is what a society experiences when it misses to read and understand together that there are 'others' out there consistently working for their visions to prevail.
Yuval Noah Harari alerts us to be aware of the “fascist mirror”. He says that one looks far more beautiful than one really is in the “fascist mirror”.
Here, it may not be necessarily the fascists per se. One just needs to have fuller studies on enticing ideas and policies which emanate from power structures designed by powers that be.
If one is to extrapolate and elucidate what Harari wants us to do, it can be all about to be very careful of the structures from which solution(s) to one's problems will come. Gerald Taiaiake Alfred also talks about structured relationships which are beautiful and enticing that people want to go for it. They are structured in such a way that they “make us forget” the fundamentals (reflecting Taiaiake).
One common problem is about the powers that be defining issues or problems in their own conveniences and interests. The bigger problem is about the mistake of people accepting what has been defined and “conceptualised in policies” by powers that be.
'Solutions' are already designed long before they are out there. In other words, 'solutions' are being designed in the time when problems are being defined. If this is not to be the case then what motivates the powers that be to burn their midnight oil to define problems? The frames of references and approaches of the powers that be are the key indicators if one is to confirm about this.
Since there is already a structural-functional approach favouring the one who makes efforts to define problems, the 'solution' is just like that. This connotation is that, the ending will fail to take note of the fundamentals. This is because, it goes without saying, the whole structured paradigm owes so much to the intellectual commitment of the one who does the defining and structuring.
But there is one more lapse, another deliberate one of course, and that is: the structuring of relationships is too seductive that one will fail to recognize the signs of time.
At this point of time, one needs to learn from Noah Harari.
The Israeli public intellectual advises that “getting to know our own weaknesses will help us to avoid the trap of the fascist mirror”, which he termed as ‘seduction.’ He says that “if somebody puts a mirror in front of your eyes that hides all your ugly bits and makes you see yourself as far more beautiful and far more important than you really are, just break that mirror”.
It is important enough to note that the main problem of any society will be about its inability to take the right mirror. Moving away from that false mirror is one way of shoving through one's way out to reality.
A display of magnanimity among us, which is extremely crucial for progress, is urgently needed now. But as long as one knows oneself through that false mirror, that person's response will continue to be skewed. Furthermore, when one does not see one real self, that person cannot expect what is real. Someone or something who/that is not real is a mistake. But in trying to sustain, such people will rationalise the wrongs. The burden of our society is the manifestations of such people.
(This editorial is inspired by Gerald Taiaiake Alfred and other activists)
