The Human Condition

Our human complexity and ability to change must mean another world is possible.  You would be horrified if you looked inside the human mind and realized how savage we can be and not bothered by our savagery. We can justify anything. Imagine having your own KIDS in slavery that you made by raping their mother. Your own flesh and blood. Ask what kind of monstrous mind does that. What social/religious factors must be malfunctioning to do that? It is shocking and disappointing how far a human being would go to protect their self-interest and project themselves as goodies.

I suspect, more often than not, when people are oppressed they go on to perpetuate oppression more than they go on to making the world a better place— Ta-Nehisi Coates

This is why I do not think much of humans. I am a misanthropist. There is nothing “special” about us out of the box. Some of us, a very few, become something greater. But under the right circumstances, you do not believe what we are capable of. Burning another human alive, chopping open a pregnant woman, feeding people to sharks

Not only the people who do it but those who stand by and allow it to be done and those who come 300 years later and try to cover up the crime. What crime? They ask you.

Someone suggested we have evolved. I understand what they are saying but here is my issue with that (if I can be brief). We have laws today that stop people from enslaving each other, we have laws that say you cannot lynch a brother traveling South, and you cannot rape pretty girls we see walking down the street.

“Every man is rich with excuses for his opinions and prejudices”— Ancient Egyptian Proverb

That is proof of legal evolution, we are the same monsters of old. You can read some of the venom in the comments on Quora and see that the only thing separating me from the racist noose of the White mob might be a law. The human being has not necessarily changed. So we are changing legally but not morally. And after the Jewish experience, humans learned to do it again in Rwanda, Gaza, Sudan, etc. After the Civil Rights, we learned to do it again with Muslim Americans and then Chinese with COVID-19. And look at who did it. Educated decent folks. Normal people. Good people. Retired Granddads who worked as Police.

People understand that speaking about certain things will isolate them from being in proximity to power and asabiyyah (social cohesion). That is driven, not by goodness, but an immorality. It has nothing to do with me, I am over here and I have my own problems but what did the famous WW2 poem say:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Muslims and I did not speak out because I am a Christian
Then they genocided the Palestinians but I was not Palestinian, so I said nothing.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. —Martin Niemöller (modified)

And our mistake is we put all of the crimes against humanity on people with White skin or European heritage. But what about Congo¹One of the most brutal places on Earth for human rights abuses. , what about Sudan, what about Ethiopia what about the culture of xenophobia inseparable from the Black South African way of life? Stories of hatred to fellow Africans all because they do not belong to local tribes. ¹ So as Coates says at some point we Africans will have power, and who will we be? I think I can answer that, and I am no Sangoma. The human condition tells us clearly without room for doubt that Black Power, like White power, will be no different in its intolerance, bigotry, and evil. The scars of Apartheid have not created more ubuntu in South Africa as a collective. Dr. Pandore, unfortunately, is not a representative of the moral compass of that Southern African country.

WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS

When the walking dead started the featured group were the good guys. They defined themselves as the good guys because of an attachment to their humanity. In short they retained their human dignity. That “good guy” identity was challenged, and their morality changed but they were still the good guys even when they started being no different from the evil they fought. At no point did they alter their self-image to keep up with their fading humanity.

It was not even 30 years ago, but just like the Jews, the memories are fresh and look at how quickly more than 1/2 of them surrendered their humanity to become the thing they hated. It is perplexing, unfathomable, mind-shattering. But that is the human condition. When you read some of the anti-immigration and anti-African posts from African Americans you would swear they were black Klansman. When you read the xenophobic hate from Black South Africans, Donald Trump is mild in comparison. These are Africans hating Africans with the exact same logic that created Apartheid. How does the obvious escape us? What have you learned from your sojourn in oppression? It is shocking the moral gymnastics humans would go to to defend a position. Race, class, and nationality are all irrelevant in this assessment. It just so happens that Whites had a monopoly on power and as a result, were more efficient at creating inequality. Tomorrow that might be us. We lack the same agency but our hatred runs just as hot.

It is amazing to see a fresh British citizen from Nigeria at a Tommy Robinson march agreeing that Britain has an immigration problem. That is the vulgar contradictory nature of human beings. Sunak, a double immigrant ³ discusses legal immigrants vs illegal immigrants. But he got here due to money, not merit. Pretty Patel and Braverman, all 1st generation British. The very black American who just got off talking about reparations and oppression is supporting a border wall and the “troops” invading Iraq. The same one who was celebrating how the world rallied for Floyd is confused about why “blacks” should support apartheid in Palestine. And in South Africa, you will find black South Africans who are happy with apartheid everywhere but in SA;As long as it is not them.

No oppression is complete until the oppressed have become the oppressors. —’Aik Shahadah

Do you see? We don’t change and we don’t learn. We are moral when it affects us, we are balanced when it favors our position. We have empathy for our “own,” however we define “our”. Our world is stable because our bellies are full. Pray to God/Allah/JHW that we don’t run out of water or we might just see the real finale of The Walking Dead in a previously peaceful good neighborhood near you:

1. Xenophiba against Miss South Africa[↩]
2. I am not sure why some insist on explaining it away when after 2 decades of serious contribution to African history I am here to tell you— deal with it, learn from it. It is what it is. We have always been active in our own destruction. Failing to process this means failure to fix this.[↩]
3. Indian to Africa and then Africa to the UK[↩]