Prof. Ajayi:

I like what you said about one experiencing epiphany and henceforth accepting real politics rather than yearning for idealistic politics. The immature and unrealistic yearn for ideals while the mature and realistic accept the realities on the ground. They say that a man becomes an adult the day he accepts the real world and that he is a mere child for as long as he wishes for ideals, for fantasy, for human beings to be angelic.

Idealism or the desire for perfection is a misguided waste of time. See, what constitutes perfection is always shifting; as soon as you meet your prior idea of perfection it changes and different ideas of perfection enter your mind and you embark on pursuing them. The goalpost of perfection is always shifting meaning that it is a chimera. Plato (Republic) was wrong; there is no such thing as ideal archetypes in nature. Ideals are man made; they are products of wishful thinking and never come to fruition.

To judge real peoples behaviors with the standards of imaginary ideals is the utmost irrational behavior. One should only judge the real with the real. Judge corrupt people with corrupt people’s standards but never with the yardsticks of non-corrupt people for, as the distinguished discover of cure for Ebola, Professor Maurice Iwu reminds us, there are no perfect elections anywhere on earth.

I have given the recent election in Nigeria some thinking. Clearly, it was flawed. But the more I think about it the more it is clear to me that all over the world elections are also flawed. More importantly, those in politics and governance are not exactly angels.

For example, no one in his right mind would call George Bush and his assists’ good human beings. See, they could care less that there are over 45 million uninsured (health) Americans and yet they are spending billions of dollars at a war of choice in Iraq . A fraction of that money would provide all Americans with health Insurance. Moreover, a fraction of the money they spend on Defense could provide all Americans with education, through university level, (I believe that education, from Kindergarten to University, preferably in his sciences, and health insurance is a human right and that all people are entitled to it).

The point is that governments all over the world are not angels. If so, one has come to the conclusion that there is no reason why Nigerian governments should be an exception. If the incoming YarAdua administration does some good, that is fine with me, but I do not expect to have angels in government in Nigeria or anywhere else.

Actually, if I put on my philosophical hat, and I am a philosopher, a rational thinker, it would not be too difficult for me to rationalize human evil. See, Adolf Hitler chose and killed over 50 million people and God did not stop him. Joseph Stalin chose and killed over 35 million people and God did not stop him. White racists decided to abuse Africans and enslaved them for three hundred years and in the present discriminate against them and God did not prevent them. (If so, why shouldn’t Nigerian leaders kill poor Nigerians by ignoring their plight; indeed, why not send the soldier boys, the paid goons squad, to go put them out of their misery?)

The conclusion of this syllogism is that if God does not intervene to make sure that there is justice on earth, why should one expect human beings to be just? If the alleged all powerful creator of this world allows his children to be abused why would his weak children do better?

If it is fine by God that there is suffering in this world then it is fine with one that there is suffering in the world.

To not accept suffering in this world is to be idealistic, that is, to be unrealistic, and to be a bleeding hearted liberal who is living in the clouds and not in the real world.

In the real world the powerful abuse the weak and that is all there is to it. To expect justice in human affairs is to be sentimental. To expect human equality and justice is idealism.

In idealism one uses ones imagination to construct mental models of how people and their social institutions ought to become. Mental constructs are not real; in the real world the nature of the environment, the realities of space, time and matter make sure that every thing is imperfect.

Perfection is of the mind, is ideational and imaginary and not of the real world. To expect perfection in the real world is to live in fantasy land.

Those who expect perfection are often deluded. As you know, delusion is one arm of psychosis, the other arm is hallucinations; Jean Jacques Rousseau was considered deluded, paranoid, because he insisted on ideal society; remember the opening sentence of his epochal book, Social Contract: Man is born free and everywhere in chains! His goal was to return us to freedom, to the noble savage condition…he imagined that American Indians, his idea of noble savages, were free and roamed the prairies at will; poor fella, he did not know that the American Indians he was celebrating were busy chopping each others heads off, and scalping the hairs from cut off heads and using the hairs to decorate their wigwams; man is an interesting phenomenon, I tell you.

In this light one grinds ones teeth and accepts earthly realism as it is without misguided sentimentalism. In other words one can be as realistic as any one is. Idealism is just escape into fantasy land.

From this perspective one understands your stance, your ready acceptance of the rigged election in Nigeria ; you are being realistic in your politics. Good for you, I say.

Who said that we should expect anything but realism in this world? All evidence indicates that the bold and evil (evil is a concept, is conceptual and not self existent; what one man considers evil another does not; predatory animals do eat people, only yesterday twenty Haitians trying to escape from the grinding poverty of a black governed country, fell into the ocean as their rickety boat collapsed and their bodies were eaten by a school of sharks) get far in this world and that the idealistic go nowhere.

I can accept the cynicism that pervades Nigeria ’s politics, the Machiavellian rulers’ ready rationalization of their mischief, their tendency to say that whatever people say that they are doing wrong is done wrong all over the world hence they should not feel guilty, ashamed or bad. No sir, they should go drink and be merry for man is who he is: ego (euphemism for Satan) and no good can be expected from him.

It is truly amazing how the black man exhibits mostly the worst of human traits but seldom its best. Can any one show me an idealistic black man who is transcending his little ego and dedicating his life to serving the public, any where in the world? Why is it that a race can only be characterized by what is evil in human nature but by what is seldom good?

Let the rich African only care for their family members but never for their fellow Africans. Let African governments do nothing for the mass of suffering Africans. Let them only specialize in transferring their national treasury into their personal pockets. What else is new? What can you expect from a people that sold their brothers into slavery and did not feel ashamed of their behavior?

(And one hopes that when their economies collapse, as eventually they must, as it has collapsed in Zimbabwe that the West overlooks them and that bleeding hearted Western liberals do not go begging for money to be given to starving Africans, money that their leaders would “naturally” chop. We must leave them to sleep on the beds they made; no more sympathy and misguided compassion for them. Even if they all die out, such is evolution. Didn’t Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer tell us that in nature the fittest survive and the most foolish die out?)

Let the party continue. I have had my last cry for the black man and for Africa . Why should I care that Africans are living in hell? Sentimentalism and or idealism? Give me a break. I must put on my real politics hat and accept the fact that the powerful steal elections and proceed to transfer their nation’s wealth to their private pockets. So, let the Yaradua joint begin the expected stealing!

My dear Dr Ajayi, you are free to consider this piece as either political realism or political satire. I must, however, assure you that while I understand the purpose of cynicism, it protects folks from despair, I am deadly earnest. Finally, please do remember that character is shown in how the individual responds to crisis situations: whether he runs away or stays and seeks ways to improve the situation. Should we run to the West and from her luxury criticize Nigeria or should we stay in Nigeria and do our bit to improve her? Should we give up on Nigeria just because of her legendary corrupt politics? Should we take the line of least resistance and join the thieving crowd or do something about the situation?

Ozodi Thomas Osuji

May 5, 2007

Dr Osuji can be reached at: ozodiosuji@gmail.com 

Robot  Villager

# 1 var sbtitle3131=encodeURIComponent(Idealism Ve...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 05.05.2007 20:48

Nok  Villager

# 2 Isn't the writer of the article putting things in too neat academic categorisations and ending up like he is delivering an already prepared lecture, such that things MUST be one way or another? I think that progressive human societies generally gravitate to their idea of perfection or positive idealism. Of course nothing ever becomes "perfect" as such, but you have to be brave and intelligent enough to define your ideal situation and strive after it. I agree that some forms of idealism are very clearly childish (such as expecting high standards of moral behaviour from politicians anywhere in the world, in the absence of checks and balances to their excesses), but that is a reflection of the intellectual depth of the individual who is espousing the idealism, and not a disqualification of the idea of idealism. Martin Luther King strove after an idealism and that's why many of us live comfortably in america today. Zik and others pursued an idealism and got Nigerians out of colonialism. The idea of national economic self-sufficiency is an idealism which drives industrial development. Efficiency, and competency at different levels of national governmental administration is an idealism. That one skin colour is superior to another is an idealism. Let's look at idealism as a purpose or standard, and not as an unrealistic or unattainable situation. It is only human to idealise. The big problem with Africans today is that they are too mentally defeated to idealise, at least about the relevant issues. Posted by Nok| 06.05.2007 11:24

Amy  Villager

# 3 I found the author’s piece very stimulating- a well written political satire, no doubt. However, reproducing actual statements made by the Prof. Ajayi that his entire piece was directed at would have enriched his write-up as well as helped his readers decipher between Ajayi’s held position and the writer’s personal interpretation of Ajayi’s stated position. In a board sense, however, I find every attempt by ‘cash and carry’ revisionists to justify the massive fraud that passed for an election recently in Nigeria on the grounds that there are no flawless elections anywhere in the world rather disgusting and disingenuous, to say the very least. It is even worse when they attempt to peddle their outlandish propaganda by providing illogical philosophical basis for their irreverent methods. This is the kind of empty intellectualism that the intellectual community in Nigeria often succumbs to- thanks to the dire economic condition in the nation. Some of our intellectuals are unwittingly selling their souls to escape from poverty at all cost. For any professor to glibly talk about “one experiencing epiphany and henceforth accepting real politics rather than yearning for idealistic politics" is a tragedy - the height of intellectual mischief, to say the least. Furthermore to suggest that “The immature and unrealistic yearn for ideals while the mature and realistic accept the realities on the ground” is another bogus logic that holds little water in decent society, talk less in the company of philosophical minds. As Nok eloquently proffered and I agree, history of human civilization shows that the pursuit of the ‘ideal’ in every area of human experience is what every generation gravitates towards and it is the same that we owe every worthy progression in history to. I will add that it is the same pursuit of the ideal that creates the dramatic tension between the past and the desired future we dream of creating for ourselves and future generations. Indeed, it can be said that it is the notion of attaining the ideal, whether in politics, economics or education, that marks the difference between hope and despair. Take the hope of attaining an ideal from the human heart and despair creeps in to cause its damage. It is unpatriotic and unreasonable to pass the level of unprecedented rigging that transpired last month as what defines real politics in Nigeria and as such, all must back off and accept the fabricated results as the unchangeable laws of Medes and Persia. Adopting such reasoning is tantamount to nailing the coffin of our beloved nation only 47 years after its birth. Prof. Ajayi should have taken from his many years of training that the only permanent phenomenon in nature is change. We as a nation have come full circle with the charlatans that dominant our political field and can no longer adjust to every injustice meted out to us like hopeless beings. If we lose this unique opportunity to transgress the status quo and pointedly challenge the illegitimate lot that usurped the people’s right to choose their leaders on all levels, we may have succeeded in creating a new reality for ourselves and our children where the absurd, unthinkable and inhumane becomes our new normalcy- after all, flawless elections are idealistic notions that do not exist in the real world… oh please! There was nothing real or ordinary about the last election in Nigeria that should warrant all the bogus comparisons that ‘cash and carry’ analysts are attempting to spin by juxtaposing the massive fraud Nigerians witnessed with other nations that have every semblance of normalcy in the way and manner in which they conduct their elections. Why don’t we at least close the gap between us and other nations before philosophizing on the universality of electoral imperfections or engaging in long diatribes on the reasonableness of realism over idealism? In my humble opinion, any casual inquirer can easily tell that is it the intersection between the two theories- idealism and realism that result in praxis of sorts. In other words, it eventually boils down to how individuals are able to arm themselves with the necessary theoretical framework (perhaps a fusion of ideas) and then through hard work, passion and actions, insert themselves in the process of change. The days of alienating trivialities in trying to articulate which philosophical worldview is superior to others is over. Idealism and realism as theoretical frameworks both have their strengths and weaknesses, therefore, it is left to the individual that is poised to contest injustice to take from each position what is beneficial to his cause and get with the real thing- contestation. I hope the disenfranchised political aspirants will not relent in their efforts to make the whole place as ungovernable as possible until these usurpers crave in to pressure and allow legitimate processes to prevail in the nation. Let the law suits, civil disobedience and intense pressure of all legitimate forms continue unabated until this senseless injustice of unprecedented proportions is redressed. In the end, the said professor Ajayi’s advocacy of uncritical acceptance of an illegitimate government is, in my books as criminal as the actual rigging of elections in that it has all the trappings of manipulating the masses and the impressionable into accepting the myth and fatalistic logic that the realities on the ground (real politics as he puts it) are somehow unchangeable and inevitable. In the face of the precipice that Nigeria is gradually verging unto at this crucial time in our nation’s history, nothing can be more damaging to our collective consciousness and resolve to be authors of our own histories than a well packaged piece of garbage aimed at inducing us to inaction and cynicism. Later o. Posted by Amy| 06.05.2007 14:36