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Hitherto, I had a dismissive attitude towards African Americans. I saw them as cowards. Why? I believed that they were so afraid of dying and wanted to live so badly that they permitted white folks to enslave them. It seemed to me that if they were real men, men who were not afraid of dying, that they would have fought for their personal liberties and, if need be, preferred death to living as slaves, and in the present as second class citizens in America.
But the more I think about the issue the more I realize that all of us are really doing what African Americans did hence one should not have contempt for them.
White Americans would seem like free men but are they? I have lived in America. The white Americans that I see are total cowards. They fit themselves into their oppressive society and do not complain about it. Their society is like a hierarchical military set up, wit a few leaders at the top and the masses at the bottom. The leaders aren't free men, either; they have to make sure that they abide by the ethos of the slave society they lead. White Americans are the most emasculated human beings there are on earth; they conform to their oppressive society without questioning it, just so that they have jobs and be able to feed themselves and live. If they were free men they would fight for freedom for all in their society.
How about contemporary Africans who come to America, are they free men? When they get here, they, too, fit themselves right in, into America's slavish society. They occupy the second class role that white society designed and assigned to blacks in American society. They are shunted into menial jobs and do them. They may chaff among themselves but seldom actively do something to change their situation. They enjoy the few civil rights that black Americans fought for but, by and large, do not fight for those rights by themselves.
I have not lived in Europe and cannot speak about Europeans. But one assumes that they, too, acquiesce to the rule of their oppressive leaders. In the past, they feared and obeyed their abusive kings. They must be slavish in their behavior? At any rate, the Europeans that come to America conform to the slavish society that I know as America, they are seldom courageous persons who rock the boat of injustice that is called America.
It is correct to assert that most human beings acquiesce to unjust social set ups, where a few oppress the many. It seems most people are slaves. Why so?
THE EGO AND HUMAN TENDENCY TO TOLERATION OF ABUSE
I think that most of us tolerate slavery and social abuses because we identified with the ego, false self.
The ego is the separated self housed in bodies. Bodies are weak and vulnerable. Bodies can be hurt and eventually will die. Those who identify with body must, therefore, anticipate harm to their bodies and live in fear of harm and death.
Fearing harm and death and wishing to live forever, people who identify with egos/bodies tend to go along with whoever threatens to harm and or kill them.
The ego, while living in fear, nevertheless, desires power; it has ego ideals and wants to actualize them. It begs for opportunity to live, hoping that it would have the ability and time to actualize its ego ideals, and in the process become powerful.
Consider me, for example. Upon getting to America, I quickly appraised that white Americans are uncivilized brutes, slavers and discriminators. I developed total contempt for them. I did not want any thing to do with them. I tuned them out. But I had ego ideals. I hoped to realize my ego ideals, to eventually bring about the type of society that I liked. In the meantime, I tolerated the white controlled society, the abusive and oppressive American society. I did not do anything to change the oppressive American society that I lived in. I, in effect, condoned America's abusiveness. I permitted myself to live as a second class citizen in America. I permitted myself to be enslaved by the enslaving white society. I am, in effect, not as courageous as I had imagined myself to be.
I used to believe that I would sooner die than tolerate slavery, as black Americans did. Now I know that I am as cowardly as black Americans seem to be. What this means is that I must learn to respect them rather than dismiss them as cowards that ought not to be listened to. I tended to want to listen to only men who are courageous, who are willing to die for what they believed to be right, men who would not permit other men to enslave them.
CONCLUSION
It seems that as long as human beings are separated from their spirit nature and live in bodies, and struggle to protect their separated selves housed in bodies, bodies they know are weak and vulnerable; they would fear harm and death. They would fear those who are able to harm and or kill them. As long as human beings wish to live as separated selves housed in bodies they must be amenable to social oppression. People set up governments to protect them from each others attack. Governments realizing that people are fearful turn around and oppress them. Governments must be abusive. Slavery and acceptance of second class social status seem an inherent part of the human condition.
Only the few who are ready to die, at any moment, can become truly free men; those who look soldiers pointing guns at them and say: go ahead, shoot and kill me, for if I must live, I must live only as a free man, are capable of living as free men.
I estimate that less than one percent of the human population, worldwide, has the courage to insist on liberty or death. I estimate that less than one percent of the human population is freemen. The rest of them are slaves and or second class citizens.
Ozodi Thomas Osuji
Ozodi@africainstituteseattle.org
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ONE REALIZES THAT ONE CANNOT ACTUALIZE ONES EGO IDEALS? THE NEED FOR REPLACEMENT GOALS FOR LIVING
Ozodi Thomas Osuji
My father and grandfather were idealists. They had grand plans of how to improve themselves, improve other people and improve their world. Their minds came up with all sorts of ideals of how they and their world ought to become perfect. I am like them, I am also an idealist; my thinking, mind, is forever coming up with plans to make human beings and their social institutions perfect.
I observed my father in his middle age. When he was fifty five years old, it became apparent that he was getting old and that his grandiose ideals were not going to be realized. He despaired and gave up on his plans. From that age onwards, it was evident to me that father was a discouraged man and that he had no more hope of realizing his dreams. He became a shell of his former idealistic self. For a while, though, he tried to vicariously realize his dreams through his children. He talked and talked about how we needed to be outstanding and achieve this or that. But reality is different; none of his children had the aptitude or interest in doing what he wanted us to do. For example, he wanted us to go into politics and try to become leaders of the country. But I was not interested in politics. What interested me was studying why people behaved as they behaved. None of father's children undertook to realize his neurotic goals, that is, false, idealistic goals. Father felt disappointed and became one unhappy man in his old age.
Clearly, father's neurotic motivations, his quest for power and glory were what kept him going. As a young man he tried to accomplish a lot. After elementary schooling, he was assigned to a trader. His master took him to all over West Africa, teaching him the art of trading. He eventually becomes an independent trader. As I understand it, he made quite a bit of money, too. He did for his folks what in his world was considered an achievement: buy bicycles for them, buy wives for them and bring them to the urban setting, housed and fed them. He was responsible for bringing his fellow villagers to Lagos.
Father had high hopes for himself but by the 1970s, when he was a middle aged man, it was obvious that he was not going to realize his ambitions. Now what? He gave up. In the 1980s, he returned to his village, a broken man.
When one recognizes that ones goals, what gave one motivation to struggle for achievement, is not going to be realized and that even if they were realized that they are not satisfying, what should one do?
I believe that the person should strive to have replacement goals and substitute purposes to live for.
What is that different purpose to live for?
When the ego's neurotic purpose (for superiority and idealism) is given up, one need to replace it with a different purpose: one should live for God's purpose for his children.
God wills that we love him and love one another. To serve God's will is to serve God and all human beings. One must learn to love all people and work for a world of love.
In real terms, as brother Jesus said, love means forgiving all human beings what they did on earth to hurt one another. One must practice forgiveness and love.
Forgiveness, love and social service are the replacement goals that one must have. Forgiveness, love and service to all people give one inner peace and give society peace and harmony.
In terms of profession in the world, of course, one must do what one has aptitude and interest in doing, but one must redirect the purpose of that profession for one. If one had sought the vocation to seem socially important, one must now use it as a means of helping other people. One must use ones vocation to point people towards God, forgiveness and love. For example, I understand secular psychology. I can now use that understanding to point out the pain and suffering inducing nature of the ego and the need for spiritual psychology, a psychology that practices love for all people.
Ozodi Thomas Osuji
Ozodi@africainstituteseattle.org
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Posted by Robot| 25.11.2005 19:40