OUR NEW REALITY - BY PAUL INYANG

 Paul Inyang, USA

There are things that we hold to be true. For instance, the world is round. We may fall off a mountain but it will not be because the world was... flat. It is so for a reason, and science has found ways to explain it. So it is with many mysterious things. What can destroy a man is not the things that are true but trying to bend the truth. It used to be that when we told a lie or did something wrong—if we were caught—we usually would own up to it. If not, then our conscience would sort of punish us. But that was when there were not different shades of truth. Black is not the color of lies any more. There are many shades, ash, grayish black, etc.

So we have built immunity for what may be wrong. A racist is no more a racist—they have racial tendencies which does not necessarily make them bad people—they simply love to look out for their own. Same for ethnic bigots. Our truths can now be tailored to our own preferred audience and slant. If we cannot explain it well, then our surrogates do so. Hatred is now replaced with dislike—it’s supposed to sound softer and have lesser shock value.  Fascism can now be explained away as arrogance run amuck, for it is now cloaked in opulence—we love a winner and success stories. So we see "bad" and call it "not-so-good". The way we were, has become a metaphor for keeping them down and synonymous with the way things were in the past. Yes, we will make things great again by going back to the old world order or is it the New World order. The implication being, we can hide behind all the new descriptives. It hides us from our deep dark hearts and mind that has lost its bearing. I thought we had overcome with a new realism. Did many of us not sing “we have/shall overcome”.

We collectively, have stopped fighting for what is right because of all the "explainables" and half-truths. Our conscience survives any assault from the truth because it is confused by our greed and contaminated-cesspool of deviant perspectives. Yet we have God-given examples that point us in the right direction. They may not have been perfect but they strove to do the right thing and like John the Baptist—were voices in the wilderness. Hitler, Mussolini, Idi Amin and all despots as well as all genocides were borne of this thinking—when we are stupid enough to believe we are better than our fellow man. In my profession, delusion cannot be defined any better. People like us who thought nothing of it—minimized, ignored and accepted the indefensible. We are all watching it happen and it will be our cross to bear, if we repeatedly let the darkness of history to come true again…! We owe it to ourselves, no matter what part of the world you belong to stop this madness. If you have never voted, find a way to do so. If you need information just ask me!

My father taught me not to be afraid of anything; so his cause continues. Forgive me if I have invented some words here—English is my second language. Stop and help someone to help themselves. Arggggg!