FIT FOR FREEDOM Glory to the brave people who broke the yoke. Respecting law, virtue and honour. (Opening lines of the Venezuelan National Anthem). A human being without conscience is fit only to be a slave. (Kwame Nkrumah). Before going in permit me to say from the outset that I am writing about Trinidadians knowing full well that I am one of them. (And I am deliberately leaving Tobago out of this). However at the risk of sounding judgmental and getting on a moral high horse I believe there are certain things that need to be said. Because as a people in this dark period it does seem that we want to be slaves. Now I do not want to be interpreted in my remarks as saying that all or even most Trinidadians are (what is termed) corrupt. That determination is none of my business. But as a philosopher I do see it as my business to as it were map the patterns that define. And this pattern (for want of a better word) of corruption does appear to profoundly define us as a people. In saying “profoundly define” I am not casting moral aspersions but rather indicating the kind of patterns or processes in which we participate. That indeed constitute us. So before we start cussing politicians we need to realize that the real source of the problem is a lot closer to home. Permit me to engage one or two dimensions of these processes. First is an essential Trinidadianesque sensibility and outlook that, above the shouts and objections of many, I actually find in itself laudable. And it is revealed in our characteristic Trinidadian lawlessness. Now in the context of the discussion I am seeking to generate this admission appears shocking and self-contradictory. And I will further the contradiction by asserting that I believe that law is in itself a good thing. But which law? This is not even uniquely Trinidadian but is very much the story of our age. Law as weapon of the strong to oppress the masses of humanity. What is Trinidadian is the manner, owing to the apparent idiosyncrasies of history, in which such law or rather such violence came to be applied in a chaotic unstable fluid manner this in turn eliciting the identical response from the people. There is a book that was recommended to me by the late Lloyd Best that tells the tale, that explains how we got to be the way we are. It is V.S. Naipaul’s history of early colonial Trinidad The Loss of El Dorado. If Lloyd is right this story of violence, chaos, corruption, lawlessness and law that is even worse is our true originary myth and the perceptive reader will work her or his way through it with a deepening sense of disgust and alarm. If it were scripted for television it would make a vile and sick soap opera. But perhaps something like that ought to be attempted because it tells our story. But if the law is violence then lawlessness may be a good thing. And this is how our people engaged their reality in a fluid dance of violence and chaos that nevertheless opens up creative possibility. It is this our Carnival at its best reveals. But the vortex is a dangerous place to dance and if as has so often been the case we here lose our conscience then we are left with lawlessness for lawlessness sake, a pure nihilism of fete and bacchanal, our characteristic doh give a damn attitude… “all ah we tief…” a culture of corruption where the very distinction between good and bad is annihilated Thus do we embody the very ethos of our oppression. And here we are! Because at the end of the day it is not the place of history to give us an excuse for our condition rather it opens up the space where we ought to take responsibility for our freedom. As beings of conscience. Unless of course we prefer to be slaves. Now our time is characterized by a certain religious fundamentalism (Christian and otherwise) that is obsessed with law, with morals, with “values”. Here corruption is seen everywhere as committing bad actions. However I want to suggest that we define corruption even more fundamentally not as law-breaking but in terms of the actions that we ought to do. Corruption is hence our failure to engage. Here it is very significant that Venezuelan anthem puts law together with virtue and honor terms that define the texture-quality-substance of our positive actions not just what we don’t do. And perhaps such ethos may unfold in very specific real embodied ways. So when the oligarchs and imperialists sought once again to re-impose slavery on the people in the US backed coup of 2002 a mass of one million descended onto the streets of Caracas to defend their true democracy. These people it must be noted were not afraid to place their bodies in the path of bullets (remember this is Latin America). Now I am tempted to say that had these been Trinidadians faced with the return of tyranny we would have had a fete. Or do you think I am stereotyping? Of course here oppression and bondage never left. We are yet to break the yoke. I wonder why? Now let me be clear that I am not naively comparing Trinidad to Venezuela. We simply cannot be Venezuela even if we wanted to and we ought not to try. (And by the way Venezuela is far from perfect). True freedom means clearing our own path not following. But it behooves us to learn the lessons of others. And perhaps where better to start than with our closest neighbour? In this regard we are blessed. When I visited Venezuela this year I made it my business just to be among these people. I am not romanticizing them. I found them to be people just as we are. But they twice broke the yoke. Tonight’s lesson is virtue and honor. These speak to a positive quality of action, to a fundamental essence of being itself. Aristotle when defining virtue includes that virtue is how a virtuous human being acts. Virtue and honor define the essence of real community and I daresay genuine democracy. Politics is simply how we live. So when I suggest that what we have here is a culture of corruption I am not primarily questioning whether most of our people follow some moral or legal code I am asking what manner of people we are. In this country we love to talk about “love”. But love only materially exists as virtue and honor that defines us personally and as a people in terms of courage, focus, justice and wisdom. Let’s be honest, how far off are we? Here is the basis for genuine law. For it seems in this place even the law is corrupt and not worthy of respect. Virtue and honor unfold as conscience. Note the word, it is related to “consciousness”. This is the substance of our being in the world. It determines whether we are prepared to stand up and shoulder the responsibility of freedom in our actions. Or do we continue to subsist crawling on our bellies wallowing in a cesspool of gutless degeneracy. To permit things to be done to us. To be in other words – a slave. Without virtue and honor. I must confess that there is in this country a political party I profoundly detest. I won’t call its name as I am trying here not to be partisan. (And I am not one for controversy). But I continue to be shocked and amazed that people not only vote for this party but let this be known publicly. They call into radio programs singing its praises while the commentators conducting the chorus mindlessly join in and defend it. I am horrified. And most sickening and repulsive is that they not only wear its jerseys but they dress their offspring up in the same. Adorning their children in bondage. I kid thee not. But this is not about me. This is the nature of the ENTIRE political process that our people so joyfully support even as we complain. It is about the politicians we follow and fawn over seeking their benediction for our children. I kid thee not, we actually allow these characters to make physical contact offering our children to these false gods. And they say we don’t practice child sacrifice. But these politicians are not alien devils. They and the entire system they embody are born of our own heart of darkness. They are in essence no different from we are. THEY ARE US! So in conclusion I humbly suggest that before we start carrying on about these corrupt politicians or for that matter corrupts everything else in our society we first ask ourselves some very hard questions concerning virtue and honor. And conscience. I fully endorse the view that our ancestors were not slaves but were enslaved. The real and critical question is – Are we slaves? Do we plan to be slaves for ever? Is it not better to die free? It is only as we fight for it that we are fit for freedom. Burton Sankeralli July 25, 2013
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 21:39:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015