The Trouble With Amen By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo

Columnist: Correct Me If I Am Right By Rudolf Okonkwo
I spent America's Independence Day holiday in and around Paul Revere's
hometown. Paul Revere became an American hero for taking a ride across
New England to warn American militiathat the British were coming to
attackpatriots fighting for America's Independence.
During the July 4th holiday, while scrolling down my Facebook page one
morning, I came across a typical status update by a reverend
gentleman. This friend of mine said a prayer for us, his friends. In
it he stated that our success was on the way and that it would be as
easy as sunshine emanating from the sun andas effortless as the river
flowing downthe banks. As usual, the reverend's post attracted a
series of amen from his friends who rushed out to claim the blessing.
Instead of hurrying to claim mine, I went to the post as a raconteur
to remind the reverend and his amen-chorusing friends that the sun had
to burn parts of itself to produce sunshine. I also informed them that
for the river to flow water molecules had to accelerate under the
influence of a force. I went further to remind them of the old saying
that when a gentleman wakes up in the morning and is a success, check
very well he had not been sleeping.
Our reverend gentleman could not stomach my audacity in challenging
the simplified version of life he was selling to his gullible friends.
I must state that it was not the first time thatI had had reasons to
challenge the reverend's propensity to feed his flocks with retired
platitudes primarily aimed at eliciting amen.
In his reaction, the reverend gentleman made a post on my timeline
asking me to desist from writing on his status- "keep your thoughts to
yourself," he wrote. Apparently I was interrupting the flowof his
friends' reinforcing amen.
I wrote him back and informed him of an easy way to ensure that I kept
my thought to myself. I asked him to unfriend me, that way his status
update would stop coming to me. Andas long as it stopped coming to me,
there would not be any compulsion from me to respond to them.
The reverend gentleman unfriended me.
The reverend's choice made me reflect deeply on the health of dissent
in our society vis-à-vis that of conformity. I have asked people who
should know. The general answer I got was that once a society
strangles dissent it sets itself up for a quick degeneration.
It can be a tricky thing. People who suppress opposition often believe
they are protecting their society. But more than anything, an active
opposition questions a society and keeps it on its toes. Without a
viable opposition a society stagnates. Like all human endeavors, a
society that is not kept on its toes by forces that threaten to drive
it to a different direction does so little to prove itself or aim to
be the best it could be.
The worst thing that happened to Nigerian universities in the last
twenty years was not the disruptions that incessant strikes by
lecturers brought. It was not the sellout of the National Association
of Nigerian Students (NANS). It was not the lack ofreal and sustained
funding of universities by the government. They all contributed. But
what killed the Nigerian university system was its decline into
cantonment mentality where you can neither oppose nor ignore. In
Nigerian universities of today conformity is the order of the day.
There are only two kinds of lecturers left - those who get their
arousal by demanding sexual pleasures from students and those who get
their arousal by invoking sexual pleasures from religion. Gone are the
weird lecturers who pursued ideas, experimental and unconventional,
that are aimed at exploring the world beyond our comfort zones.
The same virus has spread to the students they teach. There are two
kinds of students left in our universities- those part time
studentswhose primary engagement is the pursuit of heaven and the part
time students whose primary engagementis the pursuit of happiness.
Gone are the students with robust desire to explore knowledge and
create new paths.
The evisceration of the right to dissent creates an atmosphere of
groupthink. Groupthink has only led to group suicide and
extermination. Reasoned arguments are simply those that have earned
themselves a vigorous scrutiny.
We are usually susceptible to the power of suggestions. In the hands
of people placed in influential positions it is often dangerous.
Conventional wisdom is nothing but convenient wisdom. Things that are
accepted are not necessarily right. Things that are accepted are not
essentially settled. Sometimes thingsthat are accepted were never
really approved for human consumption. People just keep doing what
others before them had done. Slavery, apartheid and Jim Crow were once
accepted by so many. There are always new truths to be discovered. The
day we run out of them, that day humanity stops evolving.Just as 70%
of the universe is full of dark energy and another 25% full of dark
matter, so it is that a high percentage of what we know and believe
are "unknown unknowns" –potential errors - if not errors of today,
definitely, errors of tomorrow. It's only when new truths are
allowedto come in contact with error that knowledge is improved.
Openness to different ideas is the only way to confirm, upgrade or
discard established ideas. It is not enough to abhor censorship. It is
essential that we make room for dissenting views if we wish to
illuminate the views we subscribe to.
Our better angels are often intimidated by group mentality whichis
often based on long held ideology that we have accepted as universal
truth without sufficient questioning.
Only three years ago, confronted withthe bombing of the UN office in
Abuja, some Nigerians were swearing that no Nigerian could have
partaken in suicide bombing. Four thousand deaths later, those
arguments looked so foolish now. We get used to unspeakable evil so
quickly that most of us default to the safety of unquestioned amen.
The frequent reoccurrence of evil desensitizes us so much that there
is no shock in remembering. But we must remember and must provoke
shock else evil will keep repeating itself.
That injustice is everywhere does not make it right. That injustice
does not affect us today does not mean that it will not eventually
reach us one way or another. If we see injustice around us but prefer
to join the chorus of amen because it is safe, we are mere cowards.
But be afraid when you do not see injustices around you for chances
are that you are part of the perpetrators.
There are usually societal expectations, cultural norms and government
policies that are unjust. It takes great courage for an individual to
rise up against such in a society where a great majority is saying
amen. For every atrocity that undermines our faith in humanity, an
army of men and women should rise in challenge. That's the only way
the human condition has improved over generations.
Cass R. Sunstein in his book, "The Importance of Dissent" proves that
individuals and society-at-large perform better and prosper more when
they welcome dissent and promote openness. He shows that dissenters
perform valuable social functions at great personal expense. His
assertion is also true for corporations, churches and governments.
In 1964 New York Times Co Versus Sullivan, the US Supreme Court ruled
that, "unfettered interchange of ideason public issues must be
uninhibited, robust and wide-open." The Court states that, "it may
well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp
attacks on government and public officials."
The world learns more from those saying NO than it learns from those
saying YES. By saying yes, typically, one does not need to explain
why. But those who say NO must explain.
Reflecting on the state of our modern society I came to a chilling
conclusion that conformity is a recipe for disaster. Nothing strangles
independence the way amen does. For every chorus of amen we join, we
kill a bulb of independence. There may be other paths to better
thinkingand better decisions, but definitely not by joining amen
chorus.
Please correct me if I'm right