“Nggaz’ll rather die when their pride’s in question.”
Trife da God, Dogs of War (by: Ghostface Killah)
Friends,
Recently I wrote a post called “My Top 9 Rap Lyrics” where I discussed some lines that had really stuck with me over the years. However, I opted to write about this lyric in a separate post because of how aptly it encapsulates and describes the mind-lock you see when when having discussions about things like human nature, the way forward, technological progress or, more broadly, when you discuss and question the taken-for-granted assumptions about people and society.
The specific example which comes to mind is when people acknowledge say, the problems with the world, humanity’s collision course with ecological disaster and the inhospitable environment we are creating for our future selves and our children; they acknowledge this and rather than asking how we can change it, they just resignedly(almost smugly) assert that mankind will eventually go extinct and things will return to normal for the planet, almost as if they are looking forward to this eventuality. In the context of the argument/discussion/debate, this is akin to flipping the board when you’re losing; rather than acknowledge that the other party might be making some good points by questioning taken-for-granted assumptions and institutions, they would rather fall back on a nihilistic perspective to make it look as if the whole discussion is a pointless endeavour because we are all going to die anyway.
I see through your bullshit, board-flipper.
It’s not that they have trouble accepting the problems with society, its that they refuse to accept that society is changeable based on on our cumulative actions, often citing some unchangeable human nature as proof that the society we have now (headed inexorably toward extinction as they assert). is the only type of society that is possible.
Why?
Why this stubbornness in the face of so much evidence to the contrary?
Why the refusal to acknowledge that modern technology enables and necessitates newer societal designs?
Why assert that human beings are naturally ONE certain way when there are examples of ALL KINDS of behaviour in the world?
I’m no mathemortician but I think the reluctance to accept the changeability of society has to do with the vague awareness that if society is changeable, the onus might fall on everyday people to rethink their comfortable patterns of existence.
God forbid!
Other than that I can only think that they don’t want to accept that they might be wrong in an argument.
Or perhaps they just have a death wish.
If that’s the case and things keep progressing they way they have thus far, aided by the cumulative apathy, intransigence and lack of imagination of these nihilistic death-wishers, then the degradation of our world and extinction of our species becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in the worst way possible.
Best
-Andre Guantanamo
Write-Errantry 