A few weeks ago, Kenya made history by being the first African country to nullify an election. This speaks volumes pertaining to how far our democracy has evolved. When we were right in the middle of it all, I came across many opinions on the ruling; what it means and where we are headed. However, I realized that most people had not even taken the opportunity to understand exactly what the ruling was, what the stakes were and, the implications. Most people just regurgitated what the politicians were saying and took it as gospel truth. Even more heartbreaking was seeing people attacking one another over issues they seems to know next to nothing about.
We are living in a ripe age of information. In a heartbeat, you can have all the information you need. However, we have delegated that responsibility to those we follow. This is the highest level of sycophancy. We want to sit back and let people make decisions for us. What we forget is that everyone is self-serving. People will tell you things they know will favor them. The saddest thing however, is when those we consider the elite, do the same thing. Those who have gone to school, those who have been given a platform to influence society, bend to the words of others. Those who are given seats on national television to speak to people who may not have access to this information. We see political analysts giving half-baked information to the public. They use big words to try and make up for their incompetence. The thing is, you cannot hide incompetence. It shows up when you least expect it and embarrasses you immensely.
I am in a certain group on social media and it consists of people trying to live a healthy life. It’s an amazing group with a lot of information. However, every once in a while, I come across an argument that is baseless. It will be a couple of people discussing something they know next to nothing about. They will attack each other. when they hit a deadlock, they throw around the phrase, to each their own. I agree 100% with this phrase, however, I believe it should never be an escape from having tough conversations.
We should have these conversations. We should challenge one other. However, we should do this from a place of information and not hearsay. We should have intelligent conversations. We should endeavour to learn more from these conversations and teach a lot more. We should realize that everyone has something to offer, as we all do. When we find ourselves having an argument based purely on feelings, we should take a step back and ask to get some information first. When we find ourselves attacking the other person’s personality during an argument, we should realize we are being counterproductive and walk away from it. An argument should not be about who knows more but about involving our minds, working this muscle and exchanging knowledge. We should challenge each other and walk away as friends. To read more posts by Angela, click HERE
