The Power of Definition
How Perception Becomes Reality
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
The aberrations of humanity are primarily why peace between Arabs and Jews remains elusive, it is why the Islamic extremists are committing unspeakable and mind-bugling acts of terror against Christians and the Western societies, it is why Iraqi insurgents were killing their own people in the most gruesome manner, and why the Hindus in India have treated and perhaps, still treat the so-called “untouchables” so wickedly. It is also the reason for the mistreatment of women and children in many cultures around the world. It would be simplistic to attribute all these aberrations of humanity to a single cause as many have done, most notably Friedrich Nietzsche and Sir Arthur Keith among others. It is certainly not the reason Keith tenaciously argued for—amity towards insiders and enmity towards outsiders as an evolutionary disposition. However, the reason is deeply rooted in people’s definition of themselves, their definition of other people, and the definition of the values by which people operate and act towards other people. This is evident in Keith’s notion of amity towards insiders and enmity towards outsiders and Nietzsche’s Übermensch: the notion of a self-created being incapable of positive emotions, which would culminate from bringing to consciousness all the strong and contradictory forces that lie beneath the human surface, which would fully appropriate the “tragedy of life” - the actualization of the “human inequality”, whereby slavery and the economic oppression of the masses would become conditions for the possibility of great cultural achievement by the few, effectively eliminating the notion of equality which Nietzsche argued, would inevitably push humanity down to the lowest common denominator — that of the “democratic herd animal.” Others view this malignant human behavior as a rupture or ruptures in civilization. Perhaps, the notion of rupture or ruptures in civilization is closer to the root of the problem, and if so, it is because those ruptures in civilization directly derive from definition. It has been noted elsewhere that the term civilization rupture tends to be applied exclusively to the German Holocaust, but in reality, there is nothing exceptional about the German experience, atrocious as it was, as there have been many genocides around the world since then and even recently, there was genocide taking place in Sudan, where Arabs are engaged in systematic destruction of the so-called black Africans. Now, a few years later, the black Africans are committing the same unspeakable acts of evil on themselves. Therefore, one could say that civilization continues to rupture every now and then. It seems to me that our preoccupation or concern ought not lie so much with the fact the civilization has ruptured many times and continues to rupture, but with what causes it to rupture and so frequently. The culminations of the aberration of humanity noted above are all evidence of a series of such ruptures that have taken place in the last three centuries or so, particularly in nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There is a tendency to place events such as the German Holocaust or the Rwandan Genocide outside a banality or originality, dismissing them as unique or exceptional and isolated occurrences devoid of rationale or reason. I believe that they are not; there is a foundational element to them, which exists even today and continues to inspire atrocities that approach the magnitude of the Holocaust, as we have seen in Rwanda, Cambodia, and perhaps even former Yugoslavia, Chechnya, and Sudan. Definition creates perception, and perception often leads people to act in aberrant ways, from the suppression of conscience to the perilous premise of meaningless self-assurance in propping self-destructive and even nihilistic tendencies, from sexism to racism, totalitarianism to fascism, from abortion to euthanasia, narcissism to hubris. Definition positions for exploitation and destruction of people who have not acquired the ability to assert their rights, those who have lost the ability to assert their rights, and people who in the face of identity crisis engage in irrational definition of themselves as a protest or rebellious action. Intrinsically, definition, particularly definitions that are developed to harm other people, are “radical simplifiers” that position for destruction those they define. This is true of all atrocities. Indeed, definition underlies all human-inflicted societal calamities that have befallen the human race; it has been the tool for portraying people and values and for the subjugation of conscience with respect to people and values in order to commit acts that would otherwise be inhibited and prohibited by human conscience. It is often the harbinger or prelude to “radical projects” such as social exclusion, genocide, crimes against humanity, and the oppressive class structures.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
The manuscript for this book was completed 20 years ago and left to sit on the shelf. The fact that twenty years later, the topic and content remain very relevant validates the importance. The book is a sociopolitical essay that explores the tendencies, which undermine human relations and their implications at all levels, from individuals to family groups, from ethnic groups to states. The purpose of the book is to inspire readers to investigate and ultimately to understand why people perceive themselves and their values, as well as other people and their values, the way they do. The goal is to help readers understand how identities are formed—the notion of who we are, what we are, and how those notions impact the individual, other people, and society at large. The book aims to shine light on the root of the dysfunctional nature of the dynamics of people’s relations with one another and with themselves—a situation that continues to deny the world peace and security in fundamental ways. These inimical human tendencies are what the author calls the aberrations of humanity. The book identifies the root causes of these aberrations of humanity as definition and perception. It shows how the definition of people and values are formed and the roles definition plays in human relations by virtue of its perverted dynamics. The book is a thought-provoking essay, an uncomfortable read that will open the readers eyes and mind to see and think differently, hopefully more critically and objectively.
About the Author
Ifezue Okoli is the author of Tribalizing America: The Emerging National Identity Crisis—a book that sounds the alarm on the dangerous extreme deviation from the core and aspirational American ideal of equal individual rights and national unity as founded in its declaration of independence and historical motto: E Pluribus Unum. Okoli is an accomplished entrepreneur, philanthropist, poet, visionary philosopher, history and current affairs enthusiast. He was born in Eastern Nigeria and lived through the Biafran war for independence, aka the Nigerian Civil War, which is considered one of the most pernicious wars in human history. The war claimed the lives of over three million Igbo people, mostly children who died of starvation as a result of the food blockade used by the Nigerian government led by General Yakubu Gowon as a military strategy against the Biafran side of the conflict. In his chronicles of the war, Okoli vividly recounted what he witnessed on the day the war reached his small village and his experience as a child during the nearly three years the war raged on. He is forever haunted by the thought that had the war gone on for a few more months, he would have perished from starvation just like the millions of children who lost their lives to starvation. He believes that he owes his life to Bruce Mayrock, a twenty-year-old Jewish American young man, who made the ultimate sacrifice of giving his life through the heroic act of self-immolation in front of the United Nations to call attention to the plight of the Biafran children who had been left by the world to perish. That single act of sacrificing his life to preserve the lives of millions of people he didn’t even know was credited with bringing the war to an end by forcing the world to see the atrocities being committed on the Igbo children. Okoli was educated in Nigeria and the United States of America. He emigrated to the United States, inspired by the American ideal and the lives and deeds of Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King Jr, and Bruce Mayrock, among others. His sentiment is echoed in Benjamin Franklin’s statement: “Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” He is the founder of a multinational software company with its head office in the United States of America. The company known as Amarac Technologies is an ERP company with operations in three continents—North America, Africa, and Asia. In the mid-2000s, he founded TalkingGong and IssueCrier. TalkingGong was a social conversation platform that attempted to enable people around the world to engage in dialogue to learn more about other people, especially their misgivings and fear of others. The goal of the initiative was to dispel and overcome the fear of others and forge a better understanding that could lead to less demonization of others and more acceptance of other people. IssueCrier was an online commentary on social and political issues from common sense and objective points of view. These noble initiatives were not as successful as he had hoped, but he vows to revive them and never to give up on his aspiration to foster understanding among people and the pursuit of truth. Okoli also founded ZimUzo Foundation—a US based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization devoted to providing IT vocational education in the United States and Nigeria, improving academic education and healthcare in rural communities in Nigeria and Pakistan. The foundation supports an orphanage of nearly three hundred homeless children rescued from slavery in the brick kilns and child prostitution on the streets of Hyderabad in Pakistan. The organization also supports health clinics in rural communities in Nigeria with donations of small medical devices, over the counter medication, and EMR systems to improve healthcare delivery. This support creates the possibility for healthcare providers from distant places to deliver healthcare services through telemedicine to patients in remote places who would otherwise not have access to those lifesaving services. Okoli is a prolific writer, conscientious thought leader, and a dynamic global citizen.