The Party of Our Fathers is Our Party Too!

***Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me—Unknown

***If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out--Unknown

Look around you: often than not, in nine cases out of ten, the political party of the father is also the political party of the son or daughter. Also, more often than not, the religious affiliation of the father and/or mother is also that of their progeny. Moreover, it seems the intensity of the affiliations of the offspring has correlation with parental intensities.

These are very interesting phenomena that could have underpinnings in psychology, evolution and other disciplines.

To the developing child’s mind parents are omnipotent large creatures. They are the source of warmth, food and cleaning the messy smelly stuff that oozes from his orifices. Instinctually, according to the genetic code, he learns that, when he is hungry, crying will make the caretaker—often the mother—to bail out an object—often a breast—for his honor’s gourmet breakfast, snacks, lunches and dinners. The same applies to loneliness in this bright strange place. Soon, somebody rushes and scoops him and holds him tenderly while singing some soothing lullaby. No adult king or queen—even the most pompous and powerful—has ever had such glory as the infant child—all courtesy of, usually, two people called Mama and Papa.

When the “king of kings” is eating, sleeping, crying, having spa treatment, and has his ass wiped, explosive growth in neural connections are happening—the gift of billions of years of evolution. The early experiences are imprinted on to these connections, forming the bases for mental processes as the child advances in age. Some of these experiences are the notions that Ma and Pa are all-wise, all-giving, all-everything in his universe. Sooner or later, however, the child discovers that there are chinks in the parents’ all-powerful armor. Daddy’s boss tells him what to do. And daddy had an accident and is lying helplessly with his leg up in a cast. This must come as a shock to the infant. At this moment, religion becomes handy, and the parents, to cover their limitations, coach the child about the magical powers of an invisible person called, God. Hence, The Emperor’s New Clothes: if you can’t see it, you must be bad! The child now has mental communications with objects, including humans. He prays that daddy should get well. He sends his wishes to Santa Claus. He talks with his toys.

By the time party politics come into consciousness, the child is almost linked inextricably, lock stock and barrel, to parental idiosyncrasies. That is as it should be as survival conditionings. Sooner than later the child has to wean himself out of the Santa-Claus mode. But these are powerful conditionings. The parents and schools try to provide anti-dotes in the form of folk tales (the Acoli have Ododo) to train children to be cautious because there are bunko artists, charlatans, con men, and other mind assassins out there who are masters of mind manipulations. They know the powers of authoritative figures. That is how Hitler could bend the minds of millions of educated Germans to his will. That is how Museveni is able to work the minds of many Ugandans like a yoyo. That is how we have party diehards, who sacrifice their self-interests for that of the father’s party. Some even think that, if they could think “winning” and repeat some mantra, Santa Claus will deliver victory.

Rhetoric That Can Kill

Shootings of politicians are not uncommon in America. The killings usually occur on the heels of contentious environment when the levels of rhetoric become quite abrasive. So, the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabriel Gifford over the weekend was not surprising. Some loony was bound to come up and blow somebody’s head sooner than later.

Obama and ObamaCare have some people seeing red. Nobody cried foul when the Clinton-era Budget Surplus was frittered away in the Bush era on some misadventure wars, but some are now frothing in the mouths that supposedly Obama’s socialist agenda is sending America to the poorhouse. And, of course, the “economy, stupid,” with its concomitant unemployment, brings out the worst in people. So, if you ratchet up the tempo of anxiety, some dumbo is going to solve it with the barrel of the gun. That is how maladjusted kids negotiate the world of the playground—the difference: in the dark adult world of some it is lethal weapon of destruction that talks.

In the Uganda milieu Museveni is rightly sensitive to speeches that arouse the masses—hence, the law on sectarianism. Uganda’s history of demonizing one group or the other is a documented shameful fact. But, unfortunately, for Mr. Museveni, the man with a multiple personality disorder, the law is used selectively as a sword than a balm to redress wrongs.

When one witnesses the exchanges among Ugandans on the web, it causes shivers to run down one’s spine. The question is: are all the bile, hates and lack of decorum a reflection of the spirit of the country? Recently one elderly hater spitted out volleys of calumnies hoping to shut out another who did not toe the line of the “tribe.” While some dimwits hailed him, he did not get the chorus of support he expected. While it is anecdotal, the incident may show that Ugandans know an unadulterated hate when they see one. There is still hope for the Pearl of Africa. Hopefully, the disgruntled will not be forced to shoot it out.