All Truths Are Half-Truths

 *All truths are half-truths—Alfred N Whitehead
*Seek ye the kingdom of power afore seeking the illusive truth—Soko

What characterized Olara Otunnu’s recently concluded election campaign strategy was an obsessive quest for the truth on past events: who did what to whom; who was right who was wrong; or what people’s intentions were. This strident bug was injected into the minds of some of his supporters who went on a rampage of noise-making ad infinitum. Now the questions that scream out are: All for what? What was the intended payoff? Gotcha!? Disaffection of the Ogre? Votes? The man never even voted for himself. If he marries, what will he tell his children? May be it will be: Hey kids, I was so principled that I ran for the presidency against all odds, and I was even more principled not to cast my vote for myself! ^#*$%! Master salesmen keep their messages simple.

The results have been deplorable for Otunnu and his UPC—even with the caveat of blatant lopsided conditions that did not favor the opposition. Especially heart-wrenching to my vociferous friends is that UPC did not take over Acoli subregion—no single UPC MP candidate won.

The question that lurks in the minds of some observers: Was Olara Otunnu an advocate for a cause or was he a political candidate with a cause?

Advocacy usually likens crusading in search for “truth.” A political candidate’s forte often calls for dealing with danger, food and sex in all their permutations—the basic survival ingredients that have become instinctual since Stone Age and are beneath the veneer of hot buttons. Know how and when to pick and/or blend them, and you can become king. They are the strings of the Adungu that a good maestro can strum to the delights of the hearts and minds of the masses—most of whom just survive and reproduce, with vague clues of the what and why of their existence. While some of the masses may have had “reading, riting, rithmetic” (even at the level of PhD), they live in confusion and, as Thoreau would say: in quiet desperation.

But, let us go back to “truth.” Is there anything like Absolute Truth? It seems there is none as such in law. In religion you just have to believe. Even in the purest of sciences—mathematics—is based on certain assumptions. So then, if one speaks of “truth,” you have to check out her programming. Political truth is a contradiction in terms, tainted with perspectives: power or lack of it, special interests, national interests or classified information. The latter two are especially nauseating because it is just a form of covering some boils in the rearend.

Here is the thing: If you don’t have the power to find the truth and, if you don’t have the power to enforce the findings of a report, then why not first seek power by any means necessary (including coalition). As they say: change is the only constant—that is, of course, if you play your cards smartly. It will happen. When you get power, then you can write your truth as you perceive it. Confusing issues confuses the masses and confuses outcomes. Seek ye the kingdom of power afore seeking the illusive truth.

Safety is Primal

My long-ago cousin took off like a hare in the lush grassland of Bhar-El- Gazel. There was a man-eating lion in the ‘hood, and cuz was not about to become somebody’s dinner. He leapt and caught a branch of an olam tree and quickly reached the highest fork created by fractal geometry in nature. The lion circled the tree and made tentative attempts to climb but gave up and sauntered off.
Cousin Lawiyeolore, a tall lanky lad, was safe—safe enough to climb down.

“Huh!” he sighed. He rubbed his stomach—he was hungry. He picked up the fallen olam fruits. Then, an anyeri scrambled into the nearby shrub. He got a stick and beat the shrub and the anyeri darted out, and he chased it and killed it. He soon made fire, and roasted the delicacy. Next, he would go on the prowl to ravish some nubile “gazelles” whose pointed breasts pulsated with desire. In time Lawiyeolore would go on to sire many juniors and princes who knew how to feed themselves and be safe to reproduce more.

Meanwhile, cousin Lagoro, Lawiyeolore’s brother, was a weakling who perished in the vagaries of the random incidents of the grasslands. He never had a chance to propagate his kind. So, the ones with safety consciousness became the successful and dominant for generations after generations to my day.

Along the way, as communication ability developed, cousin Lawiyeolore banded or allied with Lacwinyecol and others. Lacwinyecol was very dark-skinned and stocky. His band came from across the river. Cuz soon learned that, while Lacwinyecol was not good and tracking game, he was crafty as sin—long before sin was invented!

Each time Lawiyeolore killed an anyeri, Lacwinyecol would sound the lion alarm. This would send cuz running and leaving his kill for Lacwinyecol to grab and run in the opposite direction. So now, each time cuz saw Lacwinyecol, his heart would go racing. Protection against danger generated the feeling of fear, which was to later generate other kinds of feelings. Deception (and/or conning) was also discovered.

Safety was the DNA’s way of protection to live another day and procreate and replicate itself. When fear (and its various permutations) came in as a localized feeling and showed itself when not warranted, the bands were in for trouble. Unfortunately, to this day we still employ these feelings in a world which is less dangerous. That is why we are in awe at the exploits of the suicide bombers. What ever happened to safety and fear with these people? The answer is: Mind Assassins.

Young Muslims have been inoculated against fear by a meme of the promise of virgins in the after-life. How much better for spreading one’s genes and blowing up your worst enemies at the same time! Sign me on! It seems counter intuitive, but the DNA was conned!

And so, we are eleven years into the 21st century, and the idea of individual freedom has supposedly reached the ears of millions across the globe. Why are there fiends who still sit with their boots on the head of millions, and live in luxury while the majority of the populace scrounges? What up? Safety and Fear. We know that when fear is overcome, things happen. What happened to Marie Antoinette and her beau? The French chopped their heads. Museveni, no matter what one thinks of him, discarded fear and the losers in his exploits are wailing to this day.

The millions of slaves the world over have to reach critical masses in their locations for the idea of individual freedom that transcends safety and fear. Only then can they use their numerical advantage to change the status quo. Hunger is probably a critical trigger, not press freedom, nor elections nor any of the higher stuff.

The Saga of the Three Loonies & the True Believers

The man said: if you believe, you can move mountains. And the three loonies, who belong to a psychiatry ward instead of out in the world of neurotypicals, have taken it to heart.

Loony Numero Uno: In mangled English and rapid fire presentation as if having fire under his pants, he is the paparazzi of Animal Farm. He cooks up supposedly juicy revelations, including about people’s lives. He threatens. One wonders whether parts of his brain has been eaten up by some disease—may be syphilis—or may have undergone some brain lobotomy.

Loony 2: The loss of his government was so traumatic that he has gone berserk. The supposed claim to fight for Iloca is actually a projection of that trauma. He is obsessed with a man called, Eygiseb, who, to him, is the devil incarnate. A man called, Ayido goes back to his own vomit. Moreover, the latter is not even an Iloca but “…blah…blah…blah”! In his delirium, he has forgotten that his real oppressor is actually Oriba.

Loony 3: He sees 3% as 90%. To him his party’s tsunami is unstoppable. How can you argue with the dude? He is in a world of his own—no different from any of the characters talking on the street by themselves.

Underneath the sicko generals are the true believers. This is an amalgam of those with high utilitarian education, some education, and semi-illiterates. The common thread among this lot is that reason is suspended, even though some make pretense for rationality. All share with the loonies a fear of self-examination and self-criticism, and have unrealistic expectation. The true believers differ from the loonies in that they suspect they may be wrong but don’t have the gut to accept, or are burdened with the Ripig-Ognobal curse.

Belief in itself is not a bad thing. It is the stuff of the Placebo Effect, the Pygmalion Hypothesis, the Expectation Factor, or the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. But here we are facing an irrational belief. It has become a weapon of self-sabotage: X is pre-ordained for the presidency. What mathematics are you talking about? Mountain Movers R Us!

It's All about Survival and Reproduction

It is interesting to see an ant running around—busy—looking for food, biting another ant, running away from another, or mounting another in apparent copulation.
As you go higher up to the human animal, the same busyness seems to be the order of the day: feeding, fighting, fleeing or finding a mate. It seems then that feeding, fighting and fleeing are basic ingredients for survival, and finding a mate leads to reproduction/replication.

Whatever form of any activity, it is seemingly a function of the four Fs. If evolution posits that life, as we know it in our planet, began from a “primordial soup” of chemicals—carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen—and developed over millions of years by fits and turns, trials and errors, it follows that the successful life is the one that has the best capacity or code to survive and reproduce. Scientists tell us that this capacity for survival and reproduction has been encoded by natural selection into the DNA. In other words, each act of the four Fs is on behalf of the DNA to survive and reproduce: may the best one win!

Considering that the said coding took millions and millions of years to refine, it is very powerful and grips us like an iron vice. When we are surprised by our sometime out-of-control actions, it is because we have not taken stock. Of course, there are some actions which are beyond the pale, and they are more a function of miscoding apart from the norm.

Superimposed on the four Fs is Consciousness, which is a construct of the mind, which is a construct of the brain (mainly, but probably emanates from every cell of the body, in part). From consciousness we get freewill and self-awareness. With freewill and self-awareness we figured out that, to successfully operate the four Fs, beyond the vagaries of randomness, we needed to Belong, to Distinguish ourselves or Excel, to gain Group Approval, to Care for one another, and to obey Authority. These again are characteristics developed over millions of years and are observable in living things, including humans.

Over time we also developed civilization and technologies that continue to serve us. In the meantime the four Fs have not gone away, however sophisticated we think we are. They can sneak up on us in the form of greed, gluttony, obesity, oppression, wars, slavery, anger, hatred, ethnic cleansing, fear, rapes and other bad behaviors in all their guises.

So, when a congressman or senator is caught with his pants down, and abruptly resigns or fights shamelessly for his job, we slap our heads and ask: what was he thinking?!

When the so-called most powerful man in the world dips a cigar into the womanhood of an intern, we slap our heads and ask: what was he thinking?!

When a self-proclaimed revolutionary president concocts a rape case against his opponent, we slap our heads and ask: what was he thinking?!

When the same revolutionary president demeans his predecessors, but a few years later, he is doing the same horrid things against the people, we slap our heads and ask: what is he thinking?

Overall, when we go into a shouting match, when we beat up or even kill a spouse, when we steal from the poor, when we cast our votes against our obvious self-interests, when we spread rumors, when we revel in conspiracy theories, the underlying motivations can be found in the four Fs.

So, are we helpless? No. By free-will and self-awareness we can be conscious of the automatic tendencies of the four Fs. We can then be able to call on our civilization and technological advances to come to our aid. It is a process. Gradually we become less destructive to ourselves and others, and, hopefully, act more mindfully and elegantly in our survival and reproductive quest on behalf of the mighty DNA.

The Insidious Mind Viruses

When a biological virus invades a cell, it takes over the cell’s protein-making and nucleic acid replicating properties. The virus is then able to dupe the cell to replicate the virus—usually rapidly and exponentially until the cell membrane brakes, releasing gazillion viruses to invade other cells. Soon the body cells are overwhelmed and unable to carry normal functions, and a person becomes lethargic and sick.

The same process could be said of the man-made computer virus, which is essentially a small program introduced into a computer’s working programs. The virus takes over the subroutines of the computer program thereby duplicating itself rapidly and its numerous operations shut down the legitimate program.

Likewise, a mind virus is a piece of information or program that is created by culture or deliberately designed by an agent. Just like a biological virus or a computer virus, the mind virus aims for self-perpetuation and to effect a change in the behavior of the recipient. Infection—a quality of self-perpetuation—, of other cells, other computers and other human animal is also a common characteristic of viruses.
A culture virus may be good for the survival of a community and security for the self. Sometimes the good of the community, however, runs counter to the goal of the self, which is largely the pursuit of happiness.

Looking around us we can see and may notice all kinds of mind viruses. We hardly know from whence they cometh and why they are our belief systems. Some swear by blood, their mothers or their lives that the virus is the essence of who they are.

Take the culture of chopping off a woman’s clitoris; where the heck did that come from? You see an old dried-up hag, whose exciting apparatus was clipped off decades ago, taking herself seriously in doing the ghastly surgery to a nubile gazelle. This single dastardly act probably plunges the girl into some psychological darkness beyond comprehension, leaving her vagina only for the man’s pleasure and breeding. This may have been the intended purpose but nature camouflaged the monthly gushing of blood and gruesome process of birth with a little man in a boat and some other hot spots for ecstasy and pleasure that bring smiles amidst the humdrum of toil and service.

From the African grasslands bands of humanity scattered. In the bands were leaders who emerged to give a sense of order, just like the alpha lesser animal leads the pack. Soon, however, and may have been coincidental with the growth of the cerebral cortex, the alpha human animal had an idea, a piece of information, a virus that he should be adored and fed, along with his brood. He or his agents even declared him a manifestation of God here on earth. He came from a mountain. He defied nature and was born sans sperm of a human but of God himself. All kinds of fantastic viruses were injected into the population. Some traces of the viruses still lurk around.

Uganda’s National Resistance Movement (NRM), is the dominant political party. It shot its way into power and has kept hold of power for the last twenty five years under the firm control of the sly Museveni. Without prejudice, any right-thinking person would agree that Obote and his UPC had run its course, it had entropied, and, without self-correcting mechanisms, it had become irrelevant and headed for the dumpster. That is the environmental condition under which Museveni gained power.

Adroitly, Museveni has constantly sung the mantra of his embellished Herculean feat of the conquest of the forces of killers and backwardness. He branded himself as the only one with vision, the will and means to keep peace. He would, even at 65, “go to the bush” if need be. What happened in Kenya and Cote d’ Voire would not occur to the gang of revolutionaries of Uganda, he declared.

Of course, these are all Musevenian mind viruses designed to create fear and an aura of indispensability. In addition, the hums of business activities going around and the garish mansions rising everywhere, make one hopeful. Hence, the ultimate virus: No change!

In the end, the key to being in control is gaining an understanding of the source of information, the why and the real beneficiary. And, as Anthony Quinn said in Zorba the Greek: A man needs a little madness, or else, he never dares cut the rope and be free.

What is the Idea of a Uganda?

 Before one sets out to do anything, one has to have an idea or a concept—even in something as mundane as eating or having sex.

Richard Dawkins coined the word “meme,” as a unit of information that comes to mind and can get replicated in other minds. Infected with a meme, an individual or a population then behaves in a particular manner. A meme can infiltrate a mind subtly and unconsciously or purposely by an agent.

The Protestant Puritans and Pilgrims who went to America did so on the basis of an idea—a meme—of seeking freedom to practice their strict biblical belief system rather than English monarch’s more worldly version of the Church of England. A meme of fear of the Pope’s influence later guided this same Protestant America to develop intolerant actions against Catholics who came to its shores. Only a group of agnostics, deists or even closet atheists, amongst the so-called founding fathers, was to save the fledgling nation from the clutches of the Church with the concept of “separation of church and state.” Other ideas such as the “American Dream,” “Pursuit of Happiness,” “Inalienable Rights,” or “Individual Freedom” guided and still guides the actions of America. While other concepts, such as “National Interest” inspired actions that murdered Congo’s Patrice Lumumba and association with dictators who pillaged their nations’ coffers and abused their people.

So, one can see that America became America based on some defined ideas. The actions from such ideas are the results we see today.

In the case of Uganda, what idea or ideas can inform us of where it is and where it is going? If any Ugandan goes blank on the question, may be because there is no clear and concrete definable idea of a Uganda. The idea of Uganda was a British creation, with minimal input from the Buganda aristocracy of yore. The rest of us were just co-opted for the ride into these two’s memes, and we acted haphazardly to boot.

When the British had their acting and left, the Protestant Lango’s Northern UPC Obote had his idea, and the Protestant Buganda’s Mutesa had his idea as they joined hands in a marriage of convenience. The twain was destined to collide, and they did. Since then various actors have come and gone. Obote came back and left again unceremoniously.

Judging from his staying power and the arithmetic of his followings, it seems the Musevenian model—a meme of benevolent military dictatorship—is a viable idea for Uganda. This is amidst the cacophony of tribal memes and a recent history of bloodshed and instability. However, should stability and some measures of economic growth be bought with dictatorship? Is the idea of absolute power in the hands of a single person not fraught with abuse of power and the dangers of the creation of a dynasty?

In a neighborhood where a neighbor enacts a law against farting, can we rise above ourselves and define an idea that can propel to greatness, or should we just muddle along?