Part 1 of this issue was published on January 31, 2023, under this same title. It was woven around Descartes philosophy of being; Cogito Ergo Sum (I think, therefore, I am).
This part 2 is devoted to discussing thinking and conventions, where conventions are conceived to mean unwritten laws, natural laws, informal laws or expectations which should almost instinctively guide people’s actions. It has to be noted that thinking in the article is different from the high-level sense of the term such as critical thinking, critical culture, intellectual culture, academic thinking and argumentation, etc. By thinking here, I mean the normal cognitive exercise required of anybody to be human and contribute to sanity. In the next few paragraphs, thinking is expounded within the context of unwritten laws and the making of humanity.
You mean you are a Nigerian? That country where people behave like animals! Pork is my brother’s favourite meat. Years back, he attended a conference in Ghana. He had a Ghanaian friend who knew his taste, and during one of their breaks, that friend of his intimated him about a popular pork joint around Kumasi. They went down together and my brother got introduced to the woman who ran the centre. She made the above statements whether in joke or seriousness immediately my brother was introduced to her. Before then, she had visited Nigeria, and had had an unfortunate encounter at Osodi, a popular place in Lagos. She was to join the public transport from there to somewhere. So she was in queue when a bus arrived. To her utter dismay, nobody was nice to the pregnant woman in the shoving and pushing that ensued. This seemed unbearable for the Ghanaian visitor. It was on that basis that she drew the above conclusion.
Whether or not that conclusion defines all Nigerians is another level of engagement. What matters to this present discourse is how the Ghanaian visitor learnt that a pregnant woman deserved some consideration in a situation like that. That could not have possibly been written in any Ghanaian laws. It is not also a peculiar expectation in the Ghanaian context. It is universal and natural; a convention. The awareness of such laws and their application to our living make us humans, and can make humanity a lived culture for us. On a regular basis, such laws are violated with recklessness. And such violations keep driving humanity farther and farther away from the contemporary society.
Besides pregnant women, there are other persons in similarly delicate states in the society. Some of them include the aged, the sick, the children, among others. It is saddening to witness the kind of treatment which the mentioned categories of people suffer in the hands of some other members of the society when it comes to matters viewed as competition over space and attention. At public places, on public buses, in hospitals, banks, and so on, the kind of experience such people go through is an indication that some persons’ understanding of humanity still leaves much to be desired.
An everyday statement one often hears around is that common sense is not common. Yes, it could be true! That is a reality where thinking, a common sense’s cousin, has been sacked. In the series of Cultivating Timeless Thoughts, published in January, 2023, under the title; Cultural Hypocrisy and Self-deception, it was established that the formal structures and laws in this country have failed to be effective. This is because the informal laws have been de-activated from people’s sub-consciousness.
Humanity or anarchy resides in the mind, not in formal laws and institutions. The written laws can help only where the unwritten ones have been entrenched and internalized by citizens. This explains why lawlessness could thrive in the midst of conspicuously written laws. In societies where thinking is embraced and valued, people do not just do what is inspected; they also do what is expected. The latter makes all the difference between those who are independent minded and those who must be pushed. The presence of the law around the scene which made our Ghanaian friend conclude that Nigeria is a country where people behave like animals would have made some difference. But it was not a law enforcement agent who made her think that humans in delicate conditions should be treated differently and nicely; that was part of her system. And that is the human part which should be in all persons.
Dare to be human! To be anything less is indignity.
In the garden of words and thoughts, timelessness is courted!
Mewhenu Hosu (2023) is of Lagos State University International School, Ojo, Lagos State. He can be reached on:
