"THE WAY IT HAS BEEN " — EVIL MYTH

"THE WAY IT HAS BEEN " — EVIL MYTH
By:Talkspen
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Boy: mama, now that we have been sent spoons, why do you always want me to eat with my bare hand like before?
Old woman: It is uncultured!
Boy: (surprise) Ha, mama, uncultured? But...
Old woman: (cuts in) shut up! Can you understand when something is said to be uncultured? Or what do you think you know? And besides you are just a little boy.
Boy: then explain to me what that means.
Old woman: Good. It is a way of life we were born into, which was laid by our forefathers. We were taught and trained to always eat with our hands. So it is out of our culture to forfeit our ancestral pattern of eating for any other things.
Boy: But why can't we adopt this into our culture? Since we now have spoon, we can always eat with it as it aid our eating pleasure. I don't think it is a crime to do things in a way it has never been done before.
Old woman: (sigh) You this little rat, you always prove to be clever in all discourse. I said eating with spoon is forbidden in this culture because we were not taught or trained to adopt new means of eating in the future and we can for no reason change that. Development have no audacity to cancel our forefathers prescribed way of living. This is the way it has been. Let that sink into your head now and stop asking me what is not.
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Although in abstract, this scene describes how bereaved our society is, how rigid our minds have become to circumstance that warrant urgent attention and sincere change where needed. This attitude is active all over the world but is more active in this continent called Africa, especially Nigeria. We always see new chances of development in bad light even when the system in operation no longer work for us. We prefer 'following the same route, the same way and "hoping for a unique" outcome.'
As it is simply put—"you cannot do a thing the same way and expect another result. " It must be done in a way it has been done before so as to see what and how effective the outcome Will be and to what extent it goes in transforming our lives. We mustn't keep on doing it the way; it is a crime, because it will never yield a successful result!
"This is the way it has been" attitude is a disease of the mind; it is the opposite of Oliver twist — who always ask for more. But we wants to remain just the way we are because we have been made to believe that lay down patterns can effectively solve our Twenty First Century problems. This attitude may seems not evident amongst us but it has been the basis on which our existence have been built upon over the years; it has become part of us to that extent that we hardly see it traces. However, it evidently reflects in all our daily disposition; it has almost become our nature. The attitude of seeing things as "impossible" always.
This is the argument. Often time you hear people say—"stop, don't do it like that. That is not how it is been done." "No one has ever done that before." Or question like, "Who taught you to do it that way?" From this angle, it stand to reason that either of these statement are incorrect and are severely unhealthy for a society that needs to grow. There is no such statement as—"no one has ever done this or that way BEFORE." There is no such thing at all!
The difference between a society and a jungle is not far fetched. It is only in the jungle that things are done the same way always; a society should and must evolve and witness significant change overtime! This comes through the changing of our societal mindset from a rigid state to a flexible one.
It would not  amount to suicide if our methods of approaching life challenges are constantly reordered. We mustn't be stereotype all along the coast.
I keep wondering if these statements are correct, then there will be nothing called "vehicle" because the man who envisioned it in his mind will quickly say "no one has ever done that before, so walking with our legs and through our animals are the best." Or do you think someone could have imagine talking to another in a very far distance through the "air" a get an instant reply in a twinkle of an eye? Of course it will look impossible because no one has ever done that before and that is how it has been. But just as the boy sensibly replied his old woman, "I don't think it is a crime to do things in a way it's never been done before." Yes, it can never be a crime rather it is a crime when mind rigidity becomes a song. All successful inventions were never taught the inventors, they all came into being through constructive imagination. They were never based on what was on ground, they were created out of the mind to address life challenging problems facing the society.
Hear what Theron Q. Dumont says in his book " The power of concentration "— he painted this scenario succinctly.
"And every man of average ability, the ordinary man that you see about you, can be really successful, independent, free of worry, his own master, if he can manage to do just two things. First, remain forever DISSATISFIED with what he IS doing and with he HAS accomplished. Second, DEVELOP in his mind a belief that the word IMPOSSIBLE was not intended for him. BUILD up in his mind the confidence that enables the mind to use its power."
You see, he said it all. Impossible is not intended for that man that believe that life needs to evolve and bring out more of the beauty embedded in it. All our consciousness must reflect this, as we go, knowing fully well that a yam roasted on a side may not equal the one roasted on all sides!
In every society, cultural structure dictates it outlook, despite this, culture must not in any way deter it from growing: all cultural norms and beliefs should contribute to it development not the other way round. Achieving this is simple —we all must know and believe that as we evolve on earth, our system of doing things must change as well not minding if "no one has ever tried it or no one has ever taught us to think and see that way." Until we realize this, only little will be achieved amidst the much that is expected of us.
This narrative must not be said or heard amongst us any longer — we are always afraid of making things happen because no one has ever attempted doing it. We should not be caught saying "no one is capable of doing things differently EXCEPT God." Let's get it right from here: it is not a taboo things shift upward away from the status quo. It is a crime to be SATISFIED with whatever comes out of the lay down precept in operation. Let's create the avenue where we can think through our problems for lasting solutions. Let's face the reality with dexterity in all sincerity to yield for us a massive reward.
Here is the challenge. Many at times we are tempted to follow an opinion just because it is "popular" among the majority, on the contrary, a wrong "popular" opinion accepted by the majority will make it right. Because a bad attitude has a place among many will not turn it to a good one overtime. When the road to a beautiful city is bad, the beauty of the city will not affect the road if not repaired. It is as simple as that! Because a rigid mindset is popular in the society will not substitute a flexible mind overtime.
With all boldness, I admit that majority of people in Nigeria are living out their life's  rigidly; no one has a clue for self development. The results are evident; they are not growing as expected.
The ironic part of it turns to God. God is the one that receives the blame. You hear people say, "it is the will of God ," " if God willed it, who can change it?" But in the actual sense, why must we resort to blaming God? God is not deserving of the blame for our slothful living. And God is not responsible forthe 'acclaimed' blames of ours because he is not evil neither will he test us with it.
The problem begins and ends with us. We must wake up to our responsibility and stop putting the blame of our poor input to life on God because he is not in the business of building our nation if we don't. He has given us all that we could ever need to pilot the affairs of the world in the creation. He will never take up our nation building responsibility upon himself. His work here on earth is to give eternal life and the knowledge of it to men. So, as we desire for our nation's growth we must also have it in mind that it growth is our sole responsibility not God's. Because merely laying blames on him will neither add bread to our butter nor add butter on our bread except we do it for ourselves and by ourselves. It is your responsibility as it is also mine as well.
Nigeria is too big a country to suffer growth deficiency; she is too big a nation to stick to a failing status quo and myth; she is too great a society to be rigid minded and too precious a home silent on all her solvable problems. Here is the maxim: we must understand that as the earth revolve round it orbit, we as a people  must also grow up in the way we think and do things. There must be a constant change from time to time.
This evil myth that always express itself in us that "the way it has been" is better than "the way it should be" must be 'caught and cut' henceforth to the point it never exist amongst us again. Let's recover our minds that have been made sick by this myth and treat it to be healthy once again and see how greatly we will be transform inside out for the better. Therefore, fill your sphere of influence with this aura; it works indeed.

MOJ*