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BNV Managing Editor
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Posts: 3,480
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: , ,
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imported post -
27-06-06, 11:24 PM
arakunrin wrote:
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The individual thing was a Western invention. Community has always been a Continental and a Diasporanic ideal. If you let people know about history, about Guns, Germs, and Steel, (by Jarod Diamond), you will let them know about how their communities have been under the wrath of fate and how they can learn the old ways to make themselves anew and how to live their lives jus that fully... it seems like rhetoric... I don't want to be a demagogue but it's just soo apparent to me... to save ourselves from annhililation within the human species...it's rhetoric...
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I fear you misunderstand what I mean by my reference to the individual. I am not speaking in the sense of individualismversus community. I am not saying we just exist as a bunch of individuals. The concept of 'COMMUNITY' and its central roleour African culture is not contrary to the point I am making here.
What I am saying is that when it comes to action, to effect change on the wider (community if you like) level it is not something one just waits to happen in some spontaneous way with everyone acting at once. It requires that each (and every one) of us who are enthused with an idea or motivated to 'do', go and ahead and DO. Waiting for everyone to be at the same stage and ready to 'go' before you (the individual) make your move to 'go', could mean that in effect no one 'goes'.
Of course there will be those among us who have the gift to lift and motivate large numbers into action as they head toward a common goal. But such a gift to motivate does not lie with us all. Yet what we can do (in the absence of being able to 'motivate on mass') is to do our thing anyway and try to convince others (by example or by preaching if youwish) to do likewise. In other words, in your sphere of influence (be it a few friends, family members or whoever) you try to make a difference by starting the ball rolling.
When I speak of the individual doing, I mean just that, as opposed to waiting for the many (whose supportultimately would be needed for complete success) to be at the same place as you, before you make a move.
You see, so often I hear people speak of what we (black people) must do, and I say to myself "Yeah that maybe very true, but what are you doing in the meantime whilst waiting for all black people to get the message",
Respect
There are those who feel that the only way to ‘prove their own worth’ is by ‘devaluing the worth of others’. You will often find that a man who is compelled to measure his substance against the substance of another, has little of substance in the first place!
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