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06-08-07, 12:28 AM
RLB wrote:
There are no limits to abstact thinking, The mind is a muscle and benifits from exercise. The futher you stretch it, the more flexable it becomes.
Black Intellectuals Cannot Afford 2B Impractical
Let’s not be so quick to concede that our thinking, that is also quite limited by the label of “Intellectual” thinking, is abstract. On the contrary, our ideas are quite practical. Our only difference is that we have the audacity to see beyond our current circumstances. Our hypothetical scenarios are not bedtime stories or the fantasies of a complicated board game, but the realistic plans of a people struggling to achieve change. We are the ones who think outside of boxes and we have always been punished for such.
The idea that thinkers will somehow hurt the “cause” is as ridiculous as the argument that the introduction of the Spinning Wheel for weaving garments of clothing was somehow a manifestation of Satan at the end of the 19th century. The reaction to intellectualism in this thread can be compared to a Nun’s bitter reaction to the child who keeps asking, “How do we know there really is a God?”
This kind of anti-intellectual, shut-the-f-ck-up and follow the crowd, thinking is self-destructive and defeatist. It is responsible for the lack of change not the advancement of positive change. It’s the source stagnation not evolution, of supporting the status quo; not challenging it. The very essence of existing in this condition makes us guilty of contributing to our own demise. It is ridiculous! No, I mean really ridiculous! Not the kind of “ridiculous” that a variety of posters try to generate when they are hell-bent on discrediting you and they sarcastically and condescendingly declare that your point is so absurd that it is funny, and kind of “ridiculous,” but the real kind. A kind that is not meant to mock, or clown or insult but to say, “What the hell is going on here? We are in trouble!”
The World is Crumbling and No One Cares
You can say almost anything in this thread and not alarm anyone. You could arrogantly exclaim that “it’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine,” and while it would be tossed around and debated, at the end of the day, it will be just another post in a long thread. Inversely, you could outline a master plan for the absolute liberation for our people, complete with timelines and contingency plans, and some idiot on this thread could say it was “a trap or a conspiracy of the white man”, and the whole idea could be squashed, just like that. Two to three posts later, after the vicious and threatened had an opportunity to insert a few good “mock & shock” posts, the original poster would be equivalent of the Black Judas.
Ideas and solutions pass through this entire forum like flies following a hot Chocolate Fudge Cake but very few people here seem concerned about catching them.
We are all in this forum for different reasons. I, for one, am here for idea formulation and to flesh out ideas in pursuit of a solution. Read my posts, I have always been after one thing and one thing only—Liberation. If you the reader are not here for a solution you might be here for other reasons, like . . . err . . . umh, therapy. Yeah, let’s just keep it real. For some, being anonymously engaged in discussion about life, hardships, hypotheticals, etc. serves as a form of therapeutic conversation. And, I think its fair to say that some of us are more interested in the therapeutic aspects of this discussion than others.
Allow me to demonstrate the role of the intellectual.
The Role of the Black Intellectual on a Deserted Island
The inquiry of the Black intellectual is not to say to the castaways on the deserted island, “What if our rescue involved transporter beams or worm holes?” (unless, of course, he really had some scientific data on that shite); but rather, to formulate and to consider all possible outcomes of the various practical means of escape, such as:
1) Do we have a radio and what could if do for our condition?
2) Do we have fresh water? Etc.
3) Do we have shelter? Etc.
4) Where will we locate latrine, etc.
5) Can we build a boat? Etc.
Now, no one can disagree that the above steps are practical and down-to-earth but let’s altar the situation slightly.
What "If" We Were On A Deserted Island?
What if I were to now propose that we just imagine, what we would do “if” we were stranded on a deserted island? Or, perhaps more timely for America, “what would you do if your vehicle crashed into a body of water?” Yes, it is a purely hypothetical scenario but, isn’t it a worthy consideration since there exists a real possibility, although some may argue small, that you could end up in a body of water and that you should know what to do in this event.
What Potential Plans Will Meet Our Needs?
From here, I can get even more hypothetical and ask, “what kinds of curricula will mentally and culturally nourish the children of the Contentint and of the Diaspora and what might it look like?” While this question is purely hypothetical, the intellectual/practical inquiry will have immensely practical results.
Nothing in the above outline can hardly be considered abstract and, after the proper due diligence, all of the ideas will culminate into real plans with real steps that will transcend the boundaries of thinking to become action.
We have been known by many names: prophet, soothsayer, priest, oracle, orisha, prognosticator and even revolutionary. But, as I have said before, we are always hated.
Holla!
Last edited by Neferkare; 06-08-07 at 02:31 AM.
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