We have just gone past the holydays but the sentiment is still upon us. So, I have opted to share my views in light of the post-modern world on one hand and recent moves of solidarity between followers of various religious groups in Ethiopia. I recently came across a fascinating story. It is about an old math teacher and her little student. A boy went forth and asked his math teacher why she did not give him a passing grade. She told him that his answers were wrong citing the summation question of 2+2 as an example.
The boy’s answer was 22. The teacher told him that the right answer is 4 and not 22. However, the boy asked why it could not as well be 22. She explained that the rule of addition dictates we add up two and two – not for them to be merely put next to each other. However, the kid protested that there should be a possibility for his answer to be right as well. She then boldly confirmed to him that only her answer is right. The student informed his parents about the situation.
They came to talk to the teacher the next day and asked why she did not consider his answer as another option. The parents were also incensed by the teacher’s stubbornness in the face of their kid’s ‘progressive thinking.’ The teacher’s claim that her answer is the only right one and no other options are available made things worse. The issue then blew up nationally after the media took on the issue and invited ‘professionals’ to comment on it.
To my surprise, and to the teacher’s of course, the ‘professionals’ labelled her actions as ‘educational bullying’, ‘intellectual dictatorship’ and ‘educational authoritarianism.’ The school administration was put through a great deal of pressure following the media reports. The principal had to defend the school’s liberal approaches on national television and condemn the math teacher.
Then they decided to fire the teacher to demonstrate their sincerity. When the teacher went to school the next morning, the principal was waiting for her along with a number of journalists. He then informed her and the watching public of the twothousand dollar salary she would receive for the month and another twothousand dollar she would receive as compensation. Then, he extended his hand to give her the money which he remarked would be fourthousand dollar in total.
The teacher quickly declined to receive the money pointing out to him that the math was wrong as 2+2 is now twenty-two. I think the above story clearly demonstrates the social troubles of the contemporary post-modern world. It is a world where everything is not certain. Things seem to have an equal chance of being right and wrong at the same time as different people may perceive them differently. The result is a very loose confused society that is stripped off its social bonds.
The social standards for right and wrong are condemned by postmodernists as conservative techniques to subjugate individuals. Under such a system, all society would be left off is suspicion, doubt and division. The paradigm that doubts everything and basis itself on the relativism of truth and reality has spread around the world. It argues that truth is relative and thus absolute truth does not exist.
To religious societies such as ours though, absolute truth does exist and we call it God or Allah. By denying absolute truth, the paradigm is denying God or Allah and hence the paradigm is generally regarded as Satanic by theist groups. The ideology is, therefore, in direct conflict with our values and beliefs. It advocates atheism but we are a theist society. The incorporation of postmodern teachings into educational systems, arts, history and science, should notify theists around the world that Satan has declared a vast and far reaching war to conquer mankind. They say the world has joined the post-modern era since the late twentieth century.
That means we are at the early days of the ideology. However, our social and intellectual lives have already been affected by it. Atheism is spreading in our country. Our views on such topics as homosexuality and internationalism are changing quite drastically. The age of globalization is confronting us with new realities every day and we are expected to adjust ourselves to these changes. In doing so, we mostly adhere to the ‘progressive’ trends that are mainly the result of postmodernism. Accordingly, all theist groups around the world need to come together to identify their common enemy and exert all their effort towards containing its adverse impact. Post-modernism has presented itself as the nemesis of anything religious.
Therefore, religious groups need to make a conscious effort to identify their common enemy and fight it back with the tremendous power that they can potentially muster. Sadly though, religious groups are too busy fighting amongst themselves that they cannot even sense it when a common enemy is dispossessing them of their followers.
The situation was largely the same in Ethiopia until a few months ago. Leaders of religious groups fought against one another. Religious groups also fought against each other. However, recent developments have brought Ethiopian theists with numerous positive changes. Their leaders have made up with each other while there is a tangible effort to support one another. Religious leaders and followers convey very positive messages towards other religious groups these days.
It has become common for followers of other religious groups to clean the places of worship of another group right before a holyday. These are signs that the Ethiopian religious groups are ganging up against Satan – their common and true enemy. There is no wonder that there seems to be an air of optimism about Ethiopia’s future not only nationally but internationally. There are strong signs that we are mustering the energy to exorcise our social evils – racism, poverty, crime, etc.
Herald January 23/2019
BY TEWEDAJ SINTAYEHU
