The things that enslave us most are those that we do not want others to know about us. But this includes those things that make us feel uncomfortable talking to others about us. When God created mankind, he did not create separate individuals. This is why the truism, “do unto others as you would like them to do unto you,” will forever be true. What also applies is that any of the bad things you do against others are sure to boomerang against you, even more harmfully.
When seeking to project his best, the person assumes that whatever would be bad about him would remain hidden. One would, actually, be protecting such bad things, at the expense of what is good about him. For instance, if one hides the fact that he is an adulterer, no-one else would know about that reality. But the sin of adultery will eventually catch up with him, and cause more harm than he could have imagined. This is just as we are familiar with the dreaded messy divorce cases and the effects of the AIDS pandemic. Yet the person would have sought to appear good in the eyes of the public.
There is also another phenomenon, typical of what has caused denominationalism in Christianity. If you feel uncomfortable talking to another person, it is always because you would be hiding something. Most people would deny this. But this can be clinically checked and found to be true. Otherwise, what is it that causes a person to cut communication with a friend or an associate? If one holds to some truth that the other person does not understand, why switch off communication with the person concerned?
It is always the darkness that disappears in the presence of light, not the other way round. Why would the person who assumes to have some truth decide to switch off communication? Misunderstandings imply that the other person could be right while the other would be wrong. The principle of treating another person as yourself enables one to pay attention and respond in a manner that would be reasonable to both people. Nothing surpasses communication in human relations.
There is nothing in this world that one can put blame on anyone else except himself. One loses control over anything that he blames. But one adopts control over that, for which he accepts blame, as to do something about it. We are our brothers’ keepers, just as those brothers ought to be our keepers. Any evil that our brothers commit in this world affects us as well, because of our interrelationship with them. Similarly, anything good done by any brother can positively affect everyone. This can be analogized to the functions of the human body. What a hand does, affects the entire body.
Humanity was created to operate as a highly conditioned engine so that each part functions faultlessly to serve the entire unit. Clearly, anything can be accomplished successfully for the benefit of everyone, as long as everyone cooperates. Let us suppose I need transport to get into town. This can be a real hustle, as long as the commuter operator is not reliable in providing that service.
Suppose I am a farmer, out in the farming areas, desperately in need of transport to visit places, for whatever reason. Instead of keeping a vehicle in my backyard, I would have entrusted a specialist in the transport business to provide that service? I would then effectively concentrate on my farming business, knowing that my transport needs are catered for. The transporter would be skilled in his transport business, just as I would also be skilled in farming operations.
What makes this highly attractive, is that the transport operator would be highly specialized in the transport industry. Just as I would also be specialized in my farming endeavors. Both of us would be guided by the principle of doing unto others as desiring them to do to us. In other words, a farmer enjoys in his farming activities, just as the transport operator finds joy in that field.
Both are passionately doing what they know best, in serving others. The farm producer ensures that his clients, one of which is the transporter, get highly nutritious farm products. The transport operator also ensures providing high-class professionalism in transport operations. He enjoys managing his business, in the same way, that a professional footballer enjoys playing football.
The farmer, in this case, is not a person who wishes to keep the Mercedes Benz, just as a status symbol. He envisages that such types of vehicles have got no business in his farming activities. In other words, his farm is equipped only with those implements that are necessary to produce the best products on the farm. Fortunately, his transport needs would be availed at the press of a button.
We are also not talking about a transporter who meddles in activities for which he has no interests, except transport. That transport operator sleeps comfortably, trusting the professionalism in farmers who produce the best farm products. These professional performers may have common interests in sporting and religious activities. Although there would be diversity in those fields, also professionally coordinated. The only unnecessary professionals being in the military and law enforcement agents.
As people would be guided by the principle of altruism, the law-enforcement agents would be unnecessary. That principle also makes politicians, barely necessary. There might be people trained to operate as ushers in public gatherings. Legislators and councilors would not be as desirable as they are currently necessary. Citizens would be responsible to serve one another, in their respective endeavors. This is premised on the datum that [No human is greater than others].
With the advent of social media, communication would be as easy as pressing the button, for service. This describes an ideal situation where no-one does what he would not be qualified or uninterested in. Everything would be guided by the principle of altruism. Only ten percent of the current staff in public service would be required, just for coordinating communication and educational materials on policies.
It is true that farmers face challenges—like droughts and other unforeseen catastrophic disasters. But altruism, as applied across all other sectors, takes care of their needs. The same applies to the transport operators, who occasionally face fuel challenges, as to be unable to effectively do their business. The same principle addresses various other challenges, like health and common diseases.
There would be no need to handle criminality and accidents, as people would care for human life, above everything. Not by force, but using common sense. There are those advancing a postulate that criminals will always be there. That sounds true, but there is always a cause for the existence of criminals. No human being was ever created to be a criminal. A newly born child would be raised under a culture of altruism, making it impossible to develop such warped thinking in his upbringing.
The reason why any person becomes evil is poor communication—whether between parents and children or between teachers and children. In an ideal scene, parents fully appreciate the responsibility of teaching their children according to the principles of altruism. The same applies to teachers towards children under their tutelage. Teachers would not even need supervisors above them. They would be trained professionals, enjoying their stuff.
It might be necessary for an administrator to coordinate the teaching activities, but not to supervise teachers. An ideal scene leaves no room for unprofessional people to be found where they are not supposed to be. The code of Ethics applied among those of the same profession, enabling everyone to conform or not conform. Anyone who feels uncomfortable with conforming to the code applicable in that profession ceases to belong there.
Such an environment enables negative performers, to be perfectly handled idyllically. The source of such bad apples could be traced. Although the ideal scene molds good parenting. Parents would operate according to the perfect rules of parenting. As long as having more of what would be positive, the negative behavior becomes impossible. This is just as when there is more of what would be negative, it becomes impossible for what is positive to exist. The media would serve only to highlight the positive.
The question may arise, as to why it appears impossible to apply such a philosophy in the present environment. Others have attempted to advance such ideas in the past. Dr. Nkosona Moyo is renowned for having tried to foster what he termed as meritocratic governance. He lost dismally in the election, notwithstanding the nobility of the principles that he had put across.
Our problems are a result of focusing on negative things rather than positive things. The entire country languishes in apparent failures. But without appreciating causes of failures in the last forty years. It takes only a wise person to learn from his mistakes. Obviously, it is insanity that assumes continuing doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. We live in an environment that seeks to degrade good things when upgrading bad ones.
The best ideas of Dr. Nkosana Moyo were appallingly degraded, being considered as laughable. The winners were those with a history of bad performances. Their manifesto resonated with the voting populace. A society under an aberration assumes that bad-mouthing ZANU PF is what is normal. They also assume that it is normal to talk about how bad Zimbabwe is, yet doing nothing about it.
This is a society under an aberration, seeking to blame others, except self. It carries insane people who point fingers at each other for an unflushed toilet. They could, actually, kill each other, leaving the toilet still unflushed. It takes only a normal person, to assume the responsibility to flush and clean the toilet. Before seeking to educate others on the importance of proper usage of the toilet.
Responsibility has got nothing to do with blaming others. It also has got nothing to do with positions of leadership. It, naturally, refers to putting order where there would be no order. Those blaming others for wrong things, whether blaming ZANU PF or MDC, are the worst enemies of freedom. Yet such people are always treated as if peace-loving. At least ZANU PF or MDC would be trying to do something.
Who benefits out of listening to those good at blaming others? Such people are good at fanning evil, by highlighting everything bad. They magnify those bad things as if more important than anything said to be good. This is an environment with people who assume that it is perfectly normal to always talk about how bad Zimbabwe and its political leaders are.
Such negative megaphones sit in the comfort that they, themselves, can never be politicians to change things in Zimbabwe. They degrade those, talking about changing things for the better, like Nkosana Moyo. Such is the abnormal condition of the environment we live in. It revolves around criticizing everyone and making the critic appear as better than everyone else.
The majority of them are found in the diaspora. While foreigners, like Donald Trump, say bad things about Africa, they are quick to blend in singing that chorus. However, they fail to realize that the person being degraded as having neglected their country would be themselves. A responsible person does not blame others for what is wrong in his environment. He acts to restore order, where necessary.
A responsible person is not a coward. That person wakes up to restore order in an environment that needs order. He sits to ponder about the degradation that has taken place in Zimbabwe. He seeks to draw up ideas that would be necessary to take the country out of the quagmire. That person becomes the center of the solution, rather than the center of confusion. In other words, he does not talk about problems in Zimbabwe, for which he understands as having been caused by himself. He trusts himself as effective enough to handle whatever is problematic in Zimbabwe. He focuses on what would be positive, rather than what would be negative.
What makes everything even more disturbing is that Christianity leads, in terms of blaming the politicians. They claim to be apolitical but huffing voices of disapproval in their religious confinements. If they are apolitical, what would they subscribe to, that would improve the lives of ordinary people? The question should be on whether they would care about what happens to the ordinary man on the streets, or not? If the answer is yes, what are they doing to help those people? If there is something they could, actually, do then they would be the solution to the problem.
Andrew Masuku is the author of Dimensions of a New Civilization, laying down standards for uplifting Zimbabwe from the current state of economic depression into a model for other nations worldwide. A decaying tree provides an opportunity for a blossoming sprout. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is a product of inspiration, bringing relief to those having witnessed the strings of unworkable solutions––leading to the current economic and social decay. In a simple conversational tone, most Zimbabweans should find the book as a long-awaited providential oasis of hope.
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