The person that started the first school in the world, whether in a cave or under a tree, which one did he/she attend?
Who taught the first person that organized the accepted alphabets in your language?
The person that certified the number one degree holder in the world, which degree did he or she have?
Which Prof made the first professor in the world a Prof?
Who taught the first surgeon how to open the human body with blades?
Who gave capital to the first businessman or woman in the world?
Who tutored the first person that discovered that bitter leaf is edible and that onion and ginger are healthy spices?
Who taught the first driver how to move the wheels?
Who taught the first pilot how to fly?
Who taught the first astronaut how to build and operate a spacecraft?
Who taught the first cyclist how to ride?
Who taught the first couples how to knack?
Who noticed that what was wrong with the first mad person in the world was madness?
Who taught children how to cry?
How do you think man reacted to the first ever protruding stomach in the world, having not seen pregnancy before?
I don’t know what is passing through your mind right now after reading those posers, but these are everyday questions that may not have crossed your mind. And I want to drop more by reminding you that majority of the people in the world do not do their thinking by themselves. Their thinking is outsourced to their parents or children or spouses or lovers or clergy or teachers or doctors or the media or professional associations, as the case may be.
Very few people in the world are actually sustaining the planet with original thoughts. The rest of us only cascade those thoughts. For centuries and even millennia, the world has continued to culture us in the study of the original thoughts of others like Einstein, Aristotle, Akhenaten, Jesus, etc. All over the world, we go to school to study and become even professors, usually by studying the carefully preserved thoughts of others.
It could take you only a few minutes, for instance, to understand the Pythagorean Theory in a classroom, but the theory itself is the accumulated wisdom of centuries that Pythagoras had to wrestle with nature to draw down. People have studied up to Doctorate simply by interpreting what Jesus said in the 33 years he spent on Earth. The world’s best scientists are still relying on Einstein’s original thoughts to date to explore Space. Akhenaten’s one God proclamation still holds true over millennia as the basis for harmony in religious diversity.
The world is generally not comfortable with people who can think for themselves. You will be considered dangerous to the global order. We are all expected to conform and think in a particular trajectory that society expects of us. Any attempt to do otherwise is usually greeted with hostility and isolation. But it is from such seemingly heretical routes that history has favored the world to make epochal leaps.
And today is Nigeria’s Independence day. Let your mind be independent. Wake up this morning with positive energy and try to think for yourself. Face the rising of the Sun with humility and think out new ideas. Don’t worry. Worrying is not thinking. Thinking is a creative process that generates solutions. It is not the same as worrying over a situation. Try to think this morning. You may not be like Aristotle or Akhenatein, but take a moment and break away from the manacle and superintend your active mind and you will be happy you did.
Happy Independence Day!
Citizen Agba Jalingo is the Publisher of CrossRiverWatch and a rights activist, a Cross Riverian, and writes in from Lagos.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Agba Jalingo, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.
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