The tyranny of the intellect
What you need to know:
- In Kenya, a political disagreement marks one as an enemy of the other, with the threat of physical elimination.
- When physical colonialism ended, ethnic chauvinism by some groups took deep root.
- Democracy normalises the political greed of larger groups.
You are my opponent, or critic – not my enemy – if we disagree on a social or political issue, unless you want to kill me over the tiff. Contestation and criticism, no matter how loud and boisterous, are the foundation of human prosperity and political democracy.
In Kenya, a political disagreement marks one as an enemy of the other, with the threat of physical elimination. This inflexible intolerance is based on the tyranny of the intellect – the assumption that if you don’t agree with me, you are a moral inferior not fit to live.
It’s a holier-than-thou complex that’s deeply planted in the psyches of supremacists of every hue. Right now, Kenya is in the catatonic grip of this schizophrenia.
Kenya isn’t new to extremism. The country was born in an orgy of colonial white supremacy. When physical colonialism ended, ethnic chauvinism by some groups took deep root.
Sub-national antagonisms
These sub-national antagonisms have become the greatest threat to Kenya’s democratic experiment.
To be fair to Kenya, no country on earth has completely extinguished the politics of domination based on identity. Political democracy itself isn’t an antidote to ethnic or racial exceptionalism.
That’s because majoritarian rule allows numerically superior groups to capture the state and marginalise, or even politically enslave, statistically smaller groups. Democracy normalises the political greed of larger groups. The only way out of this morass is constitutional limits on the power of majority groups over minority ones.
However, constitutional limits alone will not suffice. We need to hardwire – or rewire – the moral architecture of our people. I know many Kenyans who will immediately submit to a white man – no matter the “request” but pour scorn on a fellow Black African.
Two examples. Just watch how Black Kenyan workers in the hospitality industry kowtow and genuflect to white people while ignoring, or being gruff, to fellow Blacks. I’ve been served last in many places even though I got there earlier than a white customer.
Primitive epithets
Equally painful, I’ve listened to fellow Black Kenyans from one ethnic group spit the vilest abuses, and hurl the most primitive epithets, at Black Kenyans of another ethnic group.
It breaks your heart. That’s why we must re-engineer our morality. What would make a Black Kenyan coil his tail between the legs in front of a white man but bare his fangs at a fellow Black African? This leads to statements such as “he’s hardworking because he’s a Kikuyu”, or “she’s lazy because she’s Taita”. We often devalue, or elevate, people because of their identity. It makes me sick to my stomach.
Bottomline is we often equate identity with intelligence and ability. This tyranny of the intellect has infected every sphere of our national life. It stretches not only to identity but to politics. Today, for example, you are either morally inferior, or superior, whether you support, or oppose, BBI.
Often we think life exists in black and white. We have no concept of nuance. Most of us are irredeemable simpletons. In fact, most of life is grey. However, we are trapped in the morality plays that only exist in the binary. Thus, you are either good, or evil. Nothing in between. That’s not to say we should be a chameleon, or “watermelon” to use Kenyan lexicon. It’s to say there’s a futility to “both-sideism”. There’s not always an “us-versus-them”. We know in sexuality, for example, the world isn’t simply male and female in the nomenclature of heteropatriarchy. That’s why we’ve evolved to recognise LGBQIA+. Let’s agree that those who aren’t like you, or disagree with you, aren’t demons.
Pointing accusing fingers
This is the question – how to get from here in the cesspool of toxicity to a plateau of higher human intelligence that recognises the inherent worth and dignity of each one of us. How do we stop pointing accusing fingers at each other in conceited righteous anger? Again, I see that the BBI debate is the new battleground between “saints” on the one hand, and “devils”, on the other. Neither side is angelic.
Similarly, neither side is demonic. What’s true is that there are deep, political, legal, and policy differences. The motives behind the positions of the contending parties are legion. That’s politics – it’s driven by many factors including ambition and the seduction of power. There’s no purity.
I am not debunking the tyranny of the intellect to stop debate, or equate the moralities of the players. What matters isn’t who’s “right” and who’s “wrong”. I am concerned with civil debate and serious public deliberation devoid of demonisation and calumny.
The slogan of the Washington Post, one of America’s most revered news outlets, is “Democracy Dies in Darkness”. It means that unfettered, ethical, and open debate is the oxygen and the sunlight of the democratic experiment. We won’t rewire our morality if we don’t understand that those who disagree with us are not “wakoras” or enemies. They are opponents – let’s treat all as our dialogic fellow citizens.
@makaumutua
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