By Prof. Protus Nathan Uzorma
In the science of philosophy, there is a principle called the principle of contradiction which says that two propositions are contradictory if they cannot both be true and both be false at the same time. If it is true for instance, that a particular man is running it cannot be true that the same man is sitting down at the same time. A thing cannot be said to be true and false at the same time. That the Christ, the sinless Messiah was crucified and Barabbas the criminal was released authenticated the topsy-turvy of life inherent in the manipulative propensity of human government.
Barabbas was a well known criminal who deserved death in accordance with the principle of justice and Christ was sinless. Both were brought to Pilate (from the prison) for execution of justice during the Feast and it was necessary for one prisoner to be released as demanded by the custom, the Bible says “And Pilate when he had called together the Chief priests and the rulers and the people said to them, ye have brought this man unto me ……I have examined him before you, have found no fault in this man…I will therefore chastise him, and release him… and they cried out all at once, saying away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas” Luke 23:13-20.
Bad things have always happened to good people. The case of Christ (the good man) and Barabbas (the bad man) is a clear reflection on how the world loves evil rather than good and like Williams Shakespeare “I had rather have a fool to make merry than experience to make me sad”. For Aristotle, “The high minded man does not bear grudges, for it is not the mark of a great soul to remember injustice but to forget them”. Posterity will certainly condemn us if we attempt to forget the high level of political manipulation and ignoble economic policies hitherto experienced in our political setting.
Aristotle further opined, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.“ Happiness is a great love and much service” noted a philosopher. Happiness consists in activity. Such is the constitution of human nature. It is a running stream, and not a stagnant pool. Happiness is where you find it! Is in you, but outside you, yet truly from you and magnets the you in others and the you find it in others, yet in you.
A big dog saw a little dog chasing its tail and asked “why are you chasing your tail so?” Said the puppy, “I have mastered philosophy, I have solved the problems of the universe which no dog before me has rightly solved, I have learned that the best thing for a dog is happiness and that happiness is my tail. Therefore I am chasing it and when I catch it I shall have happiness. Everyman no matter what his condition is desires it. Man by nature desires happiness with such earnestness that he prefers it to other things. It is of note however that whosoever that desires other things, desires them for this end alone.
Men of different cultures, have adopted various ways of living, yet, in whatever kind of life man chooses, he does so for the sole aim of happiness. By this I mean that he that is good is therefore good that he may be happy, one who is evil on the other hand does so for the purpose of being happy. A great deal of controversy may revolve around this expression consequent upon the rules which social laws are based.
Every person on earth seeks happiness and not all knows where to find it. That is why some people search for it in wealth, others in pleasures of the body. The wise seek their happiness in true knowledge or in virtue. Philosophers search for it in wisdom. All of the above tend towards the same goal by a multiplicity of ways, and the goal they seek is the delight they hope to enjoy in being happy. The first movement is of the soul to know and identify the object that offers him the happiness. Yes, none can love what he cannot know.
This knowledge, must concern the beauty, charm, and attractiveness of the beloved object. In the words of Aristotle, “Happiness is at once the best, the noblest and the pleasantest of things”. According to Greek physics all bodies, the smallest as well as the greatest, are carried by their natural weight towards a particular place in the universe. “Fire tends to rise, a stone tends to fall.
Drawn by their weight they reach their proper places. Oil released under the water makes its way above it. Water poured over oil slides beneath it. Both are carried by their weight towards the place that is proper to them. And this place towards which they are drawn is the place in which they come to rest”. Under the impulse of a power given by nature, everybody tends towards that state which is natural to it, and in which alone it finds rest and stability.
Now the human soul according to St. Augustine is subject to this same law. “It only tends towards what it loves, so that attaining it, it may find rest”. The power that draws it is like an interior weight that puts pressure on the will, and the power is called love. For Augustine, “Just as the body gravitates according to its weight, so also the soul, in whatever direction its movement tends, is carried along by love”.
It becomes evident that love is a vital necessity for man; he loves, in fact as naturally as he breaths. Love is the secret key to happiness. The question re-echoes, do we deserve to be happy? Have our great political leaders crucified our collective happiness? The way things are going, do we truly deserve happiness? In the words of the great (shakespare), “Oh how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes”. The happiness that greeted many of us has left us on the altar of mismanaged mission the type that looks like a beautiful egg with a rotten yoke. No wonder happiness makes up in height for it lacks in length.
There is no doubt that the greatest enemy of happiness that greeted us then is the present pestilence that now speaks volume and haunting every sector with a height level of unknown truth buried in karmic cemeteries. The outcome of this is that both the leaders and the led are unhappy. From the federal to local government areas the faces of the led (except the few opportune ones that have the golden cake) show a high level of disequilibrium and sadness.
In the words of Francis Thompson, “Happiness is the shadow of things passed, which fools still take for that which is to be”. Are we now the fools Francis Thompson talked about still expecting happiness as a thing to be (come)? I am aware that the supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we (the poor masses) are loved. According to John Dewey, “To find out what one is fitted to do and to secure an opportunity to do it is the key to happiness”. The duplicity that has ravaged the minds of our political leaders have made many people to resort to stealing and kidnapping in order to meet up the daily demands of the society. Today, we are all disappointed because our leaders have gone inquest of a happy life by seeking the pleasures of the lower life. Is it what they are voted or fitted to do? Have they finally secured the opportunity to do it as a result of our mandate? They have forgotten Aristotelian assertion that “The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law”. Yes, there is no greater equality than the equal treatment of unequal.
This is a heard saying but those who know shall rightly understand that the wise men learn much from their enemies. Do we deserve to be happy? Oh to ensure that they rule us ‘well’, the same people now send their own children overseas or expensive institutions to continue their studies while they turn around and converted the sons of the poor into political thugs with instruction to kill anyone who oppose their ambition.
Now that some of the young men have disappeared with their guns to unknown destination, the same politicians who sowed the seed of bitterness, disharmony, anarchy and bloodshed want those young men whom they have used, abused and dumped to become saints in one day to enable them (politicians) live in peace and enjoy their loots. This is like saying that one can bath with an acid and sleep in peace without being hurt. Do we deserve to be happy?
All hands must be on deck to restore our dignity. Like Shakespeare would say, “They do not love that do not show their love”. The only way to prevent what is past is to put a stop to it before it happens. It’s only on this note that we can be happy.