"Might I venture to say that our most compelling imperative today--if one is
permitted to speak in those ways--is to reclaim the thickness of our tongues and
learn the names and faces of our neighbours; it is to realize that our worldview
is just a tittle in a never-ending sentence; it is to see that there are more
ways to learn than school and polished degrees could ever accommodate and more
ways to live than could be captured in a Facebook post. The imperative is to
recognize that our theories of change have to change and that urgency is not
always a function of increased effort and logical coherence. We must reacquaint
ourselves with allies that cannot be seen, too subtle for the modern eye, and
forgotten human capacities that are wondrous beyond compare, too outrageous for
rational thought.
We must recognize that our crises emerge from clinging too tightly to a single
story, from drinking out of a single drying wellspring while others flow
unattended. This recognition also implies that there are no convenient
'others,' no convenient enemies, and that we are the systems we oppose. It
means admitting that we don't know the answers, talk less of the questions --
and that's okay."
Bayo Akomolafe tells a story of western values in this thought-provoking
piece.
