For many, blame seems like the easy way out aimed at justifying either one's failure, incompetence, or lack of vision towards a clear path or future.
Blame has become a tool used by many to shield their flaws or evil agendas- politicians, individuals, religious bigots, extremist, racist and many other groups have suddenly found safe haven in blame game but no matter the constant blame engaged in; blame is, and will always remain a temporal solution aimed at side lining the real issues at hand and giving supporters, member, electorates or oneself something to be occupied with while ignoring the pressing issues at hand.
There is a saying that goes: 'Drinking away your problem is only a temporal solution to the problem at hand, for when you get sober, you will find the problem right where you left it' and blame for most part of it, is like getting people or oneself drunk, but once the drunkenness clears from one's eyes, they will regret getting drunk and wish they had instead spend that time looking for solution. The truth is that when the blame game ends or start to fade as people slowly begin to realize the truth- chaos in most cases becomes inevitable. Just like individuals whom instead of work hard towards finding a solution or acknowledging their flaws, will look for who to blame for their failures.
Inother to further clarify this, it is important to point out some examples on important everyday topics like extremism in name of religion, politics, bigotry et al.
On extremism in name of religion:
When we talk about religious extremism in this 21st century, the first people that comes to mind are the adherents of the Islamic faith, this is in part, due to Muslims making headlines for committing crimes in name of religion. At some point this headlines or reports are distortion of truth on the part of certain media houses and on other part, it is simply a serious extremist problem among the Muslim community that some Muslims do not want to believe actually go on in their community- it is a case of living in absolute denial of the truth.
The dangers of blame game is such that it makes it impossible to find solutions to problems encountered. Blaming others is something 'some' Muslims constantly engage in instead of acknowledging their own failure in taming the 'mad dog at their backyard' or looking for ways to forge ahead.
Example is how United states of America is constantly blamed for all extremist problem in the Muslim community, be it their involvement in invading Iraq, Afganistan etc or their behind the door meddling in affairs of Muslim countries by sponsoring rebels, extremist group- over throwing government and causing distabilization. In most cases, this accusations are true about the American government but when 'some' Muslims spend all their time blaming US or others for their problem, they then fail to look inward and realize that to solve an internal problem, you have to look inward to find those things or those among your people that help create the problem.
As 'some' Muslims continue to blame America and some other countries for the problems encountered in their community, they then ignore to find solutions within and realize that no outsider can harm you except there are betrayals among yourselves- that very FACT ignored by many. Taking Nigeria into account, when bokoharam militancy turned to full blown bloody combat, Nigerians spent more time blaming themselves than actually seeking out solutions and those in the affected part(Northerners) had spent much energy accusing different groups and people outside their region of being bokoharam while failing to see that no one can operate in your community is such a manner without great help from some of your people, had they spent more time finding solutions inwards, perhaps, the bloodshed would have greatly reduced. Sometimes the simple solution to ensure a long term peace or avoidance of such occurrence(terrorism) is education and awareness but constant denial and blame makes it almost impossible to see the solutions right in front of one's eyes.
On politics, blame game has become the darling and savior of most politicians- a tactics which they use to get into power, consolidate on an already existing power or sway citizens into doing the politicians bidding.
One of such example is the fear mongering and blame politics unleashed across Europe where anti-islam politicians are using blame tactics to sway some electorates towards voting for them. Some European Governments losing grip on power due to either failing economy or fall in standard of living among their citizens will suddenly kick start campaigns against Muslims and on how Muslims plan to bomb their country everyday. They will spend time talking about how a civil war in Syria or Libya thousands of miles away from them threatens their country but a war in ukraine(their neighbor) doesn't? This type of pronouncements causes the citizens to be occupied with fear while the government continue in the blame game. When blame game seems not to work anymore, this government engage in direct warfare- launching a so called war on terror by leaving their country and going to country miles and miles away from them in search of so called terrorist.
Today in United States, it is widely believed that Donald Trump is winning the republican votes due to his blame directed at Muslims, immigrants etc. He spends more time blaming Muslims for their insecurity(even when FBI data shows that terrorist attack on American soil by non-muslims is 98% more likely than an attack by Muslim), he also blames Mexican immigrants for their unemployment situation and blame every other group for US problems but them self.
In Nigeria, we have situations where elected officials continually blame other's for their failures instead of realizing that they were elected to solve the problem and not make excuses. This is evident with Mr Buhari's administration who at the beginning, had spent many months blaming his predecessor for problems encountered than actually going full head to finding solutions. It is also evident with Mr Jonathan's administration who spent more time politicizing bokoharam insurgency or kidnapped victims than actually fighting it-.
On bigotry, many bigots for example, will proudly say 'they wish all Muslims were dead', and if asked why, would blame Muslims for all the whole insecurity in the world. This set of people think it is ok to wish for mass murder or death of a group of people yet they do not see themselves as psychos for having such tendencies towards annihilation of every Muslim on earth but this same people feel the black sheep among Muslim communities are psychos?
Blame is only a temporal solution for those who seek to hide their failures, incompetence and of course, evil ideologies and just like all temporal things in this life- blame also fades away sooner or later.
By Eedris Ngene.
Blame has become a tool used by many to shield their flaws or evil agendas- politicians, individuals, religious bigots, extremist, racist and many other groups have suddenly found safe haven in blame game but no matter the constant blame engaged in; blame is, and will always remain a temporal solution aimed at side lining the real issues at hand and giving supporters, member, electorates or oneself something to be occupied with while ignoring the pressing issues at hand.
There is a saying that goes: 'Drinking away your problem is only a temporal solution to the problem at hand, for when you get sober, you will find the problem right where you left it' and blame for most part of it, is like getting people or oneself drunk, but once the drunkenness clears from one's eyes, they will regret getting drunk and wish they had instead spend that time looking for solution. The truth is that when the blame game ends or start to fade as people slowly begin to realize the truth- chaos in most cases becomes inevitable. Just like individuals whom instead of work hard towards finding a solution or acknowledging their flaws, will look for who to blame for their failures.
Inother to further clarify this, it is important to point out some examples on important everyday topics like extremism in name of religion, politics, bigotry et al.
On extremism in name of religion:
When we talk about religious extremism in this 21st century, the first people that comes to mind are the adherents of the Islamic faith, this is in part, due to Muslims making headlines for committing crimes in name of religion. At some point this headlines or reports are distortion of truth on the part of certain media houses and on other part, it is simply a serious extremist problem among the Muslim community that some Muslims do not want to believe actually go on in their community- it is a case of living in absolute denial of the truth.
The dangers of blame game is such that it makes it impossible to find solutions to problems encountered. Blaming others is something 'some' Muslims constantly engage in instead of acknowledging their own failure in taming the 'mad dog at their backyard' or looking for ways to forge ahead.
Example is how United states of America is constantly blamed for all extremist problem in the Muslim community, be it their involvement in invading Iraq, Afganistan etc or their behind the door meddling in affairs of Muslim countries by sponsoring rebels, extremist group- over throwing government and causing distabilization. In most cases, this accusations are true about the American government but when 'some' Muslims spend all their time blaming US or others for their problem, they then fail to look inward and realize that to solve an internal problem, you have to look inward to find those things or those among your people that help create the problem.
As 'some' Muslims continue to blame America and some other countries for the problems encountered in their community, they then ignore to find solutions within and realize that no outsider can harm you except there are betrayals among yourselves- that very FACT ignored by many. Taking Nigeria into account, when bokoharam militancy turned to full blown bloody combat, Nigerians spent more time blaming themselves than actually seeking out solutions and those in the affected part(Northerners) had spent much energy accusing different groups and people outside their region of being bokoharam while failing to see that no one can operate in your community is such a manner without great help from some of your people, had they spent more time finding solutions inwards, perhaps, the bloodshed would have greatly reduced. Sometimes the simple solution to ensure a long term peace or avoidance of such occurrence(terrorism) is education and awareness but constant denial and blame makes it almost impossible to see the solutions right in front of one's eyes.
On politics, blame game has become the darling and savior of most politicians- a tactics which they use to get into power, consolidate on an already existing power or sway citizens into doing the politicians bidding.
One of such example is the fear mongering and blame politics unleashed across Europe where anti-islam politicians are using blame tactics to sway some electorates towards voting for them. Some European Governments losing grip on power due to either failing economy or fall in standard of living among their citizens will suddenly kick start campaigns against Muslims and on how Muslims plan to bomb their country everyday. They will spend time talking about how a civil war in Syria or Libya thousands of miles away from them threatens their country but a war in ukraine(their neighbor) doesn't? This type of pronouncements causes the citizens to be occupied with fear while the government continue in the blame game. When blame game seems not to work anymore, this government engage in direct warfare- launching a so called war on terror by leaving their country and going to country miles and miles away from them in search of so called terrorist.
Today in United States, it is widely believed that Donald Trump is winning the republican votes due to his blame directed at Muslims, immigrants etc. He spends more time blaming Muslims for their insecurity(even when FBI data shows that terrorist attack on American soil by non-muslims is 98% more likely than an attack by Muslim), he also blames Mexican immigrants for their unemployment situation and blame every other group for US problems but them self.
In Nigeria, we have situations where elected officials continually blame other's for their failures instead of realizing that they were elected to solve the problem and not make excuses. This is evident with Mr Buhari's administration who at the beginning, had spent many months blaming his predecessor for problems encountered than actually going full head to finding solutions. It is also evident with Mr Jonathan's administration who spent more time politicizing bokoharam insurgency or kidnapped victims than actually fighting it-.
On bigotry, many bigots for example, will proudly say 'they wish all Muslims were dead', and if asked why, would blame Muslims for all the whole insecurity in the world. This set of people think it is ok to wish for mass murder or death of a group of people yet they do not see themselves as psychos for having such tendencies towards annihilation of every Muslim on earth but this same people feel the black sheep among Muslim communities are psychos?
Blame is only a temporal solution for those who seek to hide their failures, incompetence and of course, evil ideologies and just like all temporal things in this life- blame also fades away sooner or later.
By Eedris Ngene.
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