WE ARE ALL ROBOTS

According to Reno Omokri, from the cradle to the grave, humans are nothing but robots. I pondered on this assertion of his for a while, dwelling deeply on life as a whole, and I couldn’t agree less. We live in a world where humans, women to be precise, serve as a passage for children from the realms of the mystical to that of the physical. People are born into families that possess certain rooted ideologies, belief, lifestyle and idiosyncrasies, and once you come in through that channel, you automatically are by default a member, and are tied to same values, norms and belief of the family you are born into, without your consent. One might argue that as a child, one isn’t mature enough to make decisions as enormous as that for him or herself, and that the parents or guardians of a child would only seek the best for their offspring, and thus, bring them up with principles that was bestowed on them when they were children too. The child is made to grow along this line, with little or no intention of a deviation, because a deviation may supposedly lead to destruction. You can term that a parental brainwash born out of love and protection for the child.

On the flipside of this, what happens when a child grows all up, with a mind of his own born out of education, interaction with his immediate environment of that of afar, association with people of different culture, race, religion, ideology, lifestyle and idiosyncrasies? There is no gain saying that in the world we live in today, most families who nurture children in a particular line be it race or religion bring their kids up with the mindset that that of others is inferior, dangerous and a wrong path to be threaded upon. Religion and race have been deliberately selected because these two phenomena go a long way in the complete construct of a human being. The mind of a man is the most powerful piece that makes him what he is with or without his knowledge. When the mind of a man is conquered, his whole being is automatically conquered. So, when a child from his cradle stages of life is not just brought up in a kind of way and is made to believe that the other ways are bad, that could go a long way in creating a false reality in the life of the child and makes him or her develop hatred or disgust for that which he or she hasn’t really had a firsthand experience of.

 Why do most whites grow up to be racists? Why are Muslims and Christians all over in a daily clash of physical, weaponized and even cold wars? What are the variables that has birthed an enmity between people of different races and religions since time immemorial?  A man born into a Christian family automatically becomes a Christian with or without his consent. Same applies to one born into a Muslim family. A child born into a white family also automatically becomes a white folk.  Same applies to a colored child. So, why the societal degradation and discrimination of one race or religion by the other when none of them at the beginning have an insight into why they exist distinctively on different sides? I recently watched a documentary on Aljazeera on the long clashes between Muslim and Hindu faithfuls, and I pondered, what if these two sects fighting were born into same faith? Would this violence still exist? What if Christians do not see all Muslims as threats and potential suicide bombers. What if Muslim brethrens do not look down on Christian brothers as infidels and no lives. What if a white man from Russia or a Caucasian sees a random black man and does not channel into his already polluted mind that always reminds him that blacks are just elevated monkeys who got tired of the wild and are to be trampled upon. What if children were given a liberation of the mind, just like they get blessed when they are about to sojourn on a journey in which parental guidance and supervision won’t be necessary. My point is simple, children should be trained in the way they should grow, but a point should come in a child’s life where he gets to take salient decisions on the path they want to go. Most people in the world today are typical construct of robots who only act based on principles and knowledge that have been inculcated in them. I am not completely downplaying the importance or credibility of these already laid down principles in the life of children, but I am concerned about the role played by the children in these decisions. People should grow up with the mindset of reassessing the knowledge gathered from their tender ages till where they are at the moment. That is what defines a man. Is that which you do now a product of your thought, assessment and decisions, or that of another man who seems to hold a stronghold of your mind? Until your actions are the result of your self-assessment and indignation, then you are nothing but a walking robot, subject to a direct mind manipulation. The late Bob Marley in his song, Redemption Song says and I quote, “emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds’’. Most people end up sticking with that which they grew up with, but the difference between them and others is that their decision was personal, even if nothing has changed about their lifestyle, it is what they have chosen to be, and not the dictates of another.

written by Tony Onuoha