“Any man who tries to be good all the time is
bound to come to ruin among the great number that are not good.” – Niccollo
Machiavelli.
Following up
on that offer to explain my understanding of power and its place in modern
society as a means to bringing clarity on the role of religion in the political
landscapes I want to first go back to the textbook definition of power.
pow·er
ˈpou(ə)r/
noun
1.
the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality.
"the power of speech"
2.
the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.
"the idea that men should have power over women"
Its clear that power in its
simplest from, and for the purposes of this treatise has to do with ability. But to be specific, I’d like to stay with the
second definition as it is of the most import in the argument I’m
going to lay out.
For millennia, mankind has grappled and
jostled with the idea of a deity. As far back as 10,000 years ago Chinese historians
record the presence of deity figures to whom was attributed the control and
dominion of the universe around them. The younger religions (speaking purely of
the nascent Abrahamic religions here) have claimed this to be false and stand
by their 6,000 year old theory of creation.
The origin of and creation of deities is of little concern here. What matters
is that they exist and people believe in them. The world as it is today is
divided into denominations who believe in one form of deity or other. If you
believe that mankind created God to explain the unexplainable world around him,
you are probably right. But also if you believe that God or a deity created man
and let them evolve over 65 million years and then at some point gave them
understanding you are also probably right. Why? Because it is all a subject of
belief. What you believe shapes your outlook on the universe, the world, the
continent, your country and eventually your neighbor.
Which brings me to the task at hand; you
argue that religion is in fact inextricably tied to the political culture of
countries; effectively making the argument that religion and its associated
vagaries will affect the political upheavals in countries if indeed politics is
the study of how people live together.
I argue that it doesn’t. I argue that elements like greed, corruption, social inequality, graft, cronyism and political
disruption/instability are more in effect when and where social upheaval occurs
than are the forces at war are of different religions. In a report from the Instituteof Economics and Peace a question was polled “How much conflict has religion
caused in the world?” The report came back with 14% of conflicts in the world
in 2013 were motivated by religion alone (although religion mixed with other
factors brought the figure up to 60%). Why is this so? Because the very nature
of upheaval and conflict in itself reflects a sense of anarchy, an element that
no religion condones. How could it? How would it then control its faithful? Anarchy
portends, disobedience, disorder, betrayal, defection, lawlessness and deviance.
All undesirable outcomes.
I also believe that the elements above central
to social disillusionment. How? Any role that religion might play is mostly as
a spark in igniting an existing dissatisfaction and fueling an already
underlying current of rage. For example, the Rwanda genocide has been said to
have been aided and fueled by religious elements, but closer analysis reveals
that the root causes were more socio-political. Therefore, if a society is
disgruntled and disillusioned therein already exists the recipe for a fire. It’s
simply which causal agent will provide the spark.
Secondly, you argue that the politics of a
country will often revolve around its religious inclinations. You are even
willing to say that it is difficult to define the political culture of a
country minus its religion.
I submit that the political cultures of most countries
(African in this case) present largely variegated religious demographics. While
these groups disagree occasionally, the political culture of most African
countries exists outside these religious faculties. This is not to denigrate
the role leaders and influencers play in these societies. However there are
more examples of social cohesion for the purposes of uprisings, upheavals and
rebellion around non-religious grounds like corruption, election reform or the
lack of it, injustice, tyranny, etc.
Alternatively, consider the “peace time”
activities of most African countries like appointments to office, election to
office, patronage, resource allocation, development prioritization and other aspects
of political culture most of them will be done with considerations that are not
principally or primarily religious in nature.
If on the other hand you were to consider the
“culture of honour” posited by Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers” you will
find that in societies with the honour culture; a culture signified by revenge
killings, reprisals, honour killings, and family honour being protected, created
a code. A code that makes society shun the likely peacemaker; the element of
reason. In such a society you will find that religion could find a place in
shaping and even enforcing a society’s own self view where people will steer
clear of idle threats (if they make a threat, they will see it through),
feeling bound to their word and a blunt and brutal approach to the realities of
their environment. In these cases, the
factors that shape these kinds of society are more societal and environmental
than religious. For an example, I’d like to use the Dinka tribe of South Sudan
and northern Uganda whom people have said are, in their natural habitat, very
trusting, generous and welcoming but also lethal, decisively swift and unrelenting
about slights against their honour. They could Christian, Muslim or even
Jehovah’s Witnesses. It doesn’t change who they are.
If you approach this from the “Spiderweb
economic theory” first broached by Malcolm X and later honed and refined by
Chika Onyeani in his “Capitalist Nigger” where the idea of ‘trading like the
Jews” is discussed and broken down, you realize that while the Jews did in fact
trade within their communities, the complex interwoven nature of their societal
setup makes it impossible to separate from their economy and religion. A rather
unique social glue. The theory basically states that the closely knit Jewish
community buy from Jews, will try as much as possible to keep their money circulating
within their community and that way they help each other develop and build
their community as a whole. This approach for you would of course raise the
questions of the impact of a shared history and a communal sense of persecution
they all share which further strengthened that historical bond. And going down
that route would lead you down the inevitably precarious path of separation of church
and state – which in that world is a slippery slope.
Having explained this I feel I must tie this
all together with how it all begun; with power. Religion carries the ability to
influence, to mollify, to invigorate and even instigate people. That is its
power. This power however is given to it by people’s choice to believe for
without the choice to believe religion holds no power over anybody and
therefore would have no ability influence the political culture of a society in
any way.
In a faithless state the power to influence
political culture would reside in and with people who had resources, means,
money, access to resources, information, state machinery, influence, an ear of
the leader, leverage over politicians, blackmail, intellectual superiority,
physical excellence and a host of other attributes that you could name. People
with these or access to any of these attributes would wield power because they
could lean upon them to influence events in their societal sphere of influence;
to protect themselves from the machinations of others, to advance individual
interests, to gain advantage over rivals and; sometimes, to just even the
playing field.
This theory seems to operate in the highly
amoral and evolutionary arena of “kill or be killed” and is safeguarded by the
old political adage “have no permanent friends or enemies” and would appear
idealistic upon first sounding. But upon closer scrutiny, you will agree with
me that this scenario is more real than ideal. It is one in which we live every
day; sworn enemies coming together to fend off common threats; an estranged
couple uniting to defeat an erstwhile ally now turned deadly foe, a national
Christian prayer overnight presided over by a confessed animist president, a
bishop who has sworn an affidavit changing his name so he can remain in power
past his retirement age, a national army caught in 3 wars across the region
juxtaposed against the housing condition of the Police Force, and other
examples. That is the reality we live in. Those with the ability
to move the pieces WILL move them. Irrespective of what they believe.
Over to you
