AFRICAN PLUME

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ERA OF THIEVES, THUGS, & TOUTS (TT&T)

- March 21, 2023

By Akin Ojumu In Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring trilogy, we are introduced to a violent, and savagely race of monsters known as the Orcs. Once upon a time, these hideous creatures belonged to the race of beautiful, noble, princely and benevolent Elves. It came about that certain of the Elves were corrupted by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord and primordial source of evil. The souls of these Elves became darkened with evil, and they turned into ugly, brutish, aggressive, and malevolent beasts. The Orcs became the armed forces of Morgoth of Mordor. They were the foot soldiers in the war against the other races for the control of Middle-earth. Then, a fierce battle took place in the garrison at Osgiliath, the old capital of Gondor, between the race of men and the Orcs. Gondor was the most prominent kingdom of men in Middle-earth. In the Osgiliath’s battle, the Orcs prevailed. Upon their victory, Gothmog, the captain of the Orcs, bashfully declared: “The age of Men is over. The time of the Orc has

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS OF NIGERIANS

- March 20, 2023

By Akin Ojumu In 1967, Martin Seligman and his partner, Steven Maier, were researching animal behavior when they accidentally discovered the learned helplessness theory. They found that the dogs who had been exposed to a series of inescapable shocks stopped trying to get away from the electric shocks altogether. When Seligman and Maier tried this experiment with human beings (replacing the shocks with loud noises), they found that people had a similar reaction. The ones that couldn’t control the noise in the first experiment didn’t even bother trying to control it in subsequent trials – even though the aversive stimulus was now escapable. This research led to a new understanding of trauma. People that experience repeated abuse and other aversive situations eventually learn to become helpless if nothing they do changes it. It’s as if they internalize that since nothing worked in that situation, nothing will work in similar situations, either. The trauma begins to erode two other criti

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE OF HYPOCRITES

- March 18, 2023

By Akin Ojumu This age is full of shams. Pretense never stood in such an eminent position as it does at the present hour. There are few, I fear, who love the naked truth. Counterfeit has at length attained to such an eminence that it is with the utmost difficulty that you can detect it. The counterfeit so near resembles the genuine, that the eye of wisdom itself needs to be enlightened before she can discern the difference. Hypocrisy is defined as the practice of claiming to have moral standards or views to which one’s own behavior (or the behavior of people in our family or tribe) does not meet. It is a pretense of morality that cloaks our inability to meet some predetermined moral code. It is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it’s the failure to follow one’s own expressed moral rules and principles.

PONDEROUS PLATITUDES SAVE NO ONE (PART II)

- March 17, 2023

“Simplicity of the Gospel” By Akin Ojumu Drama has come to characterize the preaching of the message of the Cross. In order to keep them coming, ministers of the Gospel treat their audience to Hollywood performances worthy of the Oscars. Wild props are deployed, and weird costumes employed, for the purpose of creating blockbuster shows. Structure, setting, theme, voice, and tone all play crucial roles in keeping the attention-deficit audiences interested. If any of these elements happen to slip, the moviegoers’ – oops, I mean churchgoers’ – attention will falter. And since the audiences tend to be seated far away from the stage, the actors – I mean the pastors – exaggerate their facial expressions and gestures so that every member of the audience can follow the show. Remarkably, Christianity wasn’t always like this. The Lord Jesus was not a hysterical exhibitionist. When the twelve Apostles went about the harrowing task of spreading the Gospel from Jerusalem to Judea, they didn’t put

PONDEROUS PLATITUDES SAVE NO ONE (PART I)

- March 16, 2023

“Proclaiming the Gospel with Lofty Words of Eloquence” By Akin Ojumu “In promulgating your esoteric cogitations or articulating your superficial sentimentalities and amicable, philosophical, or psychological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosity. Let your conversational communications demonstrate a clarified conciseness, a compact comprehensibleness, no coalescent conglomerations of precious garrulity, jejune bafflement, and asinine affectations. Let your extemporaneous verbal evaporations and expatriations have lucidity, intelligibility, and veracious vivacity without rodomontade or Thespian bombast. Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic profundity, pompous propensity, psittaceous vacuity, ventriloquial verbosity and vaniloquent vapidity. Shun double-entendres, obnoxious jocosity, and pestiferous profanity, observable or apparent.” (Mark Twain). I love words. Creatively crafted words get me all juiced up all the time. I tend to go gaga every time I hear eloquently articulated

LETHALITY OF TOXIC TRIBALISM

- March 15, 2023

By Akin Ojumu Hate is a virulent pathogen to which all humans are susceptible to varying degrees. The virus is thought to spread from person to person through droplets of indoctrination and inculcation of propaganda released when an infected person talks, writes, or acts. The hate virus is known to infect individuals raised in the same household and have been under the influence of a chronically infected person. When parents are infected, they are most likely to pass it on to their children. As a familial infection, it is hereditary and passed on from one generation to the next. Several psychological and behavioral conditions are known to be caused by the virus of hate. These include the following debilitating diseases: 1. Bigotry, defined as extreme prejudice of any kind towards other people. 2. Xenophobia which is the fear and loathing of strangers. 3. Racism is prejudice or discrimination based on race and it’s informed by the erroneous belief that one’s race is inherently superior

TAKING SELF OUT OF THE GOLDEN RULE (PART III)

- March 14, 2023

“There’s No Good Without God” By Akin Ojumu All kingdoms have decrees and ordinances that guide the conduct of the citizens. This body of fundamental statutes, governing principles, and established precedents is often called a constitution. In addition, there are customs and values which, while they may be unwritten, also dictate acceptable social norms and guide appropriate cultural etiquettes. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus laid down the code of conduct by which those under His sovereign rule shall live joyously and victoriously even through the trials and tribulations that the enemy of their faith brings their way. These rules of engagement are totally antithetical to the modus operandi of this world. The manifesto of God’s kingdom contrasts sharply from the systems of the kingdom of the world. “So, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12). The Golden Rule, as the above Bible passage has come t

SICKENING PLOY OF RHODES-VIVOUR’S ENEMIES

- March 13, 2023

By Akin Ojumu It has become common practice in modern-day American politics to find political campaigns resort to political brinkmanship in order to gain advantage. Very often, politicians and their supporters fall back on crass shenanigans just so they can win. This is particularly true for a political campaign about to lose. One of the weapons you find such campaigns deploy is the “Kitchen-Sink Strategy.” Very often, you find a campaign on the brink of defeat unleashing a ‘kitchen sink’ fusillade against the opponent in order to regain any leverage they can. They throw everything at the opponent until there’s nothing else but the kitchen sink. Originally deployed by the Hillary Clinton campaign against Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries, the “kitchen-sink” strategy was subsequently adopted by the Republican Party against Obama in subsequent elections. This kitchen-sink strategy involved attacking Barack Obama with everything and on everything imaginable.

TAKING SELF OUT OF THE GOLDEN RULE (PART II)

- March 12, 2023

“I’ll Scratch Your Back Regardless” By Akin Ojumu As hard as he tries, man is incapable of doing anything good on his own accord. It doesn’t matter how well-intentioned or honorable, the good deeds man does are always contaminated by his self-seeking adamic nature. Man’s best efforts are grease-stained filthy rags. His motives are often murky, and his pretexts are always pretentious. What many confuse with the Golden Rule today, is nothing more than the ethic of reciprocity. It goes along these lines: Mr A. performs a deed at a cost to himself but that benefits Mr B. In return, Mr B. performs his own deed also at a cost to himself but beneficial to Mr A. Put together, the two deeds produce a net benefit for both Mr A. and Mr B. The costs to both individuals as a result of performing the good deeds are nullified by the benefit each received from the deed the other person performed. Without the reciprocal deed, however, it’s unlikely that either Mr A. or Mr. B will perform another deed t

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