THE MYTH OF SELF DEFENSE

 THE MYTH OF SELF DEFENSE

You spot a stone throne at you coming from far, you automatically move your body away from it and if it is not possible, you protect your eyes to rather be hit on your hand. You act the same way when your significant others or property is at risk. This is natural instinctive self-defensive response for survival. When someone attacks you, you become aggressive in defense and sometimes, the attacker ends up as the loser or the casualty. Humans as opposed to animals can foresee a danger coming even months or years earlier and begin to plan for defense. A good example is how many countries are strengthening their armies for a possible WW3 in view of ongoing conflicts like Ukraine-Russia or Israel-Palestine. Humans also work to protect not only themselves but their vital interests like land, property, families and territories. Another interesting angle to defense is the suggestion where humans respond to warnings from people suggesting to them that they are in danger. That is why if you start running frightened in a congested city pointing behind you saying that they are coming, the street will be chaotic with people running for their lives out of the suggested danger.

The suggested dangers have caused many troubles in the world we live in. How many of us have cut out communication with people just because someone told us how evil that person was? How much suggestion did we receive about a certain tribe as far as being warned not to marry from there?  Ever heard of vote against someone in our politics? It is said that Mount Kenya people do not historically vote and when they do, it is more about voting against rather than voting for. As a result of the suggested danger, for example, those people have voted many times against Raila. Suggested danger also makes people coalesce together to strengthen their defense. This is what has always made us grouped as tribes and regions. The bright politician then always suggests that our tribe or region is in danger and once they have all of us together, they take us with them to the negotiating table to get positions and resources for themselves and their families.

Suggested danger is the power of many politicians and world leaders. That was also a factor for Trumps win with weird statements like that foreigners were eating citizen’s cats and dogs. The holocaust that left over 6 million Jews dead began by the Nazi regime suggesting to its citizen that Jews were a dangerous people. The historical conflicts in our country like post-election violence came about the same way. We must therefore stay wary of people suggesting to us that a particular people are dangerous rather, we must treat every human being as an individual because that is the essence of love as taught by the bible.

Proverbs 28:1 says, ‘The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.’  Does it mean that someone is wicked when they respond to warned danger and that righteousness will make us bolder?

 

@Stephen Mungai