Some people performed an experiment with rats. They put some rats in a cage and made sure that they consistently had an abundance of food and water. They called it the rats’ paradise. Initially, the rats continued to hustle for the food and water. When they realized that feeding was no longer an issue, they lost motivation. Gradually they stopped mating, stopped moving around, stopped eating and then finally died, each and everyone of them.
The rats found purpose and reason for existence only in the hustle and bustle for material things. They could find neither purpose nor fulfillment inside of themselves or in who they were. Their drive came only from the pursuit of material things and it was the scarcity of the material things that made those things valuable and desirable to the rats rather than their intrinsic or inherent utility or value.
We are a nation of rats. We exist just for the purpose of pursuing after material things and the allure of those things come from their scarcity and not from their intrinsic value. We cannot produce a society of abundance because such would demotivate us. Our outlook on life, including our practice of religion, whatever be the religion, is derived from and supports or sustains the existence of a state of scarcity.
When you are a church leader and your boast is in Rolls Royce cars and mansions, you are a rat. The Christ that you preach did not care for those things. When you are a judge and your self worth is your net worth, you are a rat. Your fulfillment ought to lie in the justice that you deliver to the people. When you are a politician but your boast is in how much you have stashed away locally and abroad, you are a rat. The prosperity and peace that you bring to your people ought to be your pride. When you are a public servant and your pride is in the elite schools far beyond your official pay that your children attend, you are a rat.
Everyday in our churches, mosques and village gatherings we are set up to be rats and to perpetuate a condition of communal scarcity so that we can be kings over an impoverished people.
Published by Chuks Nwachuku
