HIGHER DIMENSION: THE DISTANCE BETWEEN PRIMITIVITY AND HUMANITY- BY NKWETATANG SAMPSON NGUEKIE

What is Primitivity?

Primitivity is the beastly level of the human being where she still relies solely on crude tools like conventional and nuclear weapons as her measure of ultimate power and self-esteem.

What is humanity?

Humanity is the Godly level of the human being where she relies solely on the love from her heart to solve every given problem through all-inclusive dialogue and peaceful negotiations.

You are welcome to The Higher Dimension.

Since creation to date, the human being has passed through several phases of civilisation. She has learnt how to think, how to write, how to read – how to communicate, how to eat and drink in a grand style, and how to pose in the public with pomp and pageantry, but not yet how to be human. If all wars must end with peaceful talks, then, why not just engage the peaceful talks at once without going to war? I don’t know why Logic is so difficult for these empty-headed Presidents of countries in the world to comprehend.

If you go to school and graduate without learning how to be human, then, it was better you never went there at all, because there would be no difference between you and a lion whose best moment is when it has devoured a prey. 

The best moment of most countries on earth is when they have had a victory in battle. King Arthur’s knights of The Round Table threw the most sumptuous parties in Camelot whenever they had victories in battles. So did the Franks, the Vikkings and the Romans. Why do human beings celebrate bloody victories more than any other victories? It is because of their primitivity.

To be very honest, it spanks my common sense hearing the United States of America, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany, Israel, Iran etc. bragging that they are world super-powers because they possess the most sophisticated weaponry. What a show of primitivity! How can a country be a world super-power by virtue of her possession of the most sophisticated armoury? I cannot blame them anyway. If you don’t know what real power is, you will mistake any nonsense for it. 

Since the world was created to date, I respect only two countries which I esteem were world super-powers. And these two countries are no others than Greece and Egypt (Athens and Alexandria) for their enviable craftsmanship, architectural, astrological, scientific and technological wizardry.

I watched a vampire film titled “Lincoln” in which the Mentor said to the Protagonist, “Real power is found in the truth.” When you fail to tell yourself the truth, you don’t have any power. You are weak. Alexander the Great spent his entire life deceiving himself – that he was one of the greatest conquerors of all time. But on his deathbed, he fervently wished that he would be very happy if in his next life, he should not be Alexander, but his Mentor, Aristotle who did not kill anybody, but left behind a mightier legacy than him.

Are you hungering and thirsting to find real power? Should I tell you where real power is found? Real power is found in the library. Real power is found in books. Real power is found in reading. By my reckoning, the greatest thing which the United States of America can boast of as a world super-power is The Library of Congress. Hollywood and Silicon Valley follow. My most admired scholars from that country including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., David Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson were products of the library.

If Alexander the Great was to go to hell, God could pardon him and send him to paradise just for one reason. He opened and stocked The Library of Alexandria in Egypt which became the largest library in ancient history, and gave nurture to celebrated scholars like Galen and Archimedes who soon rivalled those of Athens.

If a country wants to impress me as a world super-power, that country should open the largest library in the world; not the largest nuclear weapon manufacturing plant in the world. Alhaji Aliko Dangote has just impressed me with his opening of the largest oil refinery in the world. That virtuous employment colossus is also a manifestation of real power.

The prime objective of the military might of a country is not to defend the country in times of war. It is to frighten other countries with it. Psalms 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” Real power does not frighten people. It attracts them. It does not put people asunder. It brings them together. Plato chose his own path by writing an apology to his Master, Socrates. 

How many of us write apologies nowadays? Why are our fingers always sharpest on our computer and telephone keyboards only when we are writing quarrelsome replies? It is because of our primitivity.

The human being still has a very long distance to trek from primitivity to humanity. As long as man lives, there must always be conflicts, but the manner in which we resolve our conflicts is clearly evident of our level of enlightenment. Using wars to resolve conflicts is primitivity. Using all-inclusive dialogue and peaceful negotiations to resolve conflicts is humanity. 

Real power is not in our hands. It is not in our heads. Real power is in our hearts. It is also in our mouths – in our courteous manner of addressing pertinent issues. Of course, from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Thank you very much for listening to The Higher Dimension. Good day.

© NKWETATANG SAMPSON NGUEKIE

Bamenda, Cameroon, 09/06/2025

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