The loss of a connection to our African ancestral lineages has created ever-widening fissures in our identities where the most bizarre and ahistorical notions take root.
Author: kamaurashid
Blade as the apex of late 20th Century cinema
They are calling Blade ahead of its time. I never saw it like that. To me it was a quintessential reflection of the times in which it was created. It echoed themes from a lot of the science fiction/action cinema of the late 20th Century:
-A shadowy cabal seeks to control the destiny of humanity
-Martial arts a central to its visual spectacle
-Guns, guns, guns…and swords
-An ambiguous hero who reflects a loss of faith in moral purity
-A protagonist who epitomizes coolness, wittiness, and masculinity
Again, I think Blade actually aptly reflected its times. I think that this is why they are struggling so to reboot it. What cultural material can such a film draw upon today that would be equally compelling? Blade represented the culmination of a range of cultural themes which had been expressed in cinema since the 1970s. I believe that this is why it was so beloved, and also why, it cannot be easily duplicated–after all, even the sequels of Blade fell short of the magic of the first film. Though this image from the promotional material for the second film was pretty amazing.
Climate disasters as social entropy
Over time, the capacity of states to respond to climate disasters will diminish. The frequency and scale of those disasters will increase, eventually resulting in a situation that has already become normal in some parts of the US and the world, wherein people–living in the milieu of partial recoveries–struggle to carry on their lives in the midst of the detritus of environmental catastrophe. The long-term consequence of this, of course, will be a decrease in security, health, and well-being. These things are, I believe, inevitable. However, actions can be taken to reduce these vulnerabilities and to make local communities more resilient and self-reliant.
Delusion
Conspiracy theories enable poorly informed people to feel like geniuses.
Fabrications of Consciousness
I saw Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One yesterday. In the film, AI is the antagonist. One of the primary threats discussed throughout is the ability for conflict and chaos to be created and sustained through the manipulation of information.
This is an apt film for the times in which we live where many people’s capacity to discern what is true and false, what is a fact or an opinion, what is credible or non-credible is virtually non-existent. Ideas have consequences and erroneous ideas can have grave ones. This is especially so as we hurtle towards a future where scientific and political literacy become ever more important in order to make sense of a rapidly changing world.
AI, Human Obsolescence, and Fascism
There was a report on Marketplace yesterday that included a statement from an executive at OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT. He said that AI will help companies to improve efficiency. He added that it will also cost jobs.
From a policy standpoint, how will governments address the sudden obsolescence of workers from industries so affected? You may recall that many workers who were displaced by deindustrialization and globalization never fully recovered, to say nothing of local and regional economies.
Also, and perhaps more urgently, in an age of increasing political polarization, where politicians present themselves as proto- and neo-fascists, does not such economic dislocation serve as fertile ground for insurrectionary sentiments? While these new technologies may represent a boon for corporations, they could also produce profound instability in society as a whole.
African spirituality eschews abstraction
I came across a post on a social media site which featured a video of what appeared to be an African American woman thanking God for slavery, which supposedly saved her from being somewhere in Africa worshiping a tree. A commentator who re-shared this post indicated that he would rather worship a tree since trees are, after all, real.
His was a good commentary on the logic of African spirituality, that is that it eschews abstraction and elevates that which gives life to the status of the divine. After all, why shouldn’t humans worship the trees, the sun, the earth, and those other things upon which life depends?
Below I list a few examples of how Africans recognized nature as divine from the Akan, Igbo, and Yorùbá traditions.
| Divinity | Aspect of nature | Culture/tradition |
| Anyanwu | Sun | Igbo |
| Asase Yaa | Earth | Akan |
| Ala | Earth | Igbo |
| Ṣàngó (Changó, Shango, Xangô) | Lightening | Yorùbá |
| Amadioha | Lightening and thunder | Igbo |
| Nana Adade Kofi | Lightening and iron | Akan |
| Ògún (Ogun, Ogum) | Iron | Yorùbá |
| Ọ̀ṣun (Oshun, Ochún, Oxúm) | River, fertility | Yorùbá |
Ideology
Ideology is no substitute for scientific literacy. This is especially so in relation to the confluence of ecological crises at hand, crises whose full apprehension and resolution will require critical study and engagement.
Amorality
Maat or Isft
Black/African people have a deep ethical tradition that is not only ancient, but is one that has largely survived our experiences of slavery and colonialism. Despite this, there are many who wish to assert that decadence is our way, that degeneracy is the essence of who we are as a people. These people have not only unmoored themselves from history, they have accepted a falsified consciousness of who we are.