Babel's Negativity
January 31 2017 By Abiodun Giwa
What type of human society would you choose if you have a choice? A society, where everyone is united and do everything in common without disagreement, bickering and speaks one language or a society where people can disagree and bicker and pursue own selfish agenda?
It seems like it is easy to choose a society or we all will prefer a society, where all people speak one language, no disagreement and bickering toward achieving much, than a society of people with different languages, bickering and different people pursuing their selfish interests.
There is a proof that when people speak one language, they make progress than when they speak different languages and view one another as different from one another. Let's go into the book of Genesis 11:4, "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."
That chapter in the Bible begins with, "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech." They were united and they built the tower, but God saw the city and tower they built, and said, "And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."
Consequent upon this, we are told that the Lord scattered the people and confuse their language. God gave the world the Babel that the world has up to this day, according to the words handed to us in the Bible. Look at the world and the number of languages spoken in the world and the different types of people in the world based on the different languages.
People living in countries of many tribes and different languages will understand the problem inherent in a society of different people with different languages. Every tribe or people wants to protect own interest and the disagreement from such interaction shows the selfishness of each tribe, which at time leads to fight or fierce disagreement over which tribe will provide the leader, because every tribe wants own son or daughter to be the leader to benefit more than the other tribes.
Even where there are not many tribes, there is still the individual selfish nature. It is present in every human group, from small families to the small communities to the larger society and to the the nation states, where the clause of sovereignty over rules the interference of one nation in the affairs of another nation.
The world map shows so many countries said to belong to one United Nations by the word of the mouth. When Socrates and his philosopher colleague, Adiemantus, discussed how to achieve a livable city, according Plato, both philosophers agreed that a time will come, when the city will become so big and be more than what can be managed, socially and economically.
This philosophical vision has been fulfilled in many parts of the world, where people are migrating from and to some other parts of the world for better life. Countries that have become magnets for people migrating from poverty stricken countries and war ravaged ones are taking every measure available to reduce migration, especially migration that exposes their own people to insecurity, which can follow people from insecure areas of the world.
The disagreement among the people in advanced countries that are magnets of immigration from less developed countries is a quick reminder of the Babel and its negativity. Babel's negativity is nothing, but a curse on the world and humanity. Of course, most of the political disagreements we witness around the world have nothing to do with altruism, but rather have selfish motives dressed with humanitarian gesture. It is about humans as actors!
Recently, a man struck a Christmas market in Berlin with a truck and killed scores of people. Immediately, the noise about terrorism imported into Germany and Angela Merkel's change of heart not to allow more migrants became a new song, which no one criticised. Earlier, she had said that the country will restrict the wearing of hijab, saying there is a need to see the face of people with whom you are interacting.
The cause of fiction in the world today is that the common saying, "When you are in Rome, behave like a Roman," no longer has a place in the human society. We no longer want to admit there are insiders and there are outsiders. There are Italians and there are Hungarians. That countries issuing visas does not mean they cannot turn the visa holders back at the port of entry.
We all want to prove to one another that we are all one indivisible people, as if egalitarianism is a system the whole world has embraced, as a way of life.
It seems like it is easy to choose a society or we all will prefer a society, where all people speak one language, no disagreement and bickering toward achieving much, than a society of people with different languages, bickering and different people pursuing their selfish interests.
There is a proof that when people speak one language, they make progress than when they speak different languages and view one another as different from one another. Let's go into the book of Genesis 11:4, "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."
That chapter in the Bible begins with, "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech." They were united and they built the tower, but God saw the city and tower they built, and said, "And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."
Consequent upon this, we are told that the Lord scattered the people and confuse their language. God gave the world the Babel that the world has up to this day, according to the words handed to us in the Bible. Look at the world and the number of languages spoken in the world and the different types of people in the world based on the different languages.
People living in countries of many tribes and different languages will understand the problem inherent in a society of different people with different languages. Every tribe or people wants to protect own interest and the disagreement from such interaction shows the selfishness of each tribe, which at time leads to fight or fierce disagreement over which tribe will provide the leader, because every tribe wants own son or daughter to be the leader to benefit more than the other tribes.
Even where there are not many tribes, there is still the individual selfish nature. It is present in every human group, from small families to the small communities to the larger society and to the the nation states, where the clause of sovereignty over rules the interference of one nation in the affairs of another nation.
The world map shows so many countries said to belong to one United Nations by the word of the mouth. When Socrates and his philosopher colleague, Adiemantus, discussed how to achieve a livable city, according Plato, both philosophers agreed that a time will come, when the city will become so big and be more than what can be managed, socially and economically.
This philosophical vision has been fulfilled in many parts of the world, where people are migrating from and to some other parts of the world for better life. Countries that have become magnets for people migrating from poverty stricken countries and war ravaged ones are taking every measure available to reduce migration, especially migration that exposes their own people to insecurity, which can follow people from insecure areas of the world.
The disagreement among the people in advanced countries that are magnets of immigration from less developed countries is a quick reminder of the Babel and its negativity. Babel's negativity is nothing, but a curse on the world and humanity. Of course, most of the political disagreements we witness around the world have nothing to do with altruism, but rather have selfish motives dressed with humanitarian gesture. It is about humans as actors!
Recently, a man struck a Christmas market in Berlin with a truck and killed scores of people. Immediately, the noise about terrorism imported into Germany and Angela Merkel's change of heart not to allow more migrants became a new song, which no one criticised. Earlier, she had said that the country will restrict the wearing of hijab, saying there is a need to see the face of people with whom you are interacting.
The cause of fiction in the world today is that the common saying, "When you are in Rome, behave like a Roman," no longer has a place in the human society. We no longer want to admit there are insiders and there are outsiders. There are Italians and there are Hungarians. That countries issuing visas does not mean they cannot turn the visa holders back at the port of entry.
We all want to prove to one another that we are all one indivisible people, as if egalitarianism is a system the whole world has embraced, as a way of life.
