The Long View --- By Mary K. Okurut
September 6, 2003
| My brain officially went on leave when I heard of the bloody ambush by the so-called Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) that decimated at least 25 people aboard a Gateway bus on the Soroti-Lira road on Monday.
This is not the first time these thugs are carrying out such a gruesome and grisly act. It has long been their trademark. It is just that one keeps on praying that such incidents do not happen again; so when they happen with such brutality, it simply crushes one's spirit. So much has been written about the Kony evil. Suffice it to say that Kony represents a strain of evil that is the tail end that has afflicted Uganda since 1966. Since then, the evil has been metamorphosing, from [Apollo Milton] Obote's time to Idi Amin, to Alice Lakwena, the ADF, and now Kony. It is an evil that has been difficult to get rid of.
My feeling is that it is inaccurate to talk about Joseph Kony, the leader of a group. We are talking about a doctrine called Kony-ism, very much like an ideology of evil, which manifests itself in the most brutal and heartless ways. Kony has no political agenda; and you can't say he is fighting the government, although when he wipes out a bus and its passengers, those with warped minds claim it's a victory against government. The things he makes his captives do are a negation of what is human. We know that he forces kids to kill their parents in the most brutal manner, or vice versa; in an attempt to severe their links with their community. He forces those he abducts to set the granaries and homes ablaze and to chop down all the goats, cows and sheep. As I meditated and wondered about this meaningless destruction of life and property, I recalled reading about something called nihilism and decided that this is precisely what we have on our hands. Nihilism, the Encyclopedia of Philosophy says, is the belief that all values are baseless. It condemns all existence. A true Nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy. Nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche who argued that its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history. Little wonder that Kony and Co. can wake up one morning, brutally massacre an entire village, then walk a few metres into the bush and enjoy roast goat meat with their consciences intact. It is this total absence of human feeling that makes Kony inhumanly unique. "Nihilism" comes from the Latin nihil, or nothing, which means not anything, that which does not exist. It appears in the verb "annihilate," meaning to bring to nothing, to destroy completely. It is a doctrine of total negation. Does this not sound like Kony? In Russia, nihilism became identified with a loosely organised revolutionary movement (C.1860-1917) that rejected the authority of the state, church, and family. Kony has clearly rejected the authority of the state. By calling his organisation the LRA, and claiming to enforce the 10 Commandments, while in the same breath chopping them up, Kony has also rejected the church - which 10 Commandments is he keeping? By making parents kill their children and vise versa, he is destroying the family unit. The Nihilist believes that all values are baseless, reason is impotent and that everything deserves to perish. In nihilism, its proponents argue, the aim is lacking, and 'why' finds no answer. Indeed with Kony, the why has no answer. Why does he target non combatants? What does Kony want? Does anyone know? President Museveni named a peace team to meet him and talk peace. He even offered a ceasefire and blanket amnesty. The President has stooped as low as one can get, just to accommodate Kony and restore peace and order to the north, all to no avail. Religious leaders in Acholi tried to talk to him (President Museveni even facilitated them with satellite phones) but all for all their efforts, Kony threatened to have their heads for supper. Inevitably, nihilism is calculated to cause a "collapse of meaning, relevance, and its purpose is to be the most destructive force in history, constituting a total assault on reality and nothing less than the greatest crisis of humanity". Many philosophers submit that nihilism is the philosophy that motivated such monstrosities as the Nazi reign of terror. Which brings me to the big question: how do we talk peace (which peace talks Kony has refused anyway) with this doctrine of negation called Kony or Kony-ism? How did Nazism crash to its death? Certainly not through talking peace; such evils can never end through peaceful means. It is superior military machinery and unwavering commitment that brought Adolf Hitler and Nazism crashing. It is incumbent upon all of us to put in all we can to ensure that this Kony brand of nihilism does not prevail. The author is President Yoweri Museveni's Press Secretary. |
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
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