On memory and humanity’s inhumanity
LAST week I visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. The museum covers all aspects of the history of African-Americans, including the evolution of music such as jazz as well as rock ’n’ roll, which the African-Americans introduced to the Western hemisphere.
What left an indelible mark on my trip to this museum was the issue of slavery. The idea of storing memory of significant events such as slavery is something we should adopt very seriously because memory, especially of slavery, is important!
Why did slavery happen? Because of information asymmetry. Information asymmetry is an economic concept where two parties have different and unequal information.
Whenever information asymmetry exists, because of greed, exploitation happens. Information asymmetry arose because the enslavers had better technology than the enslaved.
Slavery also happened because of greed – the trait that humans evolved to survive. Those who were not greedy did not survive famines and died. The greedy ones stored and hid food from their neighbours, and survived. Nevertheless, greed makes humans evil!
It happened because humans are hypocrites. As slavery was guzzling at full throttle, the founding fathers of the US were slave owners. However, despite being slave owners, this did not stop them from writing that “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence.
These founding fathers did not appreciate the universality of truth. Humans can be honest and dishonest at the same time. They can tell the truth and lies at the same time.
When the slaves were “freed”, they received no compensation, but the slave owners received compensation equivalent to £17billion.
Tribalism facilitated slavery, because when Europeans arrived in West Africa, they found divided nations. A Yoruba was willing to sell a captured Igbo and vice versa. So the Europeans did not have to hunt for Africans, as other Africans were willing to do this for them because of tribalism. The irony of tribalism is that it seeks to find differences where none exist.
So, first we need to resolve the information asymmetry in society. We are living in the era called the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), where advances in intelligent technologies will change human identity, our environment, our politics, our economy and our society. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) catalyses the 4IR.
AI is a technology that makes machines intelligent. The 4IR will widen income gaps, increase inequality, introduce new forms of slavery and sharpen contradictions. As Russian leader Vladimir Putin said: “Those who master AI will control the world.”
If this control is not checked, it can easily become a new form of slavery.
Secondly, we need to regulate greed. The 2008 financial crash that impoverished people and countries was because of greed. We should check the obsession with economic growth through unchecked desire for maximisation of profit, to protect human dignity.
Thirdly, we need to banish hatred with all its manifestations. We need to educate people to create memories so that we do not repeat mistakes.