Sign in to follow this  
Abtigiis

The Tragedy Of the “Uncommons”: DECONSTRUCTING XINNFANIN’S INSIDIOUS ‘PACIFISM’

Recommended Posts

Abtigiis   

The Tragedy Of the “Uncommons”: DECONSTRUCTING XINNFANIN’S INSIDIOUS ‘PACIFISM’

 

Garett Hardin’s path-breaking article the tragedy of the commons, that has since been adopted as the ABC of Natural Resource Economics for so long started off with this quotation published in Science Journal.

 

“At the end of a thoughtful article on the future of nuclear war, Wiesner and York concluded that: ‘Both sides in the arms race are…confronted by the dilemma of steadily increasing military powers and steadily decreasing national security’. It is our considered professional judgement that this dilemma has no technical solution. If the great powers continue to look for solutions in the area of science and technology only, the result will be to worsen the situation”.

 

Before I fetter my craving for divulging into the details of a subject I am passionate about and is so vivid in my mind from the days of my graduate studies so and so years back, allow me to make one more reference to my notes.

 

An instructor once classified the role of economists into “fixers (who make a living solving problems), Bean-Counters (making a living doing calculating costs, comparing them with prices and the values offered to buyers) and Philosophers (who like to play with ideas and only occasionally enter the fray with a suggested answers to a problem.”

 

To me, fixers are those who took to the heart that it is mathematically impossible to maximize for two (or more) variables at the same time. Something that was clearly stated by Von Neumann and Morgenstern, but also implicit in the theory of partial differential equations, dating back at least to D’Alembert (1717-83).

 

That I dug deep into the books of the “dismal” science in search of an answer to Xinnfanin’s mysterious belief in ‘peace-activism’ in the current state of Somalia, is neither to sicken the appetite of the unusually impatient Somali readership nor to display grasp of a subject matter of a not-so-amusing field of study. It is because Xinnfanin’s seemingly innocuous ‘misconstructions’ and explanations, and my heated arguments with him over a gnawingly subjective and speculative matter have reached to a point where virtually all of the references I made here are being justified, I hope, of being rightfully been extracted out of retirement.

 

One, there is no technical solution that can return peace to Somalia, if Xinnfanin continues to beseech for ‘peace’ from the very hands of the people who believe its very birth will herald their demise. The very fatalistic Tigre’s who in primitive reverence to biblical prophesies believe the ‘ultimate conqueror of their empire will rise from the East’. So, if Xinn believes peace will be made by an arrangement between Somali’s warring factions (assuming it is so for the sake of argument), when the big factor of instability is either not satisfied with the residue of the form and soul of its ‘eggs’ in the subjugated peninsula, or when it hasn’t faced an internal compelling situation that warranted its withdrawal; then his call for ‘peace’ will be imparting from either a bamboozling lapse in judgement or a conscious conning and classic thuggery with the highest acne of sophistication. Much important is that peace cannot come by the grace of the aggressor, or by putting on blinders. On such issues, it is akin to the game of noughts and crosses. It can only be achieved if a radical meaning is given to the word ‘peace’, which herein might be reconstructed to mean ‘peace under occupation’, and ‘peace in indignity’.

 

It is clear, in keeping with the universally accepted conflict resolution principles of ‘give-and-take’, the chief protagonist to this conflict is not ready to give something in-return for something it says has triggered its blitzkrieg. For leaving Somalia is not a ‘give’, as Somalia wasn’t Ethiopian’s colony that it now decided to reward its ‘primitive’ subjects by granting them their ‘freedom’!! At will!!!

 

Two, going back to the quotations, it is quite evident that the man in discussion here is a Bean-counter (busy on the itineraries of reconciliation meetings and diplomatic correspondences) and a philosopher (who enters into the fray –right here at SOL with suggested answers to solutions). At least, in his role as the latter, Xinn would have already done pretty well in masking treason as ‘statesmanship’ and pacifism –historically much in vogue with those who actually make the most out of its absence- as ‘the only viable solution to come out of the ashes’. Selective referencing and citations of incongruent precedents fill with rapture the appetite of the appeasers, at it always was the case. Xinnfanin is not a fixer!

 

Third is the mathematical maximization duality problem. You cannot maximize for two variables at the same time. Xinn might still come back and argue maths has little to do with the intricacies of socio-political dynamic variables, and he might have a point there; but who said I should forgo the rigour of figures for the feeble hunch of a delusional demagogue with all the wrong concept of ‘peace and pacifism’.

 

Particularly, when the two variables to be maximized simultaneously in one equation are war and peace! The less intelligent pro-Yey parrots in SOL make more sense to me because they at least seem to have concurred with the fact that trying to solve that function is unattainable even with the added provisions of a Lagrangian multiplier. And hence has taken the safe route of promoting ‘dawlad-xuni (DX) dawlad la’aan (DL) bay dhaantaa’ disgusting myth to quench their clan vendettas against fellow Somali’s and the inherent ‘conscious acceptance of guilt in the necessary murder’ to borrow a line from Auden’s poem Spain.

 

Xinn is ever more becoming indistinguishable from the honorary alumni’s of the elastic category of Yey apologists.

 

I can confidently say that the antiquated aphorism about ‘DX being on a higher social welfare curve than DL’ is a disguise for disorder and looting; and presupposes that an ‘assumed anarchy’ of ‘dawlad-la’aan’ -in the spirit of the proponents of that slogan- is worse than an institutionalised tribalism and vengeance in the shirt of ‘nadaam and dawladnimo’ is something my conscience has refused to accept. I can elaborate, but not now.

 

In the interest of brevity, let me stop here for now. But with a parting shot: it is my modest judgement (not the modesty Chinua Achebe talked about when he said ‘what is modesty but an inverted pride’) that if Xinn continues to look solutions in a flaccid continuum of peace, peace and peace (and for vanity and morality alone peace looked the better option to him), and if he thinks craven submissiveness will yield good harvests of that noble ideal, then our debate has no TECHNICAL SOLUTION TOO. NOT even at academic level!

 

It is the latest entry into the class of ‘no technical solution problems’, and it emanates from the uncommon co-existence in the mind of Xinn of obsession with ‘peace’ at all cost, unwillingness to unequivocally tell ‘the war-lovers’ in their entirety [if that is what is in the heart] to go hang, pulling the wool over own eyes in the face of atrocities on the one hand; and declared nationalism, dedication to diin & dalka, and determination to hold the sanctity of a unified Somali nation on the other hand.

 

But, that won’t diminish my love for the man. He is truly erudite and on top of issues when it doesn’t involve YEY’s grand plan! And he, at no point, seemed like a sick soul nursing impalpable grudge against any people or group- quite unlike General Duke and few other trumpeters of ‘clan pride and hegemony’. If only that fleeting infatuation with a certain ‘incognito’ masquerading as a leader evaporates overnight! If only the misconstructions of the concept of peace gives us a sound break!

 

Tu! Tu! Bismillahi raxmaani raxiin! Ka baxa Xinn! Wakaa aan kugu tufay awoow e ilaahay ha kaa saaro shayaadiinta ku dhexqaaday!!!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Sign in to follow this