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| Everyone wants to prove that their life is better and perfect. |
#4
Oppression by Impression
There are several ways by which people oppress one another; it may be by sheer
violence, by brute force or by cunny manipulations. However, one of the ways by
which we try to suppress ourselves even in modern Africa is what I call Oppression by Impression. This is so
common among us and in fact, it‘s cultural. Everyone wants to impress/oppress
their neighbors. Everyone wants to show they are superior. Everyone wants to
prove that their life is better and perfect. But this kind of impression has a
way of getting back at the one who’s trying to make it, especially when the
person you’re trying to oppress is not impressed. Just the other day
I heard some quarrelsome noises coming from downstairs. I peeked out of my window only to see a big boy who was ready to beat and then arrest a petrol station attendant. For what? Well, for not selling fuel to him on credit! He felt it was ridiculous for someone of his status to be treated like that. So he needed to teach the petrol station attendant a lesson. He would beat him to coma and then pay his hospital bills. Hilarious. Excuse me sir… Must everyone know you’re rich? Must the whole world know the level of your education? Okay, you’re connected… So must we all pay for it? What if we all agree that you’re smart, beautiful, intelligent and of course more blessed than every other person, would you be satisfied?
I heard some quarrelsome noises coming from downstairs. I peeked out of my window only to see a big boy who was ready to beat and then arrest a petrol station attendant. For what? Well, for not selling fuel to him on credit! He felt it was ridiculous for someone of his status to be treated like that. So he needed to teach the petrol station attendant a lesson. He would beat him to coma and then pay his hospital bills. Hilarious. Excuse me sir… Must everyone know you’re rich? Must the whole world know the level of your education? Okay, you’re connected… So must we all pay for it? What if we all agree that you’re smart, beautiful, intelligent and of course more blessed than every other person, would you be satisfied?
Dear friends, we can’t
keep allowing these distractions to set the course of our daily lives and thoughts,
making us compete on the wrong sides. People even raise kids sometimes to show
the other persons that they’re better at raising kids. Doing the right things
for the wrong reasons keeps leading us to having the wrong results. Impression
distracts us, only helps us in spending our money on unnecessary items we
consider important because they enhance our
status but unknown to us, they detract our
future. We have to understand that we are not alive to please anyone
(excessively), neither should we allow ourselves to be oppressed. We may strive
for self-development but we must continue to accept ourselves as we grow.
Everyone should live their lives happily and be contended in their own ways.
There’s no need to live in the vanities of impressing my neighbors. No, unless impression means giving them surprises
of joy and happiness. It’s also a different case when one is under scrutiny
such as during interviews, examinations or reality shows where a person’s
credentials and appearance need to make a proper impression on the critics.
However, when a person makes it his daily lifestyle to show everyone his
superiority or makes a habit of unnecessary competition; this person has
subscribed for eternal depression which he suffers when he is still alive and will
suffer when he dies.
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| But godliness with contentment is great gain. |
The purpose of this article is not to
discourage aspirations. No. It’s rather to call us to refrain from living as
people pleasers and refuse to be oppressed. The
common mistake is to presume that we would be happier only if we can be ahead
of everyone else. So we do everything possible to outbeat, outsmart, outrun and to outplay all other people. We
strive to acquire luxuries. We struggle to attain heights. And after we’ve
gotten all we thought we needed, we still feel empty. To fill this emptiness
again, we strive for more of what we’ve already gotten without realizing that
they were all distractions. Be cautious; people today have mastered the art
wearing a lot of smiles to mask the weariness they feel inside their souls. In fact, it can
be said that emptiness covets emptiness. Often, those who try to make a show of
their happiness are not as happy as
they appear to be. A man may have nothing and still be more fulfilled than
another man who seems to have everything but is constantly aggrieved. This is
the reality of life that a person can only see from the moment he realizes that
he need not use the world’s tape to measure his own success. The world measures
in worldliness… [i]“But godliness with
contentment is great gain.”* This is hard to
believe, but it is the truth. Stop envying your friends and their “success
posts” on social media. Don’t let the artist who poses in front of beautiful
houses and cars to shoot music videos give you headache. You cannot tell that
the quality of your life is more than theirs. If most of us have the
opportunity to see the scenes behind the scenes, we would be more thankful and be less jealous. Live a quality life. Be impressed. But don’t be oppressed.
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