Evolution Of Culture Of Parasitism

This article was motivated by an editorial of The Tide newspaper of Friday, April 5, 2019, from which the following extract was taken: “Paradoxically, the people have remained poor in the midst of plenty, owing to a number of factors, including the arbitrary allocation of oil blocks and marginal fields by successive administrations in the country. The end result is that the wealth that is buried in the bowels of Oloibiri and in other oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta region is being cornered by a few Nigerians and foreigners”.
In the beginning, humans were placed on Earth to “dress it and to keep it”, that is, to work; which proves that man was not born to an easy life, for truly, work banishes three great evils: boredom, vice and poverty. But we see that there is a great deal of evil in the world, making man to suffer from the restlessness of anxiety or from the lethargy of boredom. How did this state of anomaly come about in the natural history of man on Earth?
Parasite is defined as a plant or animal that lives on or in another plant or animal and gets food from it. It also includes a lazy person who does not work but depends on other people. In the history of the evolution of the human species, a number of anomalies came about largely through some curiosities and the desire to put the resources of the mind to test by taking on various projects.
Good as it is to put human abilities to task in the process of survival, there is also the possibility of personal vanity, conceit and vaulting ambition coming into play. Endowed with three vital capacities of self-exertion, inner alertness and earnest volition man has a natural urge to explore his environment and make the best of what is available. Coupled with the challenges that confront him daily, it is natural for man to try some new tricks or pranks both for the purpose of survival and for fun too.
Earliest of such tricks and pranks was the formation of hunting groups, led by courageous people among various tribes. From the practice of hunting games and prey for food, there evolved the need for self-defence in the event of external attacks from aggressive groups. It was from the formation of defence and hunting groups that there arose the forging of weapons of war and evolution of expansionist propensity among the early men.
Physical prowess and the availability of weapons of coercion resulted in expansionist expeditions, whereby there evolved the culture of slavery. It was not long that religious cults and institutions got involved in the fever of conquest and proselytisation, including brave soldiers of the cross. Unfortunately, the worst atrocities in human history can be charged to the doorsteps of evangelizing and civilizing groups. The old Roman Empire soon saw the need to use the expanding power of Christianity to sustain its influence. Soon arose the idea of might being right.
State authority and power embraced military, economic and religious control, such that the coercive might of state had these three arms as formidable allies. The culture of parasitism had been a long issue in human history, but its modernized version takes the form of national and international politics. The practice of combination of the three powerful allies (military, economic and religious institutions) has also been modernized.
At the international level, the culture of parasitism operates through big corporations and multinational conglomerates, with the game of monopoly serving as instrument of prey and coercion. Especially with countries which evolved through the rule of colonial masters, the culture of parasitism operates at two levels, namely, internal and external. In the case of Nigeria, the oil and gas industry is an obvious and visible preying ground, but the mystery of the operation is encoded in the “do-or-die” politics, thanks to the then General Olusegun Obasanjo.
To say that ruthlessness, treachery and deceit are the instruments of sustaining the culture of parasitism is to state the obvious. What is vital for the masses to understand is that the predators are usually faceless monsters with numerous tentacles. Like General Macbeth’s juggling fiends, predators and parasites often use numerous instruments of darkness to “tell us truths; win us with honest trifles, to betray us in deepest consequences!”
Great thanks to The Tide Editorial Board!
Dr. Amirize is a retired lecturer at the Rivers State University, PH.

Bright Amirize