Mfonobong Inyang: Why Turkeys Never Vote for Thanksgiving

Assuming turkeys could vote for or against Thanksgiving, we know what option they would go for. Surely, it’s not in the strategic interest of turkeys to vote for Thanksgiving – it may be a feast for you but it’s a funeral for them. What causes you to celebrate represents their death. Unfortunately, they have no choice when we take them out to be slaughtered for Thanksgiving.

This is not about turkeys. It is about electorates who have the power and choice to vote for or against a situation that may figuratively kill them. Elections have real-life consequences, so whatever you do, don’t ever fall into the category of people Captain Blade describes as “low grade minds.” Unfortunately, it is not in some people’s interest to vote for good governance because it represents the death of their loyalty to a party or personality.

Sincere Ignorance

Many voters honestly don’t know any better; they fall easily for cleverly-curated lies that are repackaged and regurgitated every election cycle. The sheer political illiteracy of this demography is the joy of incompetent aspirants because they are able to sway the undiscerning to look past their egregious and inept leadership. The inability of this group of voters to interrogate political choices is their ultimate undoing; they seemingly find it hard to draw a line between bad leadership and abysmal socio-economical outcomes. The herding behaviour also comes into play because they have largely outsourced their thinking to others and are reluctant about going against the grain of their communities. Take it upon yourselves to educate these people for they know not what they are doing.

Identity Politics/Groupthink Sentiments

Identity politics is an approach that encourages or uses groupthink sentiments such as partisanship, religion, gender, social class, ethnicity as a fundamental basis for taking certain decisions such as voting. The idea is that the power of bloc votes can be harnessed for political gains especially where the demography is appears dominant. This usually practiced in heterogeneous societies where sensibilities are heightened and people decide along the lines of their biases instead of proven competence, character and capacity to lead.

This practice is dependent on the quality of their minds; some voters are cosmopolitan in their worldview, others are very parochial in their thinking. This is why the less competent aspirants double down on identity politics and appeal to the basest and primordial sentiments of parochial voters. Now you see why it’s in such politicians’ interests to keep these strongholds (people often referred to as ‘original voters’) illiterate and poor so that they are not cognitive enough to vote the best candidates but instead vote traditionally for those within their enclaves.

Men In Grey Suits

Of course, this has nothing to do with my gender or corporate outfits of a particular colour. It’s an idiomatic expression that underscores the fact that the biggest power players in most circles are very opaque and secretive about how they influence outcomes. Understand that not everyone is interested in becoming the face on a ballot, they prefer to stay in the shadows and empower a figurehead to run for public office. This is why some of us were raising an alarm about clandestine groups purchasing party nomination forms for most candidates. A person can’t be funded by the devil as a candidate and think that he or she will make good on the campaign promise of casting out demons when in office.

A grossly incompetent candidate is required for this job – someone who has been thoroughly compromised and is willing to leverage the assistance of these vague elements. When in power, such public office holder will pander to these interests at the expense of the general public because it’s a patronage system and ‘loyalty’ forbids that such candidates bite the hands that fed them. So if you’re not careful, you might think you’re voting for a person but you’re really voting for a puppet whose strings will be controlled by those who must not be named.

Go Shine Cutlery!

To perpetuate oppression, an active collaboration between oppressors and some oppressed people is needed. People sell out their kith and kin in exchange for pecuniary and other fringe benefits.

It is the same in today’s political sphere. So many people are willing to support a candidate they wouldn’t hire for their own private businesses for public offices because of certain things they gain or stand to gain. They will sell an incompetent candidate to their own people because of personal interests. The intellectual dishonesty and cognitive dissonance such people manifest is not a bug, it’s a feature. Most of them know what they are doing but are more than willing to sacrifice the collective peace, progress and development of a country for their personal ambitions. Oppressors know this, that’s why they usually send your own to you as envoys. God help you that you’re blinded by pedestrian motivations, you may pay a steep price in the future for your naivety or greed.

Friend Or Foe?

Thanks to the type of work I do, I am exposed to a lot of information by default. I have since learned how to walk and chew gum at the same time; I can appreciate the excellence of a country’s culture whilst also grasping the cold realities of their foreign policies and pursuit of strategic interests. Many external interests are usually at play during elections especially on this side of the Atlantic; one bloc predominantly uses the economy as its preferred mode of influence whilst the other bloc predominantly meddles in the political equation. So if it’s in their global interests to undermine another country, one thing they can do is use their machinery to push for an incompetent leader to assume power. Especially in developing countries where institutions aren’t so strong, these foisted individuals can run such geo-political entities aground within a short time.

Forget the nice photo-ops, megaphone diplomacy, performative sanctions and intermittent “strongly-worded statements,” if their agenda requires them to stand back and stand by, they will play the unlooking game without batting an eyelid. This is why I keep saying that no messiah is coming to save you. Know this and know peace. If they come to your aid, it’s not because they have suddenly become altruistic or that you’re the best thing since sliced bread – it’s because it simply aligns with their interests to intervene. If you become more interested in international relations, you will see how quickly the goalpost can be shifted when the rubber hits the road.

Chess, Not Checkers!

That was a famous line from the GOAT, Denzel Washington in the epic movie, Training Day. I really encourage people to play chess. I am a rookie but I can tell you for free that there ain’t too many cons when you’re playing with the pros – they only finesse you when you don’t move properly. Going forward, pay more attention to systems not just persons, some of which are already in play. This is why I am fascinated by the writings of Gamaliel’s protégé; as a strategist, he would submit in one of his famous epistles that the real contention isn’t with human entities but against agendas and organised evils. So when you see me use identities such as Judas, Barabbas or Macaulay – they are not just men, these are models. Pay attention to not only words uttered but to how people are moving.

The Judas Model has infiltration as its core signature; there are many like Judas out there who are sleeper cells, waiting to be activated at the right time. The Barabbas Model is a warped decision-making prism where those who want peace are harassed, hounded and hijacked but those who show copious capacity for carnage and chaos are celebrated. The Macaulay Model is very obvious: its core signature is oppression and conspiracy. The counter-moves to these models is an activation of the Daniel (Rook) Protocol, the Paul (Bishop) Protocol and the Esther (Queen) Protocol respectively – all of which have intercession and strategy as their core signatures.

Checkmate!