NigeriansTalk

Excep­tion­al­ism seems to me a dis­tinctly West­ern way of think­ing about things.

Yes, I know how that sounds.

I don’t like the whole Ubuntu notion either, which seems like the most obvi­ous coun­ter­point to a more Western-suitable cap­i­tal­ism meme, but it need not be the only counter to the more West­ern way of see­ing things. I think where we dif­fer is that we can have our Alaba mar­ket elec­tron­ics entre­pre­neurs, our Teju­osho Market-women, indeed our greedy and cor­rupt lead­ers– the very essence of Niger­ian free-market dog-eat-dog cap­i­tal­ism in all its gore and glory– with­out a belief that we are some­how ordained. No heav­enly being has graced our shoul­ders with a sword, bestow­ing upon us the right to screw some­one else over. We just do. We accept our fate in a game that we did not cre­ate, hav­ing the vague notion that, were we the ones in the air-conditioned car that just drove by at full speed and splashed muddy water all over our Sunday’s best, we might do the very same thing. Just because we can.

I’ve been think­ing about this quite a bit lately (Why? I have no idea), and may have more thoughts as the week pro­gresses, but this amaz­ing talk by Elis­a­beth Gilbert– writer of the NYT best­seller Eat, Pray, Love– makes a tan­gen­tial point, I think.

Elis­a­beth Gilbert on Nur­tur­ing Creativity