A Reason to be Cynical

It’s only over the last few years that I have learned just how sophisticated the historical cultures of sub-Saharan Africa were. It came as something of a surprise, because I had been conditioned as a child to see black Africa as a dark, dangerous place populated by barbaric people who were somewhat short of being as fully human as we white people in the civilised world.

My culture lied to me. Now I discover that sub-Saharan Africa had sophisticated cities built of stone. It had art and artefacts as good as any in Europe and the Middle East, and contemporary with those places. In many cases, its cultural sophistication even pre-dated European development. Its pottery, for example, is as old as the oldest pottery found anywhere in the world. Some of it dates from the time when Europe was just emerging from the last ice age. My conditioning was nothing new, of course. It was merely a continuation of the Victorian practice of keeping Europeans in the dark (if you’ll excuse the pun) about the culture of black Africa. The knowledge was considered inconvenient to the interests of imperialism.

This is just the latest discovery of many I have been making over the last few decades. I have learned to stand outside our culture and look back into it with open eyes, and I have seen just how much the bastions of our system control the mechanisms, and control us, with lies and the denial of knowledge. Politicians lie to us, the police lie to us, the media and the marketing men lie to us, even scientists and academics sometimes lie to us. Most shamefully of all, religion lies to us. They don't do it all the time, of course; just often enough to keep the masses following the road that suits their interests. I have seen this demonstrated incontrovertibly. Given the fact that I often descend to the level of taking this world seriously, can anybody suggest to me one good reason not to be cynical when I do?