Neutrality101: A hypocrisy haven, 419

"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their [acclaimed] neutrality in times of moral crises"- Dante Alighieri

Humans are social beings born and bred within a particular historical reality. These realities are safeguarded with certain norms, values, and a run by distinguished economic and political systems in the long run.

Our thoughts, fears, and dreams tend to be influenced by these fictional realities, which we often consider natural. These mythical realities are like an ancestor script checking our arguments on policies that concern us. In one way or another, we take a stance with specific ideas we have been nurtured in and flushed other ideas out the lavatory because we do not believe or side with them.

If the assertion of always believing in specific ideas is anything to go by, can any breathing soul be termed or classified as a neutral? Either by nature or nurture ethos, no one is neutral in any political, social, or economic discourse. The claim of neutrality is not only outrageous but is a lazy escapist means of seeking a haven to relax.

We often seem to be giving credence to the outmoded cliche- 'There are two sides of a coin.' It might be accurate in certain instances but not always depending on the school of thought you were bred. The mere fact that feminists most at times study the genesis of patriarchal societies or Marxist recounting the history of capitalism does not warrant the DUALISED nature of discussing policies and the mistakes of tagging the third or fourth forces neutrals.

A Ghanaian must either be a Christian or a Muslim. Anything contrary to those two classifications qualifies one as religious neutral or, at worst, an atheist. This same misnomer is the pigment of our party political skins. No one in his right thinking mind who votes during elections can claim they are neutrals just by the mere flawed analogy of not belonging to the elephant or the umbrella fraternities.

Claiming neutrality or tagging some communities as neutral's is like interpreting to a class of unsuspecting students' that 0° Celcius infers no temperature. Even states that claimed to be Non-Aligned nations aligned with the power blocs whose political and economic ideas are healthy for their developments. Those who claim to be neutrals are proverbial ostriches.

The world will have been robbed of individual alternative narratives if some people fear being victimized by the SYSTEM claims they are neutrals. A case in point is Achebe's bold scholarly response to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I guess you admire the narratives in 'Things Fall Apart.' What if Achebe claims to be neutral? Conrad's misrepresentation of cultural facts might be your factual truth.

The claim of neutrality, I maintain, is an escapist fantasy. The Catholic' religion' can't claim neutrality in chastising their congregants against the use of condoms. The same as GTP cannot claim neutrality in printing 'Fellow Ghanaians' inspired fabrics. Their actions are because condoms are contrary to catholic beliefs, and GTP is in business to meet their customers' needs.

Better still, if the claim of neutrality holds, an independent presidential candidate might be sworn in as POG after election 2040.