Jamaica is a land rich in history and yet its people have no knowledge of it. This total lack of knowledge of both distant and more recent history has led to many in this nation to run around spewing partisan talking points and barefaced lies whilst at the same time lamenting the fact that the nation seems to stuck in a sick loop. This lack of historical knowledge has also led many a Jamaican who ostensibly wants change to follow and ultimately believe some backwards things which upon closer examination are revealed to be lies crafted to hold both the individual and the nation back.
There are many historical lies we hold dear as a nation, some of them so strange you get cramps after doing the mental gymnastics keeping up. Some of the best lies we love to believe are; the nation was a crime-free paradise before the madness of the 70s, that the CIA never laid a hand on Jamaica and that the guns simply came in because of our naughty politicians, that there wasn’t a real growing communist presence in Jamaica, and of course that Mr Jones in a bout of sleepwalking fell off a multi-storey building (through the closed plate glass) coincidentally during the conference to fill the then-vacant premiership.
These historical lies we tell ourselves and perpetuate through traditional history only does harm to the country as we seek to extricate ourselves from the chaos we find ourselves in. These lies have caused us to believe that the starting point for our madness is the 70s when in fact any true historical analysis will tell us that our problems stem back to 1838 and that we are living with much the same problems. These lies we tell ourselves have caused many to believe that the answer to our current violent epidemic is the SOE and mass state violence against criminals, but any true historical analysis will tell us that it was precisely those measures used in the 70s (to nip the mass violence in the bud) led to a mass proliferation of violence and death.
The lies we tell ourselves allow us to believe that mere economic liberalism will see us succeed, but the past (namely the 80s) shows us that direct route to poverty. When will those in control realise that regardless of what one thinks of the historical actions or actors, unless and until the whole truth is told then we are literally condemning ourselves to a future of self-harm and repeating destructive behaviours of the past? We need to realise that by lying to ourselves we are actually hurting ourselves in ways we can’t begin to fathom.
If we get the truth we can then actually start finding solutions which will actually work rather than acting as a band-aid on a six-inch wound. Why is it for example, that we have such a high rate of squatting and persons without land titles? Is it simply because people are lazy or that politicians in a cynical ploy were only looking votes? Those are the lies we tell ourselves about that situation and as such the remedies we employ constantly fail in spectacular fashion. If we accept the truth that the squatters and title less are the descendants of emancipated landless slaves, then solutions become more realistic. They become even more realistic with the historical truth because persons in the past offered solutions (such as Bogle and Gordon during the Morant Bay massacre).
If we go in with the lie that one side is simply dirty communists not able to control the purse strings while the other merely represents the plantocracy and industrial elites then, of course, the nation is going to suffer as the lie takes root. If the truth is told, that in fact post-independence the capitalists wanted to borrow and spend hard but were reined in by the dastardly spendthrift reds. The lie we tell ourselves is that the two parties, if only they got along, could bring the country through the rough times as they house our best and brightest. But if we get the whole unfiltered truth, we find that but for a brief period (and we all know that period) the two parties have been working hand in hand to both enrich themselves and destroy the nation’s fabric.
Persons in power don’t want to hear these truths even though they are the first ones to holler and cry out for change. Persons without power know the truth as it is passed down through the ancient art of storytelling and reasoning with the elders. They know the history we have been taught is garbage and they more than many know the truth (even if it is fragmented), unfortunately, they don’t hold the power and as such we find ourselves doing the 60s all over again (booming economy and lots of poor people in crap jobs) and possibly reaping the same consequences.
Bob Marley said it best, ‘tell the children the truth’, and it remains the case. We need to tell the truth about our history, and not only so the ‘common man’ can better understand it but in order to hold people accountable and stop the metaphorical haemorrhaging taking place in the nation. The best doctor in the world with all the latest machines and medicines will kill the patient if no accurate patient history is given and it is the same thing with countries and their national histories. Everybody and every nation has their sacred cows and icons but the second one starts lying about past events or why past events took place then there is no way to realistically fix the problem. Germany believed the lie that the war could have been won but for the dastardly Jews, and that lie in no small part led to the extermination of countless of millions, it is a lie which if not told and propagated would have made life hard for the Nazis as it relates to assuming power. History is power, it in many ways shapes the future, until we get to grips with our long, storied and yes, dark history (especially post-independence) not one thing will change and like blind moles, we will continue to aimlessly try and claw our way to progress.
jamaicachange 