Perhaps it started long time ago, but at the moment it’s going round on every media that some girls are sleeping with dogs over 1.5 million naira. Maybe it’s a matter of choice, but deep down within all of us we could perceive in such an act something not morally good. Perhaps, sexually, we aren’t met for animals. It is so humanly demeaning.
Why would a human go as low as sleeping with dogs over money? One of the answers is: they need to survive the economy hardship. But if this answer is correct, then why are these ladies pursuing luxury lifestyle? If all they want is food and shelter, then sleeping with dogs is unlikely. While it’s true that the economy is hard, their pursuit of their luxury lifestyle points otherwise.
Another answer given is: civilisation. But if civilisation means cultural development in the sense of advance in technology, it doesn’t look like it could be a basic cause. Nothing intrinsic to technology advancement points to money rituals, sleeping with dogs. Admittedly, technology has done harm to the society, but this harm is more of a consequence of our interpretation of technology itself than technology itself. Laptop doesn’t have the same meaning for everyone and society.
Another answer given is: celebrities. Celebrities model a life which portrays life as simple and easy. People see celebrities as the ideal state of any human being. Thus, they strive to be like them. Not being able to afford their lifestyle though working hard, they invented a means: sleeping with dogs, rituals, etc.
Celebrities is a probable answer if we delve into our psychosocial dynamics. Humans are by nature highly social species. While other animals have social structures, their infants aren’t as reliant on society as human infants. Humans infant are genetically flexible compared to animal infants. Humans don’t just operate by genes, but also, and basically, by thought. This operative system of thought depends on collective cultural mind.
We are the only specie who see our identity in relationship. I am a son, because I have a father. I am a banker because I have savers. I am a husband because I have a wife. Who we are is a reflection of what we are to others. Therefore with much reliance on society, it is more probable that we model our life after those the society believes are more successful.
However, although many of these ritualists and doggists are socially exposed, it’s possible not all of them know celebrities. Besides, while many celebrities have modelled the wrong lifestyle, it begs the question why some lifestyles are pursued in preference to others?
A further answer can be found in human nature. We have self-knowledge that there’s something worthwhile in us. Some kind of value which transcends space and time. The problem of sleeping with dogs is a problem of inner value conflict.
Society models for us what it means to be human. Our cultural understanding is that an ideal human possesses money, houses, iphones, lives luxury, and the likes. Human worth is nothing but being known by others that one is highly rich and living comfortably.
But little do we know that our cultural understanding is wrong. In the quest to show their inner value, by sleeping with dogs, they desacralise it. Humans are designed in such a way that we become like what we worship. In worshipping money, we measure our human worth in money. In our current culture, nothing no longer done for the aim of seeking significant meaning in life. Everyone pursues money, since that’s the only way they believe their inner worth can be seen.
Except we change our interpretation of life, and reorient our value system, many more will die. That’s not a curse, but a prediction. God made life in such a way that consequence follows cause. We can’t be living in wrong system of thought and expect heavenly manifestations.
©️ Franklin Daniel can be reached via:
danielsunday35@gmail.com
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