By: Theko Tlebere
More than ten years ago I wrote an article about the essentiality of having a vision, either as an indivual or an institution. The veracity was not just to lambast the seating government but to trigger a thinking phenomenon that can aid in the development of young people of Lesotho. The heading for this week may sound like an Ad hominem fallacy but it’s not, It’s simply based on what I see on the ground and how a lot of events are unfolding that are specifically related to youth development. The irony in today’s topic is that when I looked at the definition of an Ad hominem fallacy I highlighted and liked it more where it says, ‘ ad hominem is a fallacy of relevance where someone rejects or criticizes another person’s view on the basis of personal characteristics, background, physical appearance, or other features irrelevant to the argument at issue’.
Making the general public comprehend this intuition may be a mammoth task for now, and indeed may leave young people a little bit confused precisely because of the propaganda of contending individuals. However this week I want to talk about what a vision is and why it’s important for any government to have vividly articulated vision. I will not say why I think our government lacks vision but rather will leave it unto you to be judges of the current situation based on the narration I intend to make. Although its a bit hypoctical to discuss vision with young people without first talking about patriotism, I still felt the need to have an emphatic enactment on the topic ‘Vision’ because masses normally do almost anything for their visions but never give them a through thought. I intend with this article to make all of us think hard about our visions.
Visions may be moral, political, economical, religious or social. In the realms that we are living in, we sacrifice a lot for our visions and sometimes, if need be, face ruin rather than being in tandem with them. What are these visions by the way? A layman’s definition of a vision would be something that one wants to do in their life, but an oxford dictionary would say a vision is a goal that an individual has during the course of time. The Microsoft Encarta dictionary (2003; 969) gives a more complex but on point definion that portrays a vision as the ABILITY to anticipate possible future developments. One good thinker and theorist Thomas Sowell (1987:15) says,†a vision is a pre-analytic cognitive act, it is what we sense or feel before we have constructed any systematic reasoning that could be called a theory. A vision is our sense of how the world works.†A vision by adversity of a general thinker or theorist or philosopher is a dream, a hope, a prophecy, or a moral imperative. But the essence of this writing is to articulate a vision as a sense of causation i.e. fact of causing an effect.
There are a number of primitive anarchic phenomena that I will intentionally allocate to you the elitist readers of this column, which are some of the commonly expended visions in the continent of Africa. I have to quote one easy one just to accommodate all, this vision I am about to illustrate serves as a dummy of how strategic individuals may be in approximating what they want to achieve. As the first and oldest University in Lesotho NUL has a vision and it reads as thus, “ to be a leading African University responsive to national socio-economic needs, committed to high quality teaching, life long learning research and community service, respected nationally and internationally.†This vision I know will be very new to many current Student Union members of NUL, alumni and many other University staff just because we live in a world of ignorance. We are a very inquisitive generation which lacks eagerness to learn. By virtue of status, this column has come to our rescue because now organizational tutorials have begun (re tlo rutehang) myself included. This vision is there for all to abnegate with, it is supposed to be the source of patriotism, but then the reality on the ground is that we have no visions as individuals or for our organizations or even for our beloved Mountain kingdom then how can we dream any patriotism our country?
Its not like there is no effect in giving recognition to our fellow comrades who died as warriors, but how could we, if as individuals we have no visions? How then can we love what we do unless its part of our vision? Lesotho has a vision, Botswana also, Brazil, African union, Newsday Newspaper, President Obama, Lefela also had one, and myself so why cant you have one?
My last note is on the implications and dynamics of visions, which I belief can clarify issues without reducing dedication to one’s own vision. Even though it may be difficult to understand a vision, dedication to a cause (of a vision) may legitimately entail sacrifices of personal interests but not sacrifices of mind or conscience. It entirely rests now on an individual if they really want to have a sense of how the world works and endure that by being visionary capitalists and elites. The future is Now!
