A General Rejoinder to the Sanctimonious on Face Book

By Capt. Ebou Jallo, GNA

22 July 2020

Read and get some moral education based on scientific facts.  All human beings according to the best psychology research available have these dark fundamental character traits:

1. Human beings view minorities (the Other tribes) and the vulnerable as less than human. The inclination to dehumanize “others” different from us starts very early during our development as human beings.
2. Deep down in us we love the experience of Schadenfreude – pleasure at another person’s distress, especially if we perceived that the other person deserved it.
3. Human beings believe in this backward and pernicious idea of Karma – assuming that the downtrodden of the world must deserve their fate.  If you are poor, sick or less fortunate in life then you must be evil or came from evil parents.
4. Human beings are malicious, unforgiving, blinkered and dogmatic.  If people were rational and open-minded, then the straightforward way to correct someone’s false beliefs would be to present them with some relevant facts.
5. Human beings would rather electrocute themselves than spend time in their own thoughts.  “All of man’s troubles come from his inability to sit quietly in a room by himself”`~ Blaise Pascal
6. Human beings are vain and overconfident…. Just watch our faces glow when griots serenade us with the past ‘glories’ of our long dead ancestors, lol! Irrationality with overconfidence and vanity leads to compounded ignorance.
7. Human beings are hypocrites…This is my favorite trait and very prevalent among Gambians.  (And this one is particularly directed to Alagie Saidy-Barrow- the coward who abandoned his comrades in battle and later categorically denied his involvement in causing their plight to the extent of threatening to sue a journalist for exposing him).  Not only do we tend to overestimate our own virtuousness, we are also inclined to moral hypocrisy.  Be very wary of those who are the quickest and loudest in condemning the moral failings of others – the chances are the moral preacher is as guilty themselves, but of course they happen to take a far lighter view of their own transgressions.
8. Human beings are all potential trolls. Fake profiles and anonymity (which are easy to achieve online) are known to increase our inclinations for immorality.
9. We favor ineffective leaders with psychopathic traits.  Ousainou Darboe of the UDP comes to mind.  His incendiary remarks and verbal aggression against his own blood, Siaka Jatta, was designed to intimidate and it does have a primal appeal to his party militants.
10. Human beings are sexually attracted to people with dark personality traits. A lot of both men and women are very attracted to as self-interested, manipulative and insensitive people.  Does the recent BandiCam scandals ring a bell, lol!