The energy of intense suffering is pushed out of consciousness simply so that life can be allowed to go on. Denial permits us to survive the unsurvivable—for a while.
Left too long, any unconscious defense mechanism becomes detrimental to life. When collective denial goes unaddressed, we see the proliferation of both social and environmental ills rooted in Collective numbness.
Collective numbness surfaces as epidemic substance misuse; food, sex, and entertainment addiction; media overuse; and many other forms of dysfunctional patterns and behaviours. It reveals itself as a collective shutting down to crisis as much as to healing.
To feel the problems of our nation is to know its suffering, but this requires compassionate “response-ability.”
If we fail to address the nation’s collective trauma with clarity and compassion, we imperil the survival of our children and our children’s children—and countless other species.
If development concerns the relationship between people and people on the one hand and people and nature on the other, then sustainable development, that sustains people and respects nature, requires that such relationships be based on and guided by fundamental human values and a spiritual perspective of life.
The ideal of development as a continuing process of growth, creation, improvement and positive change has yielded to a reality more frequently marked by destruction, division, deprivation and depletion.
The difference between the cherished ideal and the cruel reality finds its roots in a poverty of values and spirituality.
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That poverty, hunger and other deprivations persist in an age of global plenty is not an issue of logistics, technology or financing so much as a question of values and morality.
Setting a clear and defined course of action that we all agree on with regard to the development agenda is important but we must not forget that the nation cannot be changed with words and plans alone: it can only change when our values, attitudes and actions change.
The crisis of the non- implementation of action plans is itself a crisis of values.
This is not to decry the important achievements that have been made under the current dispensation in areas such as health, life expectancy and the reduction of poverty.
Nevertheless, our nation remains under the dark cloud of an excessively materialistic paradigm, one of the consequences of which is that development is too often a narrow concept largely understood only in economic terms.
This narrow concept of development can find its roots in a narrow concept of the self that neglects the larger reality of heart and soul, dims the inner light of the spirit and values and forgets the essential one-ness of the human family and its environment.
Lasting development within society will not happen without holistic development of the individual.
We need to move from an overly materialistic approach to one that includes the broader and deeper realities of human life and experience: the inner world of our thoughts and values and the innate spirituality on which our worth and dignity are based.
We will not be able to get the outer nation in order until we have first learned to get our inner world in order and transcend short-term selfishness, consumerism, disregard for others and a corruption of values.
We will not see the changes we look for in Zimbabwe – such as the elimination of poverty, violence and injustice – until we first bring about those changes in ourselves.
As development efforts shift their focus to include the human dimension, attention needs to be paid to ascertaining what it is that sustains the human being.
Social improvement is inextricably linked with economic growth and material sufficiency but our struggle for development cannot rely on technological revolution alone or be judged in economic terms without also taking account of fundamental human values and the spiritual dimension of the individual.
There is a crying need for people’s rights to proper water, health care, education, food and a life-supporting environment to be met.
But human beings do not live by bread alone and development is to sustain people and life rather than being an end in itself.
It is also soon apparent that securing access to basic human needs itself depends on the presence of values and that values that sustain people – such as respect, care, sharing, responsibility, honesty and love – are also values that sustain development.
It is clear, therefore, that sustainable development, and development that sustains all people, depends at least as much on inner transformation and growth as on material progress and prosperity.
The role of education in this regard cannot be overestimated as it is education that has the potential for changing the way we think and act, physically forming or realigning the connections within our brains, and changing the nature of the whole person, body, mind and spirit.
But to effect the move to a just,more sustainable and peaceful nation, it is not just more education that is required but education to develop values, attitudes and ways of thinking that foster constructive human interaction and behavior.
We need to ask ourselves what are the values and principles that underlie our practices and that we would like to be the guiding force in our choices and decisions.
Transcending notions of materialism and material gratification as being the essence of life, we may come to higher purposes of developing the inner self, inculcating moral values and expressing our skills and talents in service of others.
Action with regard to such personal and spiritual capacity-building is required within every sector and level of society as both formal education at school but also at home, in the community and workplace.
Such education, as a creative and transformational process, will touch the heart as well as the mind and give shape to good governance and policies on crucial areas such as the use of resources, healthcare, industrialisation, economic activity and technology.
*Tinashe Chikodzi is a social entrepreneur
These weekly articles are coordinated by Lovemore Kadenge, an independent consultant, managing consultant of Zawale Consultants (Private) Limited, past president of the Zimbabwe Economics Society and past president of the Chartered Governance and Accountancy Institute in Zimbabwe. Mobile No. +263 772 382 852
