(39): Paradox of Information; An Essay on Self-esteem, Self-doubt and Fallacy of Failure

MA Iliasu.

In October 2006, I and my fellow pupil, Sameer, were driven to the Day Science College to participate in a teenage contest. We were both ten years old. With Sameer been the best of the duo. When we touched the ground, an army of pupil were already parading the front yard in their fancy school  uniforms. In Kano state, the mandatory code for public schools was all-white combination of shirt, trouser and cap. While private schools had their distinctive codes. And none was familiar to us. A sad development occurred when at the very experience of sitting along, Sameer lost it. It was evident, he got intimidated by the kids who were already gisting about how they intend to boss it. He whispered in my ear that we stood no chance in the contest, which I disagreed, but his index finger was already shaking.

The judges, having witnessed the large number of the candidates decided to organise a quick test to trim out the least-prepared among us, just so that the contest will be for the best among the best. And learning that, Sameer stared at me in disbelief and said, I regret coming here. He was totally a different kid. And in an hour after the results were announced, he got dropped in the first round having failed to make the top 50. But believe me when I say he was as good as any anyone in that hall, having witnessed with my own eyes what the test asked. Yet he failed. Later he told me that he was under the delusion that even if he perform very well the other boys will just do far better than he would have done, and so he would only embarrass himself in the knockout stage. But later when he saw the final rankings and saw my name up there, he almost cried. I was his mate, his bestfriend and someone with whom he shared the same neighborhood, and though to be fair, we belong in a very different socioeconomic background.

He asked me: "how did you do it?", and I replied: "I just went in there and wrote everything I knew". And during that incidence, I believe, took place an instance of the intriguing situation when innate ability gets dominated by the paradox of information and the fallacy of outside illusion, which this essay will attempt an analysis upon.

Paradox of Information.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”  — Eleanor Roosevelt.

In Abdul'aziz Madakin Gini's fantasy Hausa novel, Kundin Tsatsuba, an emperor from the western hemisphere called Takuruku heard about the adventure of another emperor from the northern hemisphere called Dawwamul Huzbur, whom, courtesy of military arrogance, intended to pay him a savage visit that could either be a raid or the start of lasting friendship. And to prepare that for, Takuruku spread resources just so he'll become acquainted with the strength of his visitor's army. However, after he got the information, he couldn't discover what to do with that information, instead he was trapped by the formidability of the strength in the ranks of Huzbur, along the line forgetting how to utilize his own. And sadly after Huzbur paid him the savage visit, when it was very late, the eyetest made him realize that Huzbur didn't have the military strength enough to defeat him in his own land, if only he prepared properly according to the information from his scouts. The same thing happened with Sameer.

When we discovered our opponents in the teenage contest who were from high-profile schools, Sameer developed an anxiety, apparently in a form of self-destructive sense of weakness and inferiority complex, which bred at the consumption of other teenagers confidence. But in essence, he would have proved very unplayable to them if only he focused and invested his belief in his own strengths. I finished in the 2nd place, and he was miles ahead of me. Sameer, so unlike me, fall victim of paradox of information just like Takuruku did when he observed the information about the strenghts of Huzbur, which would have been useful had he focus on his strength against his respective opponent. Such social behaviour often renders innate ability useless where the person doesn't believe in himself.

Paradox of information is a situation whereby an information that should prove useful proves useless, which instead of creating strength it creates weakness and turns the prospect of positivity into negativity. Such information manipulate its holders into believing they're weak when they're indeed strong, and put them in a self-destructive psychological angle that they'll live to regret in the future. Paradox of information kills potential and blurs sustainability. Sometimes its an inferiority complex-like perception that converts any type of information into a self-destructive weakness. And its often associated by the courage to consume information without being able to know what to do with it.  Paradox Information, when it encounters the mental conviction of inferiority complex, often hoodwinks even a potential success into an abject failure. And that, among others, constitutes the growing dilemma among the 21st century youths.

The Fallacy of Failure.

The absurd pace in the development of technology warrant us to use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and what have you. And these social platforms allow us to connect with a world that is far bigger than anything our fathers and ancestors, for all their adventure and traveling, managed to witness in a short time span, courtesy of the motion of our fingertips. And such easiness, for all the resources it costs, quadrupled our average information consumption behaviour when compared o the period before the advent of internet. And while that has its advantages in boosting quick information-driven endeavors and granting larger audience to journalists and entrepreneurs, it boosts the rapid culmination of faultless information into toxic, due to the growing self-doubt and ability disbelief among the popular society.

Nowadays a twenty two years old young woman from the slums of Kurna Asabe, Kano, who is about to graduate college while managing her 50K worth trade of selling homemade soft drinks thinks she's doing miserably because another young woman of the same age bracket from Maitama, Abuja, whom she follows on twitter owns IPhone 8X Max. Among others, she regularly consumes information that's far skewed from her physical reality, with he subconscious mind using age as an underline factor. And not knowing what to do with it, she'll subconsciously allow it to dictate the tempo of her self-esteem. And from there unrealistic expectations from her comparatively incapable environment will keep resurfacing; from wanting a rich boyfriend and expensive jewels to fantasising a very big wedding, which breed toxic disappointment when they didn't come to realization. And the same applies to the young men as well.

In the same instance, a twenty three years old hardworking Tea Vendor from Nguru, Yobe, who just graduated college thinks he has already failed in life because one of his followers on Facebook, another youngman of the same age from Lamido Crescent, Kano, wears Getzner on his profile picture. Even though that's the only information that comes to realization. Which vindicates the saying: “social media is making 22 years olds think like they've already failed in life.” When in essence they're doing very much well, regardless of the standard as far as its determined by the measure of effort. But they themselves would disagree.

The Self-esteem Assassins.

"Egalitarian society achieves peace by convincing the poor to be content and the rich to police heir flaunting" - Wise saying.

In a response against the intimidation of such social fallacy, it becomes one among the strongest orders of the day people trying their the hardest to portray themselves as powerful, illimitable and as invincible as possible. Because that plays a vital role in manipulating their environment towards giving them the interactional upper hand they desire, which would help balance their status with their fantasy social mirrors. It has arrived at the point when a trader will ask: "what's your budget?" and if you reply: "10K", that's when he'll increase the price of his commodity to 11K. His goal is to shatter your self-esteem so that even when he decides to sell you the commodity he'll do so to make you feel like he's done you a favour, so that when you comeback you'll go to him for granting you a bargain earlier. And while that can be credited to the unethical nature of modern capitalism, what should take take the credit when you encounter a self-esteem assassin personally?

Today a girlfriend asks her boyfriend: "do you like me?" and if he says: "yes", that's when she'll focus elsewhere. Her target now is not his affection since she's already secured that one, rather his self-esteem. She wants him feeling as lowest as possible just so he'll agree she's doing him a favor, which will make him see her with an elevated sight beyond the affording of her actual individual class. The same assassination is perpetrated by the boyfriends. Interestingly social class is as cogent a phenomenon as the society could remember. People out-pacing the progress of one another is not a new question. But why did the people of the past lived with that peacefully while the modern millennials are failing I'll give credit to the unhealthy flaunting. Which is being adopted both as an initiative to trigger the senseless poor by the rich and as a response to defend oneself in inferiority complex by the senseless poor.

And its the success of that shallow strategy that's producing more young men and women who don't believe in the ideal of their strengths and the potential of their reality. Rather the luxury of others. And those young people, being addicted to social networking platforms, will keep encountering a fantasy they couldn't help but fall for. And along the line, they'll keep getting emotionally and intellectually bossed to the level of sympathy. The strategy is also an instance of our society investing a lot in triggering sociological, economic and psychological dynamics that trigger the paradox of information. It was the same strategy Huzbur used upon Takuruku to make him sit out of a fight he could win, and the same worked upon Sameer to sit out of a contest he could've won. And the same is working upon a teeming population of young men and women who allow the flaunting of unrealistic success towards hoodwinking them into feeling like they're nothing but an abject, classless failure. From buyers with their sellers, boyfriends with their girlfriends, husbands and their adventurous wives, and social media influencers with their followers.

In the end, effective crowd management in which the majority are to be policed against undesired influence will prove a herculean task. No one can police people against flaunting just so the weakest in the society can believe in themselves. But more people can learn how to stop consuming information that they've no use for, information that'll assassinate their self-esteem, so they'll live to appreciate the fruit of their labour and hard-earned talents. And alternatively, people can find effective ways of policing the impact of manipulative information by exposing themselves through reading. After wealth, nothing boosts self-esteem like a rich intellect. A concerted cultivation method of parenthood travels long distance. Because more youths are exposing the failure of natural growth method.

Firstly written on 5th January, 2021.