Studying the definition of “intellectuals by many Uites and the way a lot of us practice “intellectualism”, it is important that we make things right in time before we create problems for the society in the name of being intellectuals. As Uites, we commit a lot of crimes hiding under intellectualism. Some of these crimes are obvious, some are not.
The way some people react to sensitive issues that affect students negatively will want to make you ask if the word “intellectual” is a synonym of “dummy”. When you decide to confront them, you get the excuse, “I am an intellectual, I don’t have to be part of that protest. There are other ways to solve the issue”. You should not be surprised that they will eventually fail to come up with an alternative. One might ask, should being an intellectual make one indifferent about obvious problem of the society?
About two weeks ago, a lot of Katangites saw no reason why they should participate in the protest for repairing of the damaged tanks in the hall but they were the first to bring their buckets downstairs immediately water was delivered to the hall. This is hypocrisy in a very obvious form. Why didn’t your intellectualism stop you from reaping the labours of others? It is true that a lot of people do not have the courage to protest publicly but what happened to less stressful protests like creating a trend on the social media?
A lot of times, we complain about the state of our toilets, rooms, class rooms, et al but have we ever examine how we use facilities that the school provides? Imagine an intellectual using a toilet without flushing it because he/she lives on the topmost floor and getting water downstairs may be a bit stressful? Imagine an intellectual writing on a Multimedia Star Board with a permanent marker? Think of an intellectual that will deliberately break louvers just because he enjoys the shout of “Apa!”? As intellectuals that we never hesitate to claim always, we should work on improving our maintenance culture. How would you feel if someone asks you one day the some awkward question, “are you sure you attended UI” one day due to your behaviour?
Sometimes, you will feel sick we the way some students portray “intellectualism” on political issues. Being an intellectual, you reason deeply before you make utterances on certain issues but it is sad that a lot people who claim to be intellectuals hardly reason before they allow utterances to escape from their mouths. Intellectuals don’t paint their political opponents black because of elections, intellectuals don’t shy away from criticism, and intellectuals don’t make statements that threaten the unity of a society for their political gains.
We are without doubts, intellectuals. However, our intellectualism should not be in words alone but in actions. We have abused the term, intellectual enough, it is time we change our ways.
Have a lovely week.
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