Tom and Jerry is a series of theatrical animated films created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which centers on a never-ending rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases and battles over often involve comic violence…
The series features comedic fights between an iconic set of enemies, a house cat and a mouse. The plots of each short generally focus on Tom’s numerous attempts to capture Jerry and the chaos and destruction that ensues. Tom rarely manages to catch Jerry, mainly due to Jerry’s intelligence, cunning abilities, and luck.
A longtime television staple, Tom and Jerry has a worldwide audience consisting of children, teens, and adults and has also been recognized as one of the most famous and enduring rivalries in American cinema. In 2000, TIME named the series one of the greatest television shows of all time.
Cartoons are famous for some of the most violent cartoon gags ever devised in theatrical animation, such as Jerry cutting Tom in half, slamming his head into a window or door, Tom using everything from axes, firearms, fire, explosives, traps and poison to try to kill Jerry, Jerry sticking Tom’s tail into a waffle iron and mangle, kicking him into a refrigerator, plugging his tail into an electrical outlet, hitting him with a mace, club or mallet, making having a tree or electric pole move on the ground, sticking matches into its feet and lighting it, tying it to a firework and lighting it, and so on.
As for me, I look at problems from a broader perspective. I don’t just dabble in the issues, I think, I look beyond the sophistry, anchored more in blatant political partisanship and ethnicity or group affiliation. I leave room for human weaknesses, but I think before I write or speak. Once again, I am going to rehearse my opinion on a nation fighting against itself in its quest to be a nation.
Let me start this way, Atiku and Okowa are very much kept in frame with one north, one south, one Christian and the other Muslim. Peter/Datti, one Igbo, the other ‘trace’ Fulani (don’t ask me to explain) and finally, Tinubu/Shettima both Muslim, one from the South and Yoruba, the other from the North and Kanuri, all are situated in dichotomies, APC it’s a Muslim party, does it make the PDP Christian, what about the Labor Party?
From this point of view, I watched the federal and state governments fight with each other like Tom and Jerry over who was responsible for the increase in poverty, or, put succinctly, multidimensional poverty. Basically, they were joking with each other while the citizens suffered and found solace in supporting their own ‘thief’.
Our dichotomy is not an issue on the shores of this nation that is talked about without understanding, it arouses a lot of passion due to the heated discussions it generates, each one attached to their values and idiosyncrasies. Much has been written, about old perspectives as well as new points of view.
Our propensity has largely remained to think as Easterners, Westerners, Northerners, and Middle, all depending on the turns of events.
Each nation has one dichotomy or the other; if it is not north vs south, it is vs blocs, religion or even ideological dichotomies. There are several reasons why such dichotomies exist. Sometimes it is a function of creation or political correctness as we have in the case of Nigeria.
In our sensationalism, in every way, we have approached most issues section by section, thus creating all kinds of unnecessary bourgeois, ethnic, religious, parapoist and petty mentality in dealing with our national problems.
The dichotomy is used by political apologists as a socioeconomic weapon. Apart from the positive aspects, our dichotomy has been used to exploit and deceive the masses without paying much attention to the dynamics of the law of development which, in essence, deals scientifically with the unity and struggle of opportunities and opposites.
All the Tom and Jerry in our politics can only be resolved with a social revolution. In this sense, we need more than free, fair and credible elections; what we need is for the progressive element (sadly, that progressive element today is largely only on paper) to come together as a strike force because they have a revolutionary duty to this nation to help strike a balance, to unravel the thought pattern that has been built
There is an ideology of hate, which props up, over and over again, Lagos in the West, Anambra in the East, North against South, Muslims against Christians. This is a factor that the reactionary elements within the system used to fight against the progressives. Like the first hit, or the IPOB saga, the problem still persists; our problems borrow a lot from bourgeois theories, which are essentially aimed at confusing our intellect, as we try to argue within the parameters of “anti-class theory”, “underdevelopment theory”, “takeoff theory”, “theory of cooperation”. ”, “theory of external push”, “theory of the end of ideology”, “theory of convergence”, “theory of the periphery in the periphery”.
Wonderful sociological concepts that do very little to help us change on the path of progress because only a few theories work for us… “corruption theory”, “bad government theory”, “slash, slash theory” and ” kill for god.” theory”, “blaba blu, Indonesian statistics theory and unifying theory”, “bandit theory” and cross carpet theory, “debate theory” and many more.
The dichotomy is everywhere; Sometime last month, I was in Chemnitz, a part of Germany. It helped me appreciate and learn about Karl Marx’s Chemnitz and dichotomy and differences. But when left unmanaged, it only retards people’s conscious development, creates inter-ethnic hostilities, and allows for continued exploitation and management of political power.
We finish another year, having fought against all kinds of Tom and Jerry without resorting to answering the question: are we a nation? We are going to general elections without scientifically answering the national question in relation to the phenomenon of our sociopolitical and economic development.
The national question “is a question of solving vital national problems of social development, abolishing national oppression and inequality, removing obstacles to the development of peoples, including achieving factual quality and internationalism in national relations.”
Everything we have done so far questions the concepts of “national character”, “national culture”, “national consciousness”, “national philosophy and psychology”, all often used and discussed without a careful and critical understanding of their class nature. contradictory in antagonistic societies. and its relative independence.
Nigeria must be a nation of a long-standing historical community of people that constitutes a form of social development based on the community of economic life in combination with the community of language, territory, culture, consciousness and psychology. But are we?
Are we a multi-ethnic nation moving towards the greater realization of cultural unity, peace and stability for all?
The summary of this admonition is both a warning and a challenge based on what I have outlined; it is fair and appropriate to direct our critical analysis of the Nigerian political climate in the form of a dire warning that all is not well. We cannot abdicate our responsibility to do and say the right thing and choose which battles to fight under the premise of a parochial locus standi.
We need to face the realities of the moment, which point to the inevitability of the future, because time is running out, we cannot continue with our Tom and Jerry position if we really want to start a hurricane of social revolution. We are ready? Only time will tell.