The only power that people who do not have power is the power to organise and yet human civilisation has taught us otherwise.
Faith is the biggest business not least because its practitioners are driven by greed, but its customers realise the limitations and opportunities of human life.
When human beings think and act as one they possess a power that is indivisible and solid. Human progress is necessarily located in the ability of actors to pursue individual interests, but in a societal or community framework.
The box that we have to think and act in has to be seen in a bigger context.
Nation states exist only because human beings thinking and acting in the personal, family, clan, village, provincial and national settings define and shape its character.
A firm’s character is equally shaped and defined by its stakeholders contrary to the generally held notion that firms are extensions of shareholders and, indeed, they are tools solely set up to extract value and not add goods and services necessary for a better life.
Leaders are human after all. They are incapable of possessing the power to cause other human beings to act in a manner that undermines his or her interests.
If we accept that life is only meaningful if it brings with it an environment in which choice and freedom are obtainable, then we are compelled to respect the rights of persons and their property.
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The space that an individual operates in and the choices made must be voluntary in order to get the maximum from the creativity and innovation of human beings.
Successful firms acquire the status from their abilty to serve and the same applies to nation states.
The power of one starts with the individual acting in a seemingly selfish and irrational manner, but when everyone pulls his or her own wagon, the outcomes are predictable.
In the context of Zimbabwe, the columnist who chose to use Nathaniel Manheru as his trading name has written extensively to convince Zimbabweans that his worldview is the only correct and patrotic one.
He believes strongly that his party, Zanu PF and its leadership who have been in power for the last 32 years must be credited for all the perceived successes of the post-colonial state and must not be held to book for failures.
However, it is striking that an individual with an excellent mind and ability to connect words in a coherent manner would find no fault in the manner in which those elected to serve have discharged their duties.
So when I read Manheru’s last instalment entitled Zimdollar: When inventor-owner loses control to the doorman, I was not surprised that he could not and failed to respond to the allegations made using a few examples including my own experiences.
In as much as he would like to give credit to Zanu PF for the dollarisation of the economy, he is silent on who should assume the responsibility for undermining the promise to an extent that it was deemed fit for the domestic unit of account to be abandoned.
While he showers Zanu PF with credit for giving life to the idea of using the currencies of foreign states he fails to stand up and be counted for bringing into life toxic legislation like the Reconstruction of State-Indebted Insolvent Companies Act and the misery it has occassioned on the lives of so many people.
He chose to reduce the addition of my voice to the battle of ideas as motivated solely by bitterness. To him and the few who think like him, progress is only possible when time and effort is devoted towards throwing mud at perceived enemies and competitors.
A negative mind that is blinded by an inert inability to think outside the frame of the status quo does little to advance the human cause.
Instead of focusing on being against Morgan Tsvangirai or any other credible contender for political office, Manheru should tell us what he believes in and where he genuinely believes that the country would be better off if MDC never came into existence and Zanu PF was the only political home of all Zimbabweans.
The need to debate isssues rather than individuals in the quest for a higher moral and economic ground cannot overstated.
One individual is capable of undermining the promise if he is allowed to hear his own voice and sing for his supper while we choose to sit back in silence.
Time for change is now and it begins with each and everyone of us.
Manheru must understand his worldview does not represent the universe and when that happens he will know the real enemy of progress may very well be close to him, but his his eyes and ears are blinded and blocked by the ghosts of the past.
Mutumwa Mawere is a businessman based in South Africa. He writes in his personal capacity.
