PARABLE OF THE CURSED CALCULATOR
There was once a village that was yet to be exposed to modern civilization. They used the abacus for doing the arithmetic that was the bedrock of trade, commerce etc in the area. The abacus was thus integral and extremely important to their daily lives.
One day one of them in his travels outside the village got exposed to the modern calculator and decided to tell it to his people. He thought to himself, surely this would revolutionize their lives. The degree of advantage calculators offer cannot be compared to what the abacus has to offer. Surely the people of the village will accept it. He therefore decided to tell his people about this amazing instrument.
So it is of no surprise when he got the surprise and shock of his life upon realising that not only did the people reject the idea of calculators but they saw him as a threat to their way of life..
Some couldn't believe such a device really existed..thinking it was too good to be true. This guy probably wants to scam us. To others, even if such a device existed it was going to destroy their way of life and power structures; It was going to collapse the abacus making and selling industry, the education system is going to have to revise their teaching and learning materials. And what are they going to do about all abacuses they already have in their system...burn them...? That will be a great financial loss.
So they rejected the man and his idea. But this man , not a man to back down decided to start a revolution amongst the youth. He managed to convince enough of them to successfully stage one. However, the civil war that ensued ended up destroying the whole community.
This story highlights the difference between being right and going about establishing what is right in the right way. The two are not always the same.
Many of of us assume that once we are right about a thing or a course of action then whatever we do to establish it is justified.
Surely most noble ideas will be opposed by even the people who stand to benefit from it but wisdom is not in just seeing the big picture or purpose to pursue but in how to pursue it and take advantage of available resources and opportunities and manage the threats that is posed against it.
The story also demonstrates how resistant people are to change even if it is for their own good. They will rather live in a world that is underperforming and living far below it's potential as long as they feel secure than to experiment with a future that promises abundance if that means they have to take risks that threatens their security.
Question to ponder on
1. How should the man have gone about introducing the calculator to his people
2. How should the man go about making the people accept and use the calculator instead of the abacus.