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Every community has age old cultural values and habits. I am one of those who have tasted slapping when I was young, once from the palm of my late mother and another time from that of one of my older brothers. Both times, I accepted them as disciplinary physical advances from my own family members even though the first one was unintended and the second one was negligent on my part.

So, I am not preaching here something that I haven't tasted as ማረምያ ቅመም from the palms of my own family members.

After I came of age, I heard that it is considered physical violence and illegal here in the U.S. So, Ethiopians can't discipline their own children according to the culture that our society knew for ages. I concede that there were times when it felt abandoning this cultural habit of our society was right. The more I think about it, the more I understand how wrong I have been about it.

I can't preach to other communities what type of discipline befits them. However, I can ask if we should abandon the cultural habits our society knew for ages just because some people from afar found it doesn't befit them. I have yet to fully understand the scientific foundation of abandoning it.

Ideally, every individual everywhere would be self-conscious that he or she wouldn't need other grownup individuals to discipline him or her. In reality, there are many scumbags that walk among us without self-consciousness about self-disciplining or subconsciously about how important it is for their own sakes and the sakes of others. Too much scum in the faculty can cause them headaches and a good slap may help them drain it and make them more self-disciplined among the community in which they live.

I still do not think it should become free from some legal repercussions because it could be blown out of proportion. Is it possible to make a leniently graduated system of punishment for disciplinary purposes? I imagine it is possible. For instance, paying lenient amount of money for such advances depending on the situation and walk free.

We don't even need to imagine it. We can all remember the common use of the word slap in everyday lives of most people around the world. Those who are versed in the Bible would say that Jesus said if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

It is a slap on the wrist is a common expression that is used to this day here in the U.S.

Slapping is a far lenient form of physical advance when compared to fighting with ዱላ። It seems it was widely practiced as duel, including after the invention of guns. There is a well known duel here in the U.S. that cost the life of Alexander Hamilton. I still don't fathom the irrationality of a duel with guns. Then again, weren't the cultural habits of slapping and duel, among others, before the invention of guns a source of bravery? If so, abandoning it also means abandoning one of the sources of bravery from which the young can learn as they grow up, like it used to be in Ethiopia.

Fighting between men, or between women, or between a man and a woman is not new. I grew up seeing fighting using ዱላ። Some individuals are well trained to use it in order to shield themselves from those of numerous others. Fighting among men doesn't mean the end of life between them. One saying goes ዺር ወል ጉብዱ መሌ ሚንጄ ወል ህን ከዸቱ። Literally, it roughly means men do not ask of each other for a best man unless they have had a real fight against each other. Some say it means more than that. I do not know about that.

There is a similar expression in English that goes something like no friend is a real friend until one has had a real fight against. Fighting against each other over principles isn't and shouldn't be personal. It only means that there can't a duality in a single principle.

In addition, slapping normally doesn't come without warning by saying ዋ!

So, would we be way out of our people's age old cultural habits if we say slapping should be made great again in Ethiopia? I do not think so.

There are five sample examples I observed over the years that should tempt us to say let us not abandon our people's age old culture and adopt the cultures of others as if they are more disciplined.

The first one was after the Uvalde tragedy that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers. Dana Bash of CNN was interviewing Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. In her interview, she firmly stated that gun violence is delicate. Before that firm statement, I had respected her as a tenacious journalist and a mother. I remember her showing on TV her son and talking about his education. I admired her tenacity during that show. I wish her son to be a more successful person than she has been. However, the moment that her statement that gun violence is delicate came out of her mouth, which the Senator agreed with instead of reacting to it, she appeared to me an inhumane owl sitting at a TV station. I will forever fail to erase that image out of my mind. I could quickly imagine her dropping off her son at his school, going to a CNN studio, and then getting a call that bullets have been lobbed in his body along with other classmates, that detectives couldn't identify his deceased body that she was needed to provide her DNA in order to do so. I could easily imagine her rushing out of her studio to see his deceased body and that she couldn't do so because some officers prevented her from doing that. This did not happen to her son. However, what is a mother that doesn't speak for the rights of the children of other mothers like she would speak for that of her own? What is Dana Bash as a mother if she couldn't speak for the rights of all those 21 lives lost senselessly in Uvalde like she would do it for her own child?

So, would it be inconsiderate if any of the mothers of those lives lost tragically met her and slapped her because of that? I do not think so. I have seen my country's ladies pull out their sandals and slap somebody else with them when they find it appropriate.

The second one was one of the days when Donald Trump was campaigning to become President of the U.S. Seemingly without any consideration, or ignorantly, he called somebody "my African American" man. Would it be inconsiderate for that man to walk up to him and slap him and say to him: "I am not your African American man, you entertainment star who wants to become the president of my country, which has been a project in progress for 239 years now to become more democratic?" The then Presidential candidate is someone who publicly said that he could shoot someone on the street in the middle of New York City and walk free. Shooting murders. Slapping disciplines. A slap on the wrist means lenient or unsatisfactory disciplining for a known fault.

The third is the day Shaq O'Neal heard that Anthony Fauci had been working on a gain of function research out of coronavirus. Would it be inappropriate if he walked up to him and slapped him, and said to him how dare you fund a gain of function research against this majestic body out of an invisible virus, you Italian clown in British America? Did you think that would make you the first Italian President of British America?

The fourth is the day Van Jones was invited to accept a one hundred million dollars philanthropy from Jeff Bezos. What if he walked up to him and instead of accepting it, slapped him and told him that a man doesn't accept an insult with passion. you brainless Chihuahua of America's violent communists. Yes, I said brainless and here is my proof. It would be easier for him to reach for a rope than put on his forehead Heil Hitler, or what can be easily perceived as such, and step in any part of this world. If it isn't, it should be. I suppose that the world agrees that it should be easier to reach for a rope than put Heir Hitler on one's forehead anywhere in this world. If the world doesn't agree, I must be outside of this world. No, I did not read it on Alec Baldwin's forehead.

The brainless Chihuahua of America's violent communists has seen it first hand that he couldn't be outside this world for more than a brief moment when he evidently became a guinea pig for them that tried to outdo the Sputnik moment, probably forgetful that the pioneers of the Sputnik rose as men against Hitler instead of becoming slaves for the worst savage person that has ever walked this planet. If he had managed to stay outside this world for more than a brief moment, who knows if the aliens slap him and ask him what took him to their space in the high heavens when they see every night from there that countless of his country's men, women, and children do not have the basic necessities of food and shelter.

Yes, I said America's violent communists and I am not talking about the political ideology of the last and this century in this world. I am talking about a first hand observation of gentrified communities of workers and talkers. Yes, work can be done by talking. However, when the gentrification of communities of workers and talkers can be identified easily. it is practically communist and caters to particular communities. By becoming a Chihuahua and guinea pig of such communists, one can become the face of a clever chamber in which to savagely unleash criminal offenses, deceiving oneself that it couldn't be noticed quickly. I can't say if the intention of the violent communists is to project benevolence using a pseudoscientific frontier. If so, one can't help asking where that benevolence was from the time of Archimedes to that of Galileo, much less why the library of Alexandria was burned down around 48 BC?

So, if that slapping had happened, could it have helped him embark on an evolutionary sensibility for common sense and helped the companies for which he has been the face, along with its many Chihuahuas, kneel down to find common sense?

The fifth one was when the former First Lady Michelle Obama was visiting the late lady of England. I remember some people commenting about the manner of the then American First Lady meeting with the late head of the British Monarchy in her stoic exhibition. What if the First Lady said to her my husband and President is the President of the most powerful Republic on the planet, the Republic that fought to become independent not only from London but also from Madrid to Rome, from Paris to Bonn, and every other place else on the planet and that you lecture me about your manners and then pulled her sandals on her? The latter might have learned some African American manners and say in return: You know there are many men here in London who run tabloids, who continue to call my Monarchy Kingdom instead of Queendom even though I have been on the throne for a long time now and that they might learn something from your culture.

Could these hypothetical scenarios have actually brought the parties involved together more? Why not?

These are simple examples from the outside world to Ethiopia that we Ethiopians should reconsider abandoning our age old cultural habits, including slapping as appropriate for disciplinary purposes. I stand to be corrected if I got it wrong.

It is so wondrous when two individuals identify independently the same or seemingly the same fundamental problem in any society. There are probably plenty out there who have made similar observations.

When I turned on TV on the morning of Saturday, October 1, 2022, Professor Scott Galloway was speaking on CNN. His synaptic dispositions reminded me about cultures and more importantly the sources of cultures. His analytical skill was inviting to listen to in order to get a better understanding of the fundamental problem. He has written a book titled Adrift: American in 100 Charts. Adrift reminded me the cultural orphans I have expressed about intuitively. I do not recall hearing about him before now. I did not know about his book.

I was eager to hear the solution he had to say in order to solve the problem. When I heard it, I couldn't help calling him Baby Galloway. If I understood him correctly, he was saying that it is necessary to talk to others, including strangers, in a civil manner. It made me react quickly by asking myself if in its entire history, humanity has ever talked more than in this era. I couldn't imagine it has ever done that. Plenty of TV stations talking, plenty of radio stations talking, plenty in the social media including Metaverse, Twitter, YouTube, more books published than at any other time, probably more classrooms for all levels of education than ever before, plenty of conferences going around about everywhere, and so on.

So, it appeared that we both, a Professor and a mere observer, sense similar problems in adrift and cultural orphanage of some people in this era. If talking could have solved it, it must have been solved already.

Do I know the solution? No. Can we ask what the solution could be? Definitely yes. It would be just like asking if we should abandon our own people's age old cultural habits. So, this could be a rejoinder to the question after listening to the author of Adrift.

My question, including to Professor Galloway whom I would ask if we met personally, boils down to finding the sources of cultures. Simply put, what is the source of the culture of any society? I theorize that it is at least in part the wisdom of its leaders in history. In other words, ingrained consciousness of the wisdom of its past leaders becomes part of the culture of that society. It is all possible that this theory may have been already established and substantiated. I do not know and I did not get the time to research it as this idea came to mind. It is a merely intuitive observation over the years that culminated in this theory.

Growing up, I repeatedly heard a particular expression: እሰ በረ ኣጤ ጠረቁ። Literally it means that of the era of Aite Terequ. I am guessing that the name is a local dialect for Atse Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia. I do not know if it referred to the Ethiopian ንጉስ or philosopher. Thinking back now, it sounds to me that he had left an ingrained consciousness among the society he influenced. Some of it is talked about as outdated because it was from the old times.

Years later, I found myself plunged in American culture. I remember vividly to this day when it came across intuitively that there was something amiss in it. I also vividly remember exactly where it occurred to me. I was about to get to my office waiting for a pedestrian traffic light. I watched people walking in all four directions on both sides of an intersection of two streets. All looked to walk past each other as strangers. It appeared different from the culture that I grew up in which people wouldn't walk past each other without exchanging friendly greetings.

The two environments are totally different. However, I couldn't help drawing the contrast and reacting that there was something amiss in people walking past each other as strangers, especially so early in the morning. It is hard for me to put value judgment on either one. I could only feel the difference.

Years later, I participated in a public speaking practice among a small group of workers. I talked about simple ideas around the evolution of languages that I suspected some Americans in the audience weren't aware. After I made several presentations, an American who had invited me to go to the group for the practice would say that I always had something new. They weren't new. As I suspected, there were those who were unaware of that history of the evolution of languages that I presented.

Years later, I met another American who would quickly say during a personal conversation that he wished that there were more people in the world like me. My introvert reaction to that compliment was that there is a culture out there in the world in which people like me grew up. My simple expression in that personal conversation was that I wouldn't walk as a victim. My reaction was natural or felt like it.

I would rather not write about such personal conversations or observations. Then again, when people like Professor Galloway write a book titled Adrift, listening to him about it sounds we are making similar if not the same observations, the Professor's based on research and mine based on intuition, and we appear to think differently about addressing the problem, it may be worthwhile to share it by taking time.

Going back to the search for the source of the culture of any society, I tried to think quickly the leaders of America whose words of wisdom have become an ingrained consciousness in American culture. I don't have a solid reading of the history of American leaders. I could think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for his content of character and long arc of justice and President Abraham Lincoln for his house divided can not stand. Mind you, I make a distinction between great political leaders and leaders with eternal words of wisdom.

I am sure Professor Galloway can count more American leaders whose words of wisdom have become engrained consciousness in American culture. I think one of the simplest examples for him to test is whose words of wisdom among American leaders is ingrained in the faculty of Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina that he adheres to in both public and personal lives. It is not hard to check the Senator's ingrained consciousness against his own words that have come out of his mouth. If he fails to find a valid check, he has a solid point in Adrift.

Adrift is both a strong observation and charge that needs a proportionate thesis for its solution. As it has been said many times, America was an experiment. The 25 amendments are testament to the experiment that was started by half-cooked students of renaissance. Adrift is testament to the devolution of America from slavery to savagery in the age of the American Central Intelligence Agency. Sandy Hook was savagery as was Uvalde and there are too many to count between them.

Can a proportionate thesis for the solution by people like Professor Galloway from searching for wisdom as ingrained consciousness in a similar fashion to the search for Lucretius' De rerum natura or on the nature of things? Could that search lead to the fathers of wisdom not only in America but across the globe and bring about new crop scholars of new era of renaissance? I think so.

I also haven't read about the fathers of wisdom throughout history. My little knowledge about them makes me ask if England's Queen Victoria's modesty has left ingrained consciousness among the British people. I wonder if Saint Patrick has his marks of wisdom among the Irish people. From ancient times, King Solomon has come across as a symbol of wisdom itself. In recent years, Nelson Mandela has appeared to me the giant of wisdom. I have yet to have a much more meaningful reading of the Buddha in the east. As I listened to Professor Galloway that some business giants in America, including Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and MasterCard, are run by individuals of Indian heritage, instead of Americans, I wonder if the manners of the leaders of the Indus Valley civilization left behind an ingrained consciousness that would give an edge over those in America with heritage in the British Isle. Is it possible that manner over material could make one more successful in the long run? Should the origin matter to people like Professor Galloway if wisdom can become a common denominator for all in America?

I wish to end this rejoinder by going back to cultivating our people's age old cultural habits as necessary instead of abandoning it just because some said so. Drifting from it is to see a realization of another adrift.