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OP-ED and not those who want, for example, regimented, controlled, regulated. By much to guarantee a better life for us more and better housing developments whom, one might ask? By other indi- all as to place the responsibility for and means of transportation. But the viduals who supposedly know what is seeking such a life with individuals. We bottom line of the chorus of complaints important for the rest to do. now need to decide what to pursue with about modernity seems, in fact, to be Criticisms of modernity are voiced all the great tools that modernity has nothing other than that individuals are in terms of concern for the interests or produced. We can go seriously astray in better equipped now than ever before good of the community, the public, the that task. But it is no longer credible to to pursue their very own chosen goals. nation, or humanity, as opposed to the claim that ordinary folks are to be treat- Technology helps us to strive for our selfish pursuits of individuals. But in ed like little children who must look to chosen goals: we can travel better to the most cases, the conflict isn’t between others—others who are just as capable places where we wish to go; we can keep public and private interests but between of making mistakes—to make us behave alive longer and thus do more of what we one private interest and another. properly. want to do; we can receive information Environmentalists, for example, more rapidly than ever before, so we can have no special understanding of what Tibor R. Machan is the better understand things. Once again, society as a whole should care about— R.C. Hoiles Professor of this leads to more individual control over they simply hope to bamboozle us all Business Ethics and Free Enterprise personal affairs. into thinking that their priorities ought at the Argyros School of Business and There are a great many who find this to be everyone’s. And so it is with oth- Economics at Chap man University. intolerable. After all, is the puny individ- ers who try to elevate their own special He is the author of Putting Humans ual to be left to his or her own resources agenda to become everyone else’s, usu- First (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). when it comes to selecting various ends ally not by argument but by law and to pursue? This cannot be allowed to public policy. go on—those people need to be guided, What modernity has done isn’t so BILL COOKE Reason and “In Uganda, superstition is not simply a brand name; it Superstition in is a real danger that blights Uganda real people’s lives.” t has become problematic through- I was in Kampala, Uganda, for out the Western world to speak three conferences. From all corners of Iof reason or superstition without Uganda, the country Winston Churchill resorting to scare quotes. To talk of rea- once called the “pearl of Africa,” and son or superstition is naïve, logocentric, from neighboring Kenya, Sudan, Tan- culturally imperialist, or some other zania, and Rwanda, people came togeth- fashionable pejorative. But wrap these er in Kampala to learn more about sorts of words in scare quotes, and we humanism and to help strengthen the can affect a pleasing irony. humanist presence in East Africa. Why has this happened? Probably Kampala is a sprawling city, built because we in the West have lost a around a series of hills and with occa- firsthand sense of what reason or super- simply a brand name; it is a real danger sional views of Lake Victoria. Uganda stition mean in people’s lives. So what that blights real people’s lives. And rea- is a country on the way up, with some a pleasure it was to get away from this son is not a token of Western imperialism im pressive development taking place. postmodernist trivia last spring and go to but a real means by which people can This is fine for the minority of the popu- Uganda, where things are called by their reclaim responsibility for their own lives lation who have the education and skills real name. In Uganda, superstition is not from those who seek to enslave them. to take advantage of the opportunities free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 22 OP-ED arising out of development, but most ment expecting outward conformity to article the next day under the headline people are being left behind on what is religious norms. And a man from west- “Homos Meet in Kampala.” Suddenly, the a highly unequal track. Stepping into ern Uganda who had been a practicing humanist conferences had become “the those gaps between the haves and have- witch doctor spoke about his journey first ever conference to discuss the rights nots (an area already crowded with from superstition to reason. No scare of homosexuals.” A cartoon in the follow- those holding traditional beliefs) are quotes were needed here: this man’s ing day’s paper plumbed the depths of some well-funded evangelical groups. journey really was from superstition bad taste. It portrayed some very cari- Unlike the missionaries of old, these to reason. His relief, joy, and pride at catured gays mincing off to a conference groups are not building schools or having made that journey was a sight and taunting police in full confidence hospitals. All they offer is a hysteri- to behold. He is now actively engaged of not being arrested while there were cal brand of salvation that is usually in his region in showing people how other, larger conferences attended by bound up with helping to fund their local the witch doctors’ tricks are done and representatives of nations helping Ugan- church. The day I arrived in Uganda, I encouraging the people to resist their da still in town. The policeman replies to read about an apocalyptic cult that was blandishments. the homosexuals with a veiled threat to spreading through a prestigious girls’ But the most memorable talk was dare continue the meeting after the other school in Kampala. de livered by a young Rwandan woman conferences have finished. It took a long time for the human- who spoke of the genocide in her coun- ist community to take much notice of try. She had not been scheduled to Unlike the missionaries Africa. The longest-standing commit- speak, and her talk was entirely unre- ment to Africa has come from African- hearsed, but she gave a full sense of the of old, today’s evangelists Americans for Humanism (AAH), an horror the country had undergone. It are not building schools or organization founded in 1989 by Norm was very moving. One of the stories that Allen and Paul Kurtz. Since then Norm, has not emerged from Rwanda is the hospitals. All they offer is a who is also deputy editor of FREE shameful role of many church leaders in IN QUIRY, has continually cultivated Afri- encouraging the genocide, leading the hysterical brand of salva- can humanists. He frequently published murderers to victims or at the very least tion that is African writers in his group’s newslet- taking no action to prevent the killings. ter, the AAH Examiner, sending out At the conferences, I also realized usually bound up with donated materials from Prometheus the depth of respect for Norm Allen Books and occasionally visiting Africa. that has developed over the past fifteen helping to fund their local Things began to pick up in 2001, when years. Norm chaired sessions in two church. the first major humanist conference of the three conferences (the only non- on the African continent was held in IHEU person to do so) and was a major Nigeria. The conference was paid for by speaker, panelist, and opinion-leader in This blatantly dishonest reporting the Center for Inquiry, and the Center all three. Leo Igwe, Nigerian CFI exec- did the humanist conferences a grave for Inquiry–Nigeria was set up shortly utive director, and Deo Ssekitooleko, disservice. All the other issues discussed afterwards. his Ugandan counterpart, both gave ful- over five days dissolved into irrelevance The first conference held last spring some praise to Norm’s dedication over as we had now been branded a “homo was the International Humanist and the past decade and a half to build the conference.” The hotel where the con- Ethical Union (IHEU) youth confer- foundations of African humanism. And ferences were held was visited by the ence in which about sixty young peo- both mentioned Norm’s role in their own police, though no arrests were made. ple from Africa and Europe took part. path toward humanism. Roy Brown, The New Vision ran a major op-ed piece Then there was a day-long conference IHEU president, described Norm as “a a few days later in which Paul Waibale at which the Ugandan Humanist Asso- pillar of African humanism.” Sr. confessed to being “gravely amazed” ciation (UHASSO) was established. And Besides persecution of the nonre- to hear that Ugandan law had been flout- then came an international conference, ligious, other forms of discrimination ed in so cavalier a fashion by “two asso- sponsored by the IHEU, under the title were discussed at the conferences. In ciations I have never heard of, namely “Humanist Visions for Africa.” Uganda, homosexuality carries with it the Uganda Humanist Association and I was impressed by the youth and a maximum of life imprisonment, and the In ternational Humanist and Ethical passion of the African humanists. Many there is severe punishment even for fail- Un ion.” Roy Brown went out of his way of them had struggled to Kampala on ing to report homosexual activity to the to correct the misinformation, but I buses; some even hitchhiked.

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