MAD!

At the peak of the Cold War between the United States and the defunct USSR in the 1980’s, the two countries targeted nuclear missiles at each other. But it was not more than that mere posturing; each one knew the nuclear capabilities of the other and that neither of them could win outright even with the first-to-strike advantage. Each country was ready and knew for certain that if one dared to strike first, the other’s response would be immediate. The Americans used a good phrase and acronym to describe the tense situation: Mutually Assured Destruction or MAD.

However, MAD is not just about mutual destruction as it relates to the US-USSR impasse then or even the current US-North Korea debacle, it more importantly means Make(ing) A Difference, the subject of this article. In a world that is becoming increasingly Hobbesian with rapid socio-political and economic changes creating new opportunities and at the same time blocking old ones, the way to stand out is to be outstanding and to be outstanding, you must make a difference. Meanwhile, making a difference is not necessarily doing extraordinary things, it is doing ordinary things extra-ordinarily and not just following the crowd.

That many young people are disillusioned today is a fact that requires no proof. The challenges of coping with the harsh reality of life have led many young Nigerians for instance to despicable actions leading to the prevalence of social vices in our society. Some others have lost their sense of direction to the extent that they embark on perilous journeys across deadly deserts and end up in dehumanising slave camps in lawless Libya while others lose their lives to the ravages of high seas on the way to Europe.