I recently asked some friends for their definition of the term “demon”.
The answers were very similar: part of the unknown that is evil, an evil force, an evil spirit that besets you, the opposite of an angel. It is obviously well accepted that demons are the direct manifestation of the dark side of the spirit realm.
As it relates to demons, however, there is another theory which, though not unrelated to the above, is somewhat different. The view is that what we refer to as demons, is in fact negative energy triggered by some traumatic event or circumstance. Individuals so affected may harbour and nurture this negative energy in the mind or emotions until it becomes a force of its own and even acquires its own personality.
The younger and more vulnerable the victim at the time of the painful occurrence, the more difficult to eradicate the negative force.
Some evangelical churches conduct “deliverance services” and I have been present for a few of them. For the curious, I was not the one being exorcised.
But it is instructive that the religious leader performing the exorcism calls out the “demon” by name: fear, anger, rejection, resentment, shame, self-hatred, and the list of our human miseries goes on.
This is not a scenario in which one expects to see little bizarre creatures emerging from the sufferer, horns on head and pitchfork in hand. What is being addressed directly are the feelings and emotions of the individual which are deeply embedded in the psyche and have grown toxic over time. Personality and behaviour have become infected.
I have written the above as a means of creating a context for the recent claim reportedly made by Minister of Education Ronald Jones that some of our young people are demon-possessed.
I would not dismiss the possibility. In fact, I would suggest the following scenario:
An AGM in Hell. Special emissaries whose area of oversight is the Common Entrance Examination (CEE) have arrived and seated themselves at a round table. This squad boasts a greater accuracy than the best marksmen in any highly trained army.
The team has long been ousted from the United States and Britain, but have mastered some tricks along the way: carry the insignia, wave the flag, preserve the status quo. Besides, they know well enough that devils thrown out of the bigger countries find good ground in the Caribbean.
The squad has chosen its targets well. Predatory as they are, they have already spotted the “weak” students. The ones who don’t fit easily into the academic mainstream. Those who can’t keep up with their “bright” peers. They have targeted the poor who can’t afford the many extra lessons, whose environment has already mapped out for them a desperate future.
The team particularly prizes the students with a creative bent who ask questions teachers find bothersome. These students have stopped asking.
But they will bring to the hellish team the kind of innovative thought and action that will shock the society time and time again.
The day has arrived and so have the CEE results. Once again, thousands of young Barbadians are left traumatized by their “poor performance”. The emissaries are well prepared having already selected their powerful arsenal: rejection, resentment, anger, self-hatred [and] low self-esteem. These are the “demons” that will find free and common entrance into many who are faced with this failure.
There is a clarion call for the abandonment of the Common Entrance Examination in its present form by several in the Barbadian society. But there is just as loud a silence from the beneficiaries of the system. After all, we human beings have a natural tendency towards one-upmanship.
I support the view that a society must find ways to reward good or excellent performance. What is at issue is the psychological detritus left every year in the wake of the CEE.
The examination in question cannot be the only factor responsible for the increasing criminality and other forms of antisocial behaviour. But there is already some recognition of the link between the two.
I have avoided discussion of pure evil as defined in the first paragraph. I have chosen instead to focus on the demons our social systems actually engender and the apparent lack of will to cast them out.
