What is Luck Got to Do with the Protests?

When somebody passes on, our first questions are “Why?” and “What happened?” Not necessarily in that order.

Because you, I and most humans are obsessed with finding sense in a phenomenon.

In the true crime documentaries on 48 Hours and Netflix, no matter how well detectives do their work to nail the killer, we always ask “Why did you do it”.

And without a confession explaining actions, even 10 life sentences taste like unfinished business. Because we are fine-tuned to the why. In courts, the most common question among spectators is why.

Man’s search for meaning, also the title of a very good book by Viktor E. Frankl, is a way to find purpose. Why am I here in this universe at this point? This understanding is supposed to provide direction to our lives.

More often though, things don't make sense. When things do not make sense, they fall into the realm of luck.

For example, it is a well-accepted fact that large populations are consistent with economic growth. That has been true for China, India, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. Large populations, it is said, equal innovation, easy labour and market. On the other end, the Nordic countries – Finland, Sweden, and Norway have some of the lowest populations, yet consistently rank as the richest nations.

We classify bats, the duckbilled platypus, and elephants as mammals. Yet, one flies, one lays eggs and the other is the size of a house.

The point I am getting to is what triggered the recent protests?

The finance bill is said to be the legendary straw that broke the camel’s back. I believe luck engineered the protests. Things aligned just perfectly for the mountain to erupt. Like that Nano-second business of the big bang that shaped our universe. Also, an attempt to understand.

The thing with luck is that circumstances that bred that moment can never be replicated.

Fortunately, other circumstances that create other luck are consistently being created.

Another thing with luck is that it can never be understood. Why did Facebook succeed while other social media with the same concept failed?

How did the current crop of Gen Zs get such amazing results through activism and protests that an older generation of activists led by Boniface Mwangi, for example, could not? Luck.

But the final thing with luck is that if it finds you prepared, you will not believe :-). MPs who voted on the right side of the bill, are heroes. People who have been campaigning for the Mwananchi and calling out government excesses in the past are on the right side of history.

In conclusion, there is not much an individual to do to influence the tide of luck. But, we can prepare for it. Boniface Mwangi is back in his element because he was prepared.

One of these days, the winds of luck will blow your way.

For now, the diligent, true work of sowing continues.

I am back.