Breathing lessons (I)
Clearly, our brains are hardwired for sectional predisposition or partisanship – and how that skews our perceptions in public life is becoming clear too, especially in the light of recent events in the country. The Nnamdi Kanu/IPOB saga, for instance, is underscoring just how blind the “us-versus-them” paradigm can make people when they try to process political information. Once this sectional mentality kicks in, the brain almost automatically pre-filters facts – even noncontroversial ones – that offend our political sensibilities.
The sociology of human civilisation has painstakingly made homogeneity the primary anchor of social, intellectual, political and spiritual identities over millions of years of social evolution. The Law of Survival has also taught man, by blood and iron, that security is the one overriding sacrament that can never be compromised on – and that even an enlightened awareness can be subordinated to the base impulses of pr