Shey normal? Of Addiction, elections, and generational curses.
In Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi covers themes as expansive as the diversities of how what I gleaned from the novel can be applied. Gifty, the protagonist, works in a lab on mice to help us understand the implication of reward-seeking behavior on mice and the neural circuit of depression and Addiction. Gifty put Mice in a behavioral testing chamber with a level and a metal tube through which she fed them Ensure every time they pressed the level. After the mice were hooked on Ensure, she changed the condition. When the mice pressed the lever, they sometimes got Ensure, and at other times they got a foot shock. The response of the mice can be grouped under three categories. There were the mice that stopped pressing the lever right away after a shock or two, the second group of mice stopped, but it took time; there was the final group of mice, the ones who never quit, day after day, shock after shock, they pressed the lever. The group that never stops pushing the lever repeats "these doom actions with that beautiful pure, deluded hope that says, "this time will be different."This last group with deluded and manic hope are backdrops for my thought for reflections on how we respond to individual and national problems.
Some may wonder why research on rats should be applied to humans. You see, rats are some of the closest human cousins accepted to be used as a specimen in conducting research, experimentation, and laboratory work since the Tuskegee scandal and other atrocities, unethical practices, and conduct that people do in the name of research. Not forgetting that the earliest advances in gynecology came at the expense of black female bodies who endured medical procedures without anesthesia.
Reflecting on the response of the rats, I started thinking about the Nigerian elections circle in 1999. I think about this year not because of its watershed in terms of return to democracy after years of dictatorship but for personal reasons that should be left unsaid. Primarily I wondered what is different in our repeated response to the Nigerian problem since 1999 or even since 1960. Every four years, we press the lever under various party names, candidates, and programs, and yet every time, we hope it will be different this time. I am in no way asking for extended time for leadership, nor am I suggesting the cancellation of elections as part of the democratic process. I am possibly reflecting on the repeated response to a perennial problem in our national, private and professional life. They say insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. Daniel Pink affirmed in his book "Drive" that any form of reward system or punishment could become addictive, which puts you in pursuit of more. In other words, the result looks disturbingly similar if we watch how people's brains respond, promising them monetary rewards and giving them cocaine, nicotine, or amphetamines. Could it be possible that we are as addicted to suffering as our aspiration that things could be better? It could be the reason some people suggest that salary can be a monthly addiction or lever that gives temporary relief. At the same time, it keeps its victim subjected to corporate greed and capitalist exploitation. I cannot confirm or deny some arguments for individual entrepreneurship and working within the corporate structure. It could be possible that the repetitive pattern is why vote buying is perennial, and the dollarization of delegates is becoming fashionable because it provides temporary respite. This illustration may seem like a simplified version of a larger and more complex problem, but it is worth pondering.
PoP suggested that we can break generational curses not by fasting and prayer( no offense to those that do) but resist the temptation of having the same response to the same issue. To be fair, there are slight changes in our response to circle, yet it remains inadequate, partial, and insecure. Could it be possible that beyond genetic issues, which we hope that discovery/science and research will help someday, we can deal with negative patterns, whether generational or otherwise, by choosing a different positive response? It could be possible that if we change our repetitive behavior and response to times and seasons in addition to challenging and dismantling oppressive systems and structures that exist in many societies under different names (apartheid, racism) may be, keep in mind the probability that we could break generational curses, negative generational and transgenerational patterns and other patterns that do not support wellness and wellbeing. Admittedly, this might be a simplistic sketch of a complex issue, but it is something to reflect on.
My Father tells me that everywhere in Nigeria is home. He has an obsessive belief in the Nigerian project that all of his life works of over 40 years, including acres of land and properties, were in the North. February 21, 2000, gave him a test of his conviction in bitter ways that make me melancholic. I do not judge my Father's conviction about Nigeria as a matter of truth; I believe in Nigeria but quite differently from how my late Father did. While I am choosing responses that I hope differ from my Father, I hope the universe gives justice and recompense for our labor and that of our sheroes and heroes' past.
I sincerely hope that the time comes when my Father's convictions for my country become true. If it never happened, I will always be proud that I was brought to this world by a man who, like many men, MLKJ had a Dream for a great Nation.
May Nigeria Succeed
Happy Independence Day, Nigeria
In that famous Nigerian Ace Actress Iyabo Ojo's TikTok on Shey normal Alagbo, https://youtu.be/nE3Sbf9JYGU It is another Independent day and election circle, I ask, shey normal?
Posted on Facebook on September 30, 2022.
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