When a child reaches the age of
seven, it is said that he/she has reached the age of reasoning; that is, he can
decipher between right and wrong and consciously tow the narrow path of good or
the wide path of evil. Some people have said that children of the information
age come out of the womb with their eyes wide open and reach the age of
reasoning before they are 5. Whatever
the facts maybe, children have open minds that suck in information like a
sponge soaks up water. This makes them very prone to influences from the
outside of them. I am not so much worried about the mental development of
children though as I am becoming more concerned about the process of mind
control of adults who have passed the age of the commencement of reasoning and
who with all their education or lack of it have the mental, emotional and
physical capacity to not only tow the path of evil but widen it.
The popular belief is that when
you train a child in a certain way, the child will grow up to be a product of
that training. A statistician will tell you that most human characteristics
tend to follow a normal distribution however there will always be
outliers. There will always be the ones
that are influenced by one significant person, thing or situation during a period
(perhaps a vulnerable time in that person’s life) that changes the dynamics of
how he/she thinks and then acts. Looking at the 2013 Woolwich attack, I get a
replay in my head of Adebolajo saying to the world telling the British
government to leave their lands and I am always like “shoor! Your lands?!” Adebolajo is a 28 year old man who schooled in
Britain, brought up as a Christian boy and radically became a Muslim. Adebolajo is a British man of Nigerian
descent. In between his British origin and Nigerian ‘lands’, I do not see how
he had the temerity to fight for a land that is not his, a people that are only
linked to him by religion and nothing else. Religion then seems to be his only
driving force.
We all have a turning point in
our lives when we significantly stand up to say we are for Jesus, Allah, self
or nothing but at what angle in that turning point do we go beyond the call of
reasoning? Many things about faith are beyond the call of reasoning and that is
why it is called faith. Faith, whatever it maybe, should not diminish life but
enhance it.
What is the process of
radicalization? What qualities do these mind-controlling Clerics possess to
indoctrinate people that the ordinary Imam does not have? Whose agenda are they
executing by radicalizing youths to kill and destroy? I wonder if I am looking
too far. I remember the case of reverend King who took religion to another
level. This man had followers who were devoted to him and obeyed his every
command. Look at our media, are they indoctrinating us with their own truths?
What is the reality of our situation in Nigeria? Whose agenda are we operating
on in Nigeria? Obasanjo? ‘the Cabal?’ the UK or US? Who are those behind Boko Haram
and how are they getting young men to jump to the netherworld in the name of a
religion?
It is the psychology of all of this that I am
most worried about. There is always so much information out there and not all
of it is true. We should be worried about those who have discovered the power
to make others see things that they want to see, do things that they want them
to do and most importantly believe what they want them to believe.
There will always be outliers
in every society and there will always be people who have agendas and find
vulnerable people to perpetrate their evil. What you can do is to protect your
mind. With a conscious effort to nurture your mind with the truth you condition
your mind to be positively selective of what goes in. In the words of Mahatma
Ghandi I say to myself “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their
dirty feet”. James Allen in As a Man
Thinketh, says to us “Cherish your visions. Cherish your Ideals. Cherish the
music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness
that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful
conditions, all heavenly environment, of these, if you but remain true to them
your world will at last be built.
