At first all I saw was red

But now I see it was a stroke of genius.

COMMENT

I assumed the worst. I thought it was very sinister – how the conversation had gradually changed. How everyone was now heatedly talking about racism and dignity or the loss of it. Almost forgotten was 1MDB and RM2.6 billion, corruption or donation if you prefer that term.

How clever of the powers that be, I thought ─ distracting everyone so that they were no longer focused on the issues of substance; issues that started everything in the first place.

Then I read an article about distraction and creative genius by psychologists at Northwestern University who suggested that contrary to popular belief, distractions may not hinder creativity. Rather they may be a key component of creative genius. Highly creative people it seems, tend to be more distracted by noise than the average person.

Most people or their brains at least, tend to automatically filter out what they perceive to be irrelevant information. Not the more creative among us, however. These geniuses are more sensitive to sights and sounds etc. They take note of information the rest of us tend to ignore. Their brains then work overtime – processing all these bits of information which seem like unrelated pieces of garbage to the rest of us. They go on to make new and unusual connections between the pieces of information, the average person has long ago discarded. This, say the researchers, is what contributes to creative genius.

Ahhh! Now it all begins to make sense.

There was a plan after all but it was not sinister. It was meant to jumpstart creativity among the people, all towards achieving the aspired developed nation status by 2020.

How else can you explain all the “new and creative” connections that have recently surfaced in our collective conversation?

How cries for a clean government got translated into an affront to dignity?

How both yellow and red are on the flag but yellow is linked to a lack of patriotism and an insult to royalty while red is linked to the restoration of dignity?

How crimes receive little or no attention while whistleblowers and investigators get all the focus?

And the icing on the cake?

All the creative name calling ─ food-based, animal-based or otherwise that seems to be filling the airwaves!

Ann Martinez is an FMT columnist